Voremetur Project: proposal for the digital cataloguing of museum objects on media art

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the creation of a catalogue of museum objects associated with two media art collections. The proposal was formulated under the Voremetur Project “Vocabularios para una Red de Archivos y Colecciones de Media Art y sus efectos: metaliteracy y turismo de conocimiento” (thesauri for networked media art archives and collections and their effects: metaliteracy and knowledge tourism) (HAR2016-75949-C2-1-R). Collection characteristics and typologies are discussed along with the difficulties encountered and the interoperability of the platform chosen with other Web resources that foster visibility. Design/methodology/approach This paper describes a case study and a review of the protocols and standards used to catalogue media art collections. Digitised descriptions were processed with Omeka software in conjunction with the expanded Dublin Core metadata schema. This paper also reviews the literature on the conceptualisation of these collections and the challenges involved in their conservation and management. Findings The result was the creation of a digital repository for two media art collections: one linked to Espacio P; and the other the outcome of digitising part of the MIDECIANT collection (Archivo Media ART AEMA). Originality/value The methodology innovates the description and analysis of museum objects on media art in Spain. The proposed cataloguing method can be replicated and used to describe similar collections and lays the grounds for creating a Spanish network of media art archives and collections.