Videobrasil’s vocation for the mapping and fostering of media art has led it to open up communication channels between the cultural circuits of the Northern Hemisphere and the productive poles of the Southern Hemisphere, thus generating exchanges among institutions, artists, curators and theoreticians from many parts of the world. In the context of the celebrations of the 30 years of video activity in Brazil, Associação Cultural Videobrasil proposes the creation of a system where contents are kept in digital support, juxtaposed in the Internet’s interface, focussing on the production of the “southern circuit”. The intention is to propitiate different navigation and research possibilities, in a complexity of crossovers between diverse data, which at once is easily accessible and remain true to the historical itineraries of the Festival’s 20 years. In order to achieve this, the Associação has been developing, since 2001, a Database specially designed to receive specific contents about the history of the Festival. The entire process of data normatisation and cataloguing follows the need of a systematisation particular to the media art environment – video art, CD-ROM, net art, performance and installation, among others. The definitions for types of artwork, genres, supports and authorship are the starting point in the establishment of the conceptual exchange parameters within the virtual community, which are in constant assimilation, fusion and updating. Once defined the Database’s foundations, the project will unfold into a research face proper, with the survey and digitalisation of all documents, publications and works in the collection. The quality of data organisation and its availability, fine-tuned after a year’s work, points to a new attitude and new procedures adopted by Associação Cultural Videobrasil, which now tends to go in the direction of becoming a catalysing reference centre for research.
Ana Pato – project coordination
Tatiana Ferraz – chief researcher