Impossible Memory? Archiving Design in the Digital Era

Recently, the new director of design at NYTimes.com published an article entitled The Impossible Project (October 2010) in the magazine Print. The article discussed what designers do to preserve their own work, and questioned whether it was possible to effectively archive digital design. It asked questions such as, what do we conserve? Interactions? Code for the reproduction of digital designs in future artifacts? Recreations of hardware-software environments in order to reproduce "digital" experiences of the past?

And we are only talking about the final product. Before we present the challenge of conserving the step-by-step, creative process of each product which includes preliminary models, prototypes, maquettes, drafts....how does this process of "memory" integrate itself into the daily work of a designer? What is the responsibility of the creator in the moment that his work needs to documented for preservation? How do we manage the constant technological advances? Will we arrive in somes cases (as Khoi Vinh suggested in his article) too late?

In short: How will the archive we leave behind arrive to future designers? Will it occupy a large physical space? Where will it be located? Will it be costly to maintain?

DHUB invites you to the roundtable: Impossible Memory? Archiving Design in the Digital Era., the 20th of January at 6 p.m. just before the inauguration of DHUBdoc the new documentation centre at Disseny Hub Barcelona.
 
 

Round Table

(Moderator: Karma Peiró)

• Miquel Térmens (co-ordinator of the Masters in Digital Content Management at UB-UPF)
• Abel de Benito (Founding Member of 2creativo.net)
• Jordi Serchs (archiver, representant of the Associació d'Arxivers-Gestors de Documents de Catalunya)
• Albert Sierra Reguera (Director of Innovation and Communication at DG Patrimoni Cultural)

Fila Zero

• Josep M. Tremoleda (Mobles114)
• Roberta Bosco (Contemporary Art Journalist)
• Ramon Pruneda (Director of Projects . Strategic Sectors. Economic Promotion Centre, Ajuntament de Barcelona)
• Prof. Jordi Andreu i Daufí (Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació Universitat de Barcelona)
• Ciro Llueca (Co-ordinator PADICAT -Patrimoni Digital de Catalunya- at the Biblioteca de Catalunya)
• Mercè Muntada (President of the Col•legi Oficial de Bibliotecaris-Documentalistes de Catalunya)