DOCAM
international research alliance
DOCAM (Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage) was an international alliance of researchers from various institutions and disciplines dedicated to the documentation and conservation of media arts. The project was the result of a five-year mandate lasting from 2005 until 2010. Outcomes of the project include a cataloguing guide incorporating case studies, a conservation guide explaining preservation issues specific to time-based media, a technological timeline, a documentation model for digital curation and preservation of time-based media, and a glossary and thesaurus for media arts.
History
DOCAM was created in 2005 by the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology (DLF) and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The project's five-year mandate from 2005-2010 allowed collaboration by museum and university professionals to develop educational tools and create solutions for problems threatening media arts and technological arts heritage.
DOCAM Initiatives
The DOCAM Research Alliance focused on five main goals surrounding the documentation and conservation of media arts. A central purpose underlying these goals was the understanding of how media art can best be preserved in order to be re-displayed or re-used over time. For example, in order to re-display media arts created on obsolete systems, a decision must be made regarding whether to migrate the work to a new format or attempt to display the work in its original context using an emulator. Committees were formed around the focus areas of conservation and preservation, documentation and archival management, technological timeline, cataloguing structure, and terminology. The output of committee activities, including case studies, educational materials, guides, models, and seminar proceedings, are available to the public on DOCAM's website.
The public source identifies “DOCAM” as international research alliance. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around DOCAM, international and research.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “DOCAM”, the useful work is to connect “international research alliance” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5205840. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005 and 2010.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “DOCAM”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow DOCAM primary sources, DOCAM archive and DOCAM research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “DOCAM”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “DOCAM” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.