ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to do after clarifying who collects what is to identify different modes of collecting, especially where these modes or systems might be adapted to match the nature and systems of the artwork itself. The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art in Taichung, for example, has a special category in its collections database for young Taiwanese artists and publishes a lavish catalog each year of only young artists. Particular new media economic modes can therefore be seen both as a challenge to pre-existing modes of collecting and also as flexible extra modes to be considered and adapted for the future. When Benjamin Weil was Curator of Media Arts at SFMOMA, he noted that the kind of research and development needed for new art and new media art in particular demanded commissioning, and a particular kind of commissioning if this was to lead to collection.
