Olafur Eliasson Your Double-Lighthouse Projection 2002 [detail] Tate © Olafur Eliasson

Curators, conservators, registrars and media technical managers from New Art Trust, MoMA, SFMOMA, Tate, have formed a consortium to establish best practice guidelines for care of time-based media works of art (for example, video, slide, film, audio and computer-based installations). Effective approaches to the stewardship of electronic art rely on the blending of traditional museum practice with new modes of operating that derive from and respond to the complex nature of these installations.

In many cases artists are very specific about the way in which the work should be installed and the technology used to show it. The installation of these works requires new skills and new areas of collaboration within museums. Whereas internationally agreed standards exist for the handling, installation and care of traditional works of art, there are no such standards at present for time-based media works. This project aims to raise awareness of the requirements of these works and to provide a practical response to the need for international agreement among museums.

The New Art Trust in collaboration with its consortium members sponsored a meeting in April 2004 at Tate Modern to address these critical issues and in particular the loan process. By the end of the two day meeting a number of documents had been produced. These are essentially guidelines and templates for the institutions to follow when borrowing and lending time-based media. They include a process diagram, budget, condition report, facilities report, installation document and loan agreement, and seek to update existing practice to fully incorporate the new requirements of time-based media. We recognise that it was beyond the scope of the project at this time to fully address the needs of computer based art. It is however our aim to turn to this in the future.

With the completion of these draft documents it was evident that they could be a resource for others beyond the working group. As a first step in making them as widely applicable as possible, we have asked colleagues from around the world to comment on and edit these documents. The results are published in these pages. In recognition of our continuing commitment to working effectively and cohesively with artists in the care of their work, we anticipate a second stage review with artists to extend the usefulness of the tool. The challenge of preserving time-based media is one best met collaboratively and it is the group's hope that others will not only benefit from this information but will also contribute over time to the further refinement of the methods of care for these works of art. We hope this material will be an aid to artists, collectors, dealers and museums, the primary custodians of time-based media.

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