International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA)
While working on preserving online moving images, we’ve come across a range of works that have pushed the boundaries of our traditional archival practices as a Film and Television archive. To rise to the challenge, we’ve looked to archivists working outside of film and were lucky enough to travel to Seoul, South Korea to attend the 5th Summit on New Media Art Archiving as part of the International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2025. At this summit, we had the opportunity to learn from digital archivists who are navigating everything from E-Literature and VR to Digital Art and Video Games.
South Korea, one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, was a particularly fitting place for us to think about new technologies and the future of archiving. The country that gave us mukbangs (livestreamed videos of people eating) certainly gave us a lot of food for thought!
Archivists from around the world shared their fascinating collections and the innovative ways they’re rethinking preservation. Many are moving toward more decentralized, collaborative approaches—offering fresh perspectives that are reshaping what archiving looks like in the digital age.
With over 30 papers presented over the course of the summit, we covered a lot of ground! highlights included presentations on the potential for non-hierarchical archive catalogues, the re-creation of early internet art, the radical power of cyber-feminist archives and how informal archives and archivists can be supported and sustained.
There was a great solidarity in the room around shared challenges such as intergenerational knowledge sharing, un-catalogued collections, obsolete hardware, and the evolving relationships between creators and archives. Weaved throughout almost all the presentations were responses to key issues we’ve confronted in contemporary collecting such as ephemerality, relational and contextual meaning between pieces of media and the preservation of live works. The issue of archiving in the age of abundance, a curatorial challenge close to our project and the title of our symposium earlier this year, was also reflected in talks such as Access to Excess, presented by digital streaming platform CIFRA.
Our session chair Dominik Bönisch from the University of Applied Sciences Dusseldorf, Mixed Reality and Visualization (MIREVI), presented his and Christian Geiger’s study on the use of innovative AI applications in the exploration of media archive collections. By interviewing their regional archivists and curators about their thoughts on AI, some thoughtful reflections emerged, proposing the idea of AI as a sparring partner.
“I think everything that is playful is in the first place a mind opener. So I can also see it as a conversation. That it might also help you to think more precisely yourself. Or that you come up with different ideas that you hadn’t thought of before. Or that you become aware of your own inconsistencies. Perhaps having your own biases demonstrated to you.”
In our presentation, we shared the scope of our work and the questions—and curveballs—we’ve encountered along the way. We highlighted a few standout acquisitions that pushed us to rethink our usual approach. We talked about interactive web soap operas, nostalgic GIFs and Flash cartoons, and how we’ve collaborated with creatives to help define and preserve their work on their own terms.
– Kristina Tarasova, Assistant Curator (Acquisitions) & Will Swinburne, Digital Curatorial Archivist.
BFI National Archive at 90 Exhibition
To coincide with last week’s BFI Film on Film Festival (full round-up coming soon), we launched a special ‘Inside the Archive’ exhibition on the Mezzanine at BFI Southbank. In place until the end of August, the exhibition explores the history of the BFI National Archive as it marks its 90th birthday.
Learn more about the archival trailblazers who set the Archive on its way; explore how the Archive has responded to changes in preservation practices and an ever-expanding collection; say hello to famous faces who’ve visited the Archive’s facilities over the years; and reflect on the industry-leading work that defines the BFI National Archive in its ninth decade.
– Alex Prideaux, Marketing & Events Manager (Our Screen Heritage)
How we create film prints – video
Did you enjoy a new 35mm print during the BFI Film on Film Festival? Learn more about how these are produced by the film laboratory team at the BFI National Archive with our latest Inside the Archive video.
Huge thanks to Chris Stenner and David Gurney for letting us bring our cameras in to the lab and for being so generous with their time and expertise.
– Alex Prideaux, Marketing & Events Manager (Our Screen Heritage)
The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.
