Digital arts in Latin America: A report on the archival history of intersections in art and technology in Latin America ............................................................................................................................................................ Correspondence: Reynaldo Thompson, Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. E-mail: thompson@ugto.mx Reynaldo Thompson and Tirtha P. Mukhopadhyay Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico ...................................................................................................................................... Abstract A pressing problem in archival preservation of information on electronic art, and any possible virtual conservation of such artifacts in Latin America, is the lack of strategic initiatives in the field. Unfortunately, a certain so-called ‘history of digital art’ has not been constructed in the southern continent; neither is any ‘history of digital art in Latin America’ valorized per se in the literature on contemporary art. The creation of databases and sets is inevitable as Latin America transforms into an economic power. Intelligent and user-friendly archival platforms are urgently needed. The potential of a 5G empowered mining for retrieval of dynamic contents in new media arts is immense and would further point to the aesthetic needs of the future. ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction A pressing problem in archival preservation of infor- mation on electronic art, especially in the context of Latin America, is the lack of strategic initiatives in the field. Conservation of digital art, and indeed all new media, has been part of a financial dynamics in the industrially advanced countries, especially where large-scale funding has helped in preservation of art- works as well as valuation. Unfortunately, the south- ern continent lacks continuous and rigorous archives and bibliographical records of contemporary art and technology; neither is any ‘history of digital art in Latin America’ valorized per se in the literature on contemporary art. The case is radically different in Anglophone or European histories of contemporary art, which has gone so far back as to recognize a ‘stone age’ of electronic art (Malina, 2002). Art critics like Christiane Paul have engaged in conservatorial descriptions of digital art for almost two decades now (Paul, 2003). It is indeed tempting to believe in the presence of a ‘north block’ in art history, with its generously funded exhibitions and events. Electronic arts histories evolve out of events like the Ars electron- ica or the more recent efforts on new media histories (Dunn, 1992; Grau, 2007). Indeed, another feasible approach to data is visible in the efforts made by lo- cally organized museums or collections fostered by artists and groups. Examples of such nascent yet ani- mated responses to contemporary art including some expression of digital media are initiatives like Pinto mi Raya (started 1989) or the radical Qui ~ nonera art gal- lery in Coyoaca ´n, or a San Miguel de Allende electron- ic art workshop called the 16. These smaller but significant efforts help create a network of references about artists who have been experimenting and work- ing with digital media in the past, and yet at the same time creating a space for themselves in the Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, Vol. 36, Supplement 1, 2021. V C The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of EADH. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com doi:10.1093/llc/fqaa046 Advance Access published on 23 November 2020 i113 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/dsh/article/36/Supplement_1/i113/5999149 by guest on 01 March 2022