ISEA allows individuals and organisations from around the world to come together annually, share and experience the intersection of emerging technologies and art.

The symposium series began in 1988 in Utrecht, the Netherlands,[4][2][5] in order to support the founding and maintenance of an international network of organisations and individuals active in the field of the electronic arts.

[3] The organization was later founded in 1990 in The Netherland, as an international membership association called the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts.

After a period of a provisional HQ again in the Netherlands, in 2008 a new Headquarters was established at the University of Brighton, United Kingdom.

[3][7] The organisation is now managed by the ISEA International foundation board, whose main role is to select the host city of each symposium based on bids submitted after a Call for Candidates.

Beginning in 2012, the development of a new archive commenced with text and PDF information available for the symposium proceedings, catalogs, presentation abstracts, artist statements, and workshops.

The new archive also enables the export of data for visualizations as well as a map of the location of all the contributors to the ISEA symposia.