NEWART Foundation organised the international workshop “Media Art Practice: collaborate, conserve, context and intentionality” in Linz, a gathering devoted to reflecting on the present and future of media art practices and their conservation. The session, the best-attended workshop at this edition of Ars Electronica, was dedicated to the memory of Vicente Matallana.
From 9 to 13 September 2026, Linz once again became a leading meeting point for the international art, technology and society scene with a new edition of Ars Electronica Festival, this year under the theme “Negotiating Humanity”. The festival featured exhibitions, performances, talks, symposia and workshops with participants from around the world.
NEWART Centre and NEWART Foundation were present not only as festival participants, but as active contributors to its professional programme, strengthening the project’s ties with the international media art community.
On Friday 11 September, at the Ursulinenhof in Linz, NEWART Foundation organised the workshop “Media Art Practice: collaborate, conserve, context and intentionality”, in collaboration with the “Encyclopedia of New Media Art, Volume II: Artist and Practice”, edited by Paul Thomas.
The session brought together Paul Thomas, Victoria Vesna, Mike Phillips, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau and Jaime de los Ríos for a participatory conversation around four essential questions for the future of media art: collaboration, conservation, context and artistic intentionality. The starting point was to address the sustainability of media art practices from the artists’ own perspective and generate new ideas and methodologies through collective dialogue.
The best-attended workshop of the edition
The proposal attracted considerable interest from the professional community gathered in Linz and became the best-attended workshop at the 2026 edition of Ars Electronica.
This response reinforces the need for shared discussion of questions that are part of NEWART Foundation’s everyday work: how to conserve a work dependent on changing technologies, what must be preserved beyond its material components, the importance of context and the artist’s intention, and how to document current practices so they remain accessible in the future.
Participation in Ars Electronica also connects our work in Reus with an international ecosystem of artists, researchers, conservators and institutions specialising in art and technology. Ars Electronica describes the festival as an international, interdisciplinary forum for discussing the future through fields such as art, science, technology, education and research.
For NEWART Centre, this international dimension also enables knowledge to circulate in both directions: sharing the experience developed at NEWART Foundation while bringing new methodologies, questions and networks to the centre to enrich its programmes, exhibitions and research.
In memory of Vicente Matallana
The workshop also held a particularly significant meaning for the whole team: the session was dedicated to the memory of Vicente Matallana (1967–2026).
Ars Electronica’s official programme included this dedication and recognised Matallana’s career as an electronic art and new media specialist, director of NEWART Foundation and NEWART Centre, and a figure involved for decades in the production, exhibition, collecting and conservation of technological art.
Holding it at Ars Electronica, surrounded by artists and professionals who had shared Vicente’s commitment to preserving, supporting and securing a future for media art, also made the gathering a place to recognise his legacy.
Continuing to build international networks, promote the conservation of digital heritage and create spaces where artists, researchers and institutions can consider the future of media art together is another way of carrying that vision forward.
Through its participation in Ars Electronica 2026, NEWART Centre strengthens its connection with the international digital and technological art scene and its commitment to contribute actively to the debates shaping the sector’s future.
