Exploring a digital art archive in mixed reality.

This article focuses on the archival and mixed reality (MR) presentation of materials related to interactive artworks by media artists Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, conducted within the Austrian state-funded partnership project Lehr- und Forschungsinfrastruktur für Digitale Künste an Hochschulen (LeFo), which supports the expansion of the Archive of Digital Art (ADA). The project involves scanning and organizing nearly 500 printed and digital materials associated with the artists' works, producing detailed three-dimensional (3D) models of selected installations, and developing AR[t]chive, an MR application that enables users to explore and interact with the archive's contents through natural hand gestures using a Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset. AR[t]chive presents media collections as manipulable 3D objects and supports playful, spatial navigation of artworks, keywords, and related materials, aiming to enhance accessibility and engagement for researchers, educators, and the public. The article also discusses challenges in archival workflows, metadata management, and future plans including integration of materials into ADA and formal usability testing of the MR tool.