Institutional profile
LI-MA
6529 Network MuseumPublished August 4, 2026Research through August 4, 2026Version 1.0.0
Institutional profile
LI-MA's ArtHost research starts from the practical failure of treating a net-art URL as a preservation package. The proposed service receives documentation, source, and domain information from an artist or collection; checks the work and its dependencies; and gives the work a per-work virtual machine. The architecture hosts the work while retaining the materials needed to understand how it operates. ArtHost research
This makes LI-MA relevant to 6529 as preservation infrastructure. Its public site joins preservation, research, knowledge resources, projects, and collection services; its ownership model is a separate question.
Demonstrated practices
1. Preservation is a sequence of distinct operations
LI-MA's introduction to digital-art preservation distinguishes storage, migration, digitisation, emulation, virtualization, documentation, and reinterpretation. Migration changes source material for a new platform; emulation preserves an earlier environment without changing the source. The page also describes source-code storage and artist input. What Are the Basics of Preserving Digital Art?
Its storage page describes a repository for media art and an ArtHost workflow that inventories the work, checks dependencies, transfers a domain where needed, stores source and documentation, and provides a virtual server. Storage
2. Documentation carries its own status
LI-MA's documentation service records content, historical context, technical specification, configurations, installation, acquisition and exhibition history, condition, versions, iterations, and preservation actions. It uses text, video, screenshots, manuals, MediaWiki case studies, and GitLab version control. The importance of documentation in art preservation
The Artwork Documentation Tool then draws a clear boundary around artist intake. Its eight steps cover working notes, backups, software, hardware, playback, wiring, key information, video registration, and additional material; the tool states that its data is not itself stored or preserved for the future. Artwork Documentation Tool
3. Research is fed back into collection workflows
The Collaborative Infrastructure for Digital Art project involved 15 participating collections, 10 artists, advising parties, case studies, training, and public dissemination. LI-MA reports implementation of results in workflow, metadata, storage, and monitoring. Its UNFOLD program treats reinterpretation as a collaborative response to new technology, context, and audience. Collaborative Infrastructure for Digital Art · UNFOLD
Close reading of public scholarship
LI-MA publishes knowledge as a set of usable forms: a preservation primer, a case-study page, a documentation tool, a storage description, a research report, and symposium records. The ArtHost cases name the work-specific problem—third-party influence in Chinese Gold, identity and participation in Mouchette.org—before describing infrastructure. This keeps technology subordinate to the work's behavior, context, and preservation decision.
What the Museum should adopt
- Split the Museum record into intake documentation, preservation package, technical constitution, monitoring, intervention history, and reinterpretation.
- At accession, collect artist instructions, source, dependencies, runtime, domain/service assumptions, installation behavior, and an evidence package.
- Mark documentation, storage, migration, emulation, virtualization, and reinterpretation as distinct actions with dates and responsible parties.
- Give each action a public summary and a restricted technical annex where source, rights, security, or credentials require limits.
- Use artist-facing forms as intake instruments only; route their data into a controlled, versioned Museum record.
Where the analogy ends
LI-MA's institutional role is preservation and service; title-holding is outside the evidence reviewed. Its public references to NFTs show an area in which practice is being developed. That evidence does not establish that every NFT has been preserved. The Museum must also determine its own custody, rights, funding, hosting, and long-term maintenance responsibilities. No public API was identified.
Sources
Access date for every source below: 2026-08-04.
| Exact page title | URL | Publication date if shown | Claim supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact page titleArtHost research | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/arthost-research/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedPer-work hosting, source intake, dependency checking, and virtualization. |
| Exact page titleWhat Are the Basics of Preserving Digital Art? | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/preservation-introduction/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedStorage, migration, digitisation, emulation, virtualization, documentation, and artist input. |
| Exact page titleStorage | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/storage/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedRepository and ArtHost workflow. |
| Exact page titleThe importance of documentation in art preservation, and LI-MA's documentation services | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/documentation | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedDocumentation fields, formats, versions, condition, and preservation actions. |
| Exact page titleArtwork Documentation Tool: Document your work while creating your work | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/artwork-documentation-tool/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedArtist intake steps and explicit non-preservation limitation. |
| Exact page titleDigitisation, migration and emulation | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/digitisation-migration-and-emulation/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedDefinitions and differences among preservation actions. |
| Exact page titleCollaborative Infrastructure for Digital Art | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/collaborative-infrastructure-for-digital-art/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedMulti-collection research and implementation in workflow, metadata, storage, and monitoring. |
| Exact page titleUNFOLD | URLhttps://li-ma.nl/article/unfold/ | Publication date if shownNot shown | Claim supportedReinterpretation as collaborative preservation practice. |
Revision history
1.— 2026-08-04: initial case-led profile of LI-MA's documentation, preservation workflow, storage, and service infrastructure.0. 0