Bridging Art, Technology, and Memory

From May 5th to 9th, 2025, the city of Manizales, Colombia, hosted the International Media Art History Conference, in partnership with the renowned International Image Festival (FII). For five days, artists, researchers, theorists, and cultural practitioners from across the globe gathered to reflect on the evolving intersections of art, technology, history, and society. Set against the backdrop of Colombia’s dynamic cultural landscape, the event offered not only academic depth but also intercultural exchange and creative inspiration.

This year’s edition marked a significant milestone in the history of the conference series, which began in 2005 in Banff and has since traveled to global cities such as Berlin, Melbourne, Liverpool, Riga, Montreal, Vienna, Aalborg, São Paulo, and Venice. The 2025 conference in Manizales extended this legacy into Latin America, providing a powerful new context to discuss the history and future of media art.

Framed by six carefully curated thematic lines, the conference sessions demonstrated the field’s diversity and its relevance to contemporary societal questions. Under the theme “Co-Creation and Co-Design: Individuals, Groups, and Communities,” participants explored collaborative approaches to media art, examining how collective creativity—among artists, communities, and machines—can challenge traditional notions of authorship and aesthetics. Discussions ranged from participatory digital installations to decentralized creative processes.

In the track “Circular Dynamics, Economies, and Autonomous Practices,” the focus turned to sustainability, autonomy, and new forms of artistic production. Speakers addressed how media artists are developing ecologically responsible practices, alternative economies, and self-organized systems that resist centralized control, offering innovative models for resilience and independence.

The theme “Open Knowledge Through Art and Science, Democratically Shared” highlighted the importance of accessibility and interdisciplinarity. Presentations reflected on how open-source technologies, scientific-artistic collaborations, and community-based research can foster broader participation in knowledge creation, breaking down barriers between disciplines and institutions.

A particularly resonant theme in the Colombian context was “Innovation Rooted in Ancestral Memory and Its Contemporary Relevance.” These sessions bridged ancestral knowledge systems with digital innovation, illustrating how indigenous worldviews and traditional practices can inform and enrich technological creativity. Artists and scholars from diverse backgrounds shared projects that honored memory, ritual, and territory through new media.

Equally essential was the theme “Future Memories: Documentation, Preservation, and New Research and Archiving Tools,” which addressed one of media art’s central challenges: how to preserve the ephemeral. Speakers introduced cutting-edge tools and methodologies for archiving digital art, from AI-assisted curation to immersive documentation strategies, emphasizing the need for sustainable infrastructures of memory.

The final track, “Media Art Pioneers,” honored the groundbreaking figures and movements that shaped the field. These sessions provided historical depth, celebrating foundational work in video art, net art, interactive installations, and early digital experiments. Through retrospective analyses and contemporary reinterpretations, this theme connected past innovation to present possibilities.

What distinguished the 2025 conference was not only its rigorous intellectual program but also its interdisciplinary and intercultural character. By bringing together voices from the arts, sciences, humanities, and indigenous knowledge systems, the event created a space for meaningful dialogue and collaboration. Held in tandem with the International Image Festival, which spanned from May 2nd to 9th across Bogotá and Manizales, the conference benefited from a broader cultural framework and a diverse, engaged audience.

In retrospect, the 2025 International Media Art History Conference in Manizales was more than a scholarly gathering—it was a celebration of media art’s capacity to connect histories, technologies, and communities. It reaffirmed the field’s vitality and its role in imagining more inclusive, sustainable, and creative futures.

The conference catalog (443 pages) can be downloaded [here.]()