Artificial intelligence is transforming the ways culture is preserved, accessed, interpreted, and reused. ARCHAIVE responds to these transformations by exploring how media art archives can remain spaces of plurality, context, and human agency rather than becoming invisible infrastructures for automated systems. Through transnational collaboration, artistic experimentation, and public programmes, the project rethinks the relationship between AI, archives, and cultural memory.
Media art archives were historically created to preserve, contextualise, and provide public access to cultural works, histories, and artistic practices. Today, these same collections are increasingly being integrated into machine learning systems that classify, generate, reproduce, and circulate cultural content at unprecedented scales. As artificial intelligence technologies become more deeply embedded within cultural production and public life, archives are no longer functioning only as spaces of preservation and research, but are also becoming part of the infrastructures shaping how knowledge, memory, and culture are interpreted through computational systems.
These transformations raise urgent ethical, political, and methodological questions concerning authorship, consent, context, access, and cultural plurality. They also challenge cultural institutions, artists, archivists, and researchers to develop new approaches capable of preserving critical engagement, human agency, and the relational complexity of cultural memory within increasingly automated environments.
archaıve Output
- 18 Artist Residencies & New Artworks – Supporting artists in creating new digital works that critically and creatively engage with media art archives and AI.
- European Map of Media Art Archives – Mapping media art archives across Europe and highlighting their cultural relevance and potential for artistic research and reuse.
- Research & Critical Frameworks – Investigating the ethics of reusing archived material through AI, creative misuse of technologies, and emerging curatorial and institutional challenges.
- Transdisciplinary Practices – Facilitating dialogue between artists, archivists, curators, and technologists and promoting innovative models of cooperation and developing hybrid skill sets.
- Critical AI Literacy & Learning – Producing open-access learning materials and workshops for creative, academic and heritage communities.
- AI-Aware Archival & Curatorial Guidelines – Practical approaches for cultural institutions to preserve, interpret and creatively engage with digital heritage in the age of AI.
- Exhibitions, Public Programmes & Knowledge Exchange – Presenting the artworks and research through exhibitions, public engagement formats and a final international conference connecting artists, archives, institutions and audiences.
MISSION
To investigate how generative artificial intelligence is transforming the creation, preservation, archiving, and access of media art and digital heritage.
To develop AI-aware archival strategies that prioritise context, curatorial agency, cultural specificity, and responsible approaches to the reuse of archived material.
To position media art archives as platforms for artistic experimentation and critical engagement with generative AI by fostering artistic research, curatorial practices, and the creation of new digital artworks.
To activate media art archives as platforms for public engagement and critical reflection on the cultural impact of AI.
To foster dialogue and knowledge exchange between artists, archivists, curators, technologists, researchers, and cultural institutions across Europe.
To strengthen critical AI literacy through open-access learning materials, immersive installations, public programmes, and participatory experiences.
ımpact & vısıon
ARCHAIVE reimagines the role of archives in the age of AI – from repositories of the past to active laboratories for creating and questioning our digital future.
- Imagining Digital Futures – Opening new perspectives on how culture, memory, and technology can interact in societies increasingly shaped by AI.
- Rethinking the Relationship between Culture & AI – Moving beyond simply applying AI to culture towards exploring how cultural knowledge and artistic practice can critically shape technological development.
- Archives as Agents of the Future – Repositioning media art archives from repositories of the past to active spaces for experimentation, reflection, and the creation of new cultural narratives.
- Engaging Society – Opening archives to wider audiences and fostering public dialogue around AI, memory, culture, and our digital future.
- Shaping Ethical Cultural Futures – Contributing to a long-term European discourse in which technological innovation is informed by cultural context, historical awareness and ethical reflection.
eu values
- Cultural Diversity & European Identity – Celebrating Europe’s plural cultural memories and safeguarding them for future generations.
- Democratic Access & Participation – Making cultural heritage, knowledge and digital culture open, accessible and participatory for everyone.
- Inclusion & Equality – Amplifying diverse and historically underrepresented voices and ensuring equal opportunities across the project.
- Responsible & Human-Centred AI – Shaping digital technologies through cultural, ethical and democratic values rather than technology alone.
- Openness & Collaboration – Fostering transnational exchange, shared knowledge and cooperation across cultures, disciplines and communities.