Except for video art, there are no data bases on media art. Data can be compiled piecemeal, in the institutions that have treated certain subjects that we will mention here. Data is often erratic, and so far all data bases have been archived in analogue formats. For now, there is only one on-line data base, and even that one is incomplete: a part of the collection of the early computer art from the MSU collection, but only the one showed at the I am Still Alive 2000 exhibition.

The culture of networking and the existence of such structures in media art, that recognize and give support to similar actions have yielded greater results than the activities of a large centralized institution. The history of institutions will show us a remarkable presence and topicality of the tendencies within media art in their redefining forms during the 1960s and 70s, and the stagnation and almost complete isolation from the international scene during the 1990s. Only since 2000 have media art production and the social environment necessary for its existence, established new, positive parameters and received certain recognition by cultural institutions that provide funds for the realization of programs.

An example of the network model from the 1960s is New Tendencies, begun in 1961 as part of annual exhibitions. The movement acted as the umbrella network encompassing many artistic groups, theorists, and individual artists. The network is amazingly modern with regards to the global spread (especially taking into account the cold war era) and the decentralized organization as well as the establishment of a productive cooperation between progressive political and artistic ideas and local cultural institutions. The artists from both cold war blocs have been represented in the art groups, among whom are many groups such as GRAV Groupe de Recherche d Art Visuel (France), Equipo 57 (Spain), Gruppo N, Gruppo T, MID, Gruppo 63, Operativo R, Azimuth (Italy), Zero (Germany), Anonima (USA), Dviznije (USSR). This international event brought to Zagreb the most important theorists of neo-constructivist and kinetic art and the theory of information (Guilio Carlo Argan, Umbro Apollonio, Laszlo Beke, Palma Bucarelli, Umberto Eco, Herbert W. Franke, Udo Kultermann, Enzo Mari, Manfredo Massironi, Abraham A. Moles, Frieder Nake, Frank Popper), and the majority of artists who participated at the event published also their theoretical essays (Karl Gerstner, Julio Le Parc, Heinz Mack, Alberto Biasi, Almir Mavignier, Francois Morellett, Otto Pienne, Gunther Uecker, (For more on Tendencies see under Brief Overview).

In 1973, the Zagreb Municipal Galleries (today MoCA) opened CEFT – Center for photography and film, an early form of the media department within the museum and galleries infrastructure. In 1973, the Nova gallery in Zagreb staged the Kompjuterski film exhibition. Since 1968, the Music Biennial Zagreb has continuously showcased experimental and electronic music, often in multimedia performances and sound installations.

The Nek se čuje i naš glas documentary (15 minutes, 1970) directed by Krsto Papić tackles the issue of pirate radio stations that popped up in rural areas in the late 1960s. Despite the prohibitions, people continued to produce their own programs and to communicate.

In the 1970s, the intention to analyze the phenomenon of culture, society, political and economic living conditions inaugurated new media as a form of expression and exploration – photography, video, performance, action, space interventions, installations, environment, and the like. The Zagreb Municipal Galleries (today MoCA) and the SC Gallery in Zagreb exhibited art of new artistic practice. In 1979, a Mixed Media department (department of new artistic practice, section of new media) was set up within the HDLU. In 1981, out of it came Prostor PM (later PM Gallery). The SC Center for Multimedia Research was founded in 1976. Today, that institution led by Ivan Paic has kept the weekly pace and free entrance but the emphasis is now on single screen film and video program.

During the 1990s, years of war and transition, the Croatian artistic production stagnated, with the exception of the continual tradition of video art. Given the right-wing (retrograde and traditionally bound) official cultural policy, the presentations of foreign media art became rare and the scarce work of Croatian media art was the product of individual enthusiasm without the support of institutions; it was mostly done abroad. The only people who continually exhibited media art were Media in Motion (Heiko Daxl and Ingeborg Fulepp), who have since 1991 been organizing Mediascape – the annual exhibition and symposium on media art. Since 1999, Mediascape has asked 137 artists and theorists of media art to appear as guests. Mediascape presents CD-ROM projects, internet projects, video art, sound and video/computer installations, computer-generated graphics and music notation.

