OASIS aims at the generation of a system for the universal presentation of European Media Art works independent of location. The goal is to establish a comprehensive research system in order to ensure the preservation and availability (sustainability) of European cultural heritage in the field of Media Art. <br />Various databases will be connected through a distributed metadata system that ensures the availability of medial objects of cultural value for access and usage independent of location. Metadata and actual artefacts (film and video material, audio and image material) are no longer tied to their physical storage location and play-out medium, but can be accessed and transmitted to other data carriers and locations by means of web technology. Therefore, the content of individual databases can be made available to the European public at large. <br />The metadata system interlinking databases of all participating institutions can be accessed by individual users (both researchers and general public) through an on-line interface, by multimedia archive servers engaged in a reciprocative exchange within a distributive system and by various play out media. Access permission is scalable depending on whether the access takes place within the system or from the outside. <br />Researchers and curators planning historic studies or exhibitions on the subject will be able to localise and access Media Art works independent of location. Beyond these new research possibilities for experts, OASIS will contribute to an education of the public all over Europe on the history of Media Art by allowing users can access the system through an on-line interface. <br />The linking of data-carriers of all participating institutions also offers new possibility for curating and compiling Media Art exhibitions. Exhibits no longer have to be physically transferred from one location to the other, but can be streamed to a server at the exhibition venue and displayed by various play-out media (broad-band data exchange). This opens up a wealth of new possibilities: <br />Media Art works physically located at other locations can be displayed at exhibitions, seminars, performances, concerts and other events. Therefore, even institutions with limited financial means and capacities will be able to use this inexpensive broad-band exchange to show important works of Media Art. <br />Benefits:<br />The foremost benefit of OASIS is the preservation of media art works of cultural value for future generations (sustainability). Moreover, the content of the individual servers will be copied and backed-up through the communication of the servers with each other (replication technology). By this means, cultural heritage is not only documented and preserved, but also kept in a current state of availability. <br />Another key factor is the open, distributive infrastructure of the system &amp;#8211; the data can remain at their physical location and will be linked by a comprehensive meta level. OASIS is thus both scaleable and extendable (inclusion of new archives and databases, access for the handicapped, i.e. audio-rendering for the blind). <br />The Pan-European linking of institutions engaged in the collecting and documenting Media Art will open up new possibilities for exchange and cooperation between East and West. Moreover, the perspective of collaboration between archives and resources in different locations and on different data carriers in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe offers an incentive for other artists and collecting institutions to form an alliance with OASIS and increase the dissemination of their own information content.