Electronic media

Electronic media is a general term for artistic means and carriers that require electronic devices for their creation, storage and playback. The most common examples are video recordings, audio recordings, slide presentations, CD-ROMs, as well as online content and other digital formats. Unlike traditional materials such as paint or stone, electronic media exist as a signal or data that come to life only through technical equipment — a monitor, projector, loudspeaker or computer. The use of electronic media in art developed rapidly from the 1960s, when, with the appearance of portable video equipment, artists such as Nam June Paik (who had already exhibited television sets as objects in 1963) began to explore video as an artistic medium. Electronic media became the basis of video art, sound art, and interactive and networked installations. This field poses particular challenges for museums and collectors: technologies quickly become obsolete and formats and carriers become unreadable, so the preservation and restoration of such works require constant "migration" to new platforms. Questions of documentation, conservation and authenticity of electronic media are among the most pressing in contemporary museology and art scholarship.