Media art has been presented as part of film and theater festivals in particular. Stelarc, Survivle Reaserch Laboratorys, and Orlan, among others, appeared as guests at the new theater festival Eurokaz (since 1987). Since 1998, the International New Film Festival Split has been showcasing video and new media in its program supplement. The annual festival Dani hrvatskog filma, Zagreb, 2000, introduces the experimental film and video category. The Photographs Association of Croatia and the curators Vladimir Gudac and Tihomir Milovac have continually organized significant international and local exhibitions of new (and digital) photography.

By organizing a series of media actions (TV appearances, reprints of announcements, round table with radio and internet broadcast), the Katedrala: restauracija informacije project (1998, the tenth anniversary of the Katedrala project) has inaugurated the issue of restoring the electronic works of art and tried to reanimate and reconnect old networks of media art in Croatia.

In 1999, the MI2 Multimedia Institute was founded as a spin-off of the Otvoreno društvo Hrvatska project. After having moved to new premises, this network became Mama 2000 net.culture center and gained critical mass of interested people that started to produce a continual series of programs related to media art. The Multimedia Institute organizes annual exhibitions. 2000. I am Still Alive showcases works of the pioneer computer art of the 1960s and the new net.art. The awards of the call for entries of 1999 were given in three categories: net.art, initiative.idea.akction and new.technologies. The category of net.art also invited mail art, news art, icq art, third voice art, tcp/ip art, dns art, and fax art, but the first place for net.art was not awarded. The exhibition of the Re:com (2001.) art software followed together with Critical upgrade – The media culture week that included also the conference and exhibition of generative art (2002.). Mi2 has continually developed local and international networks and organized the ASU 2 (Art Server Unlimited) meeting carried out in cooperation with Labinary (Labin) and Ljudmila (Ljubljana) in Labin 2001. Mama Net.cultural center (part of Mi2) produces a multitude of regular programs and presentations by media activists, artists and theorists (Becoming digital, last tuesday, past:forward). The Mama home page is updated on a daily basis. In Zagreb, the activist and alternative civil scene gathers at Autonomna tvornica kulture - ATTACK.

A few non-institutional self-organized artistic groups and associations have been involved in various aspects of media art. On the initiative of Dalibor Martinis and Sanja Iveković, the artistic work group Podroom was active in Zagreb between 1978 and 1980. About 20 artists of the new artistic practice staged 35 exhibitions and various lectures and events, as well as published the Prvi broj magazine. In 1971, Vladimir Petek set up the FAVIT (film – audiovisual research - television) artistic association and, with a number of collaborators, made a series of multimedia works, mostly multivision (multi-channel video), film and slide projections. Since 1982, Dejan Krsic has gathered a number of artists of different art practice (Jani Stravs, Gordana Brzović) to work on the NEP Nova Evropa project. In 1988, the Katedrala project attracted theater director Boris Bakal, composer Stanko Juzbašić, programmer Goran Premec, and media artists Darko Fritz and Ivan Marušić Klif. They created a complex work of the computer-generated interactive environment. The artistic initiatives as the leading impetus of the contemporary art of the 1990s have become almost non-existent in Croatia. We should mention the successful models (now institutionalized) of Art workshop Lazareti (Dubrovnik) and 21. Proljeće (Split). Beside numerous programs Art workshop Lazareti also organizes complex international projects of contemporary art (Otok 1 and 2 - site-specific installations, CLUB.NL – Dutch art and artistic initiatives) and the annual festival of the theater art Karantena (since 1997) that also often represents media art within the contemporary art context. Tihomir Milovac has pointed out to the organization as a creative act phenomenon of the artistic initiatives at the 1998 Youth Salon, showcasing five organizations. Two non-institutional programs of video art were organized by artists themselves; Young Croatian Electronic Films (1991, Amsterdam) and Refference to Difference (1994, Zagreb). The Što, kako i za koga Association for Visual Culture (Zagreb) were founded by the curators Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović by organizing exhibition Što kako i za koga (2000.). During 2001 and 2002, in addition to Arkzin, the Multimedia center Mi2 and the Technical Museum organized the Broadcasting international project (dedicated to Nikola Tesla) of a number of events in the form of exhibitions, performances, lectures and radio shows. Media art was also partly represented from the perspective of momentary phenomena of contemporary art. The project included a number of vide streaming performances by local authors (Lala Raščić and Ana Husman, Ivan Marušić Klif, Marijan Crtalić).