Pad (Dec 2022)
The Invented Mnemotopes Archive. Design Digital Practices for the Memory of Places
Abstract
Today, the digitization of memory is a crucial issue. As institutional mnestic repositories, archives are deeply involved in digitalization processes and must reconfigure their theoretical paradigms to keep memory active. They must find new horizons of meaning in technology and design practices. In these processes, the resource problem is evident: only in a few cases can a complete digitization of preserved documents be carried out. GLAMs are limited to partial virtual migration to allow read-only and remote access. Considering the impossibility of a full analog-to-digital conversion, it is necessary to reflect on the fact that it is not enough to think about the proliferation of information but about the quality of the translation strategies. In this context, invented digital archives emerge, where documents are thematically juxtaposed to generate new interpretative discourses. In between, digital design practices can extrovert territory by recognizing the archive of mnemotopes: a dense network of spatialized memories and cultural objects of territorial interpretation. The paper presents two case studies in which design, especially communication design, leads to a digital mnemotopic representation that aims to stabilize these compound realities on the territory. Through a conscious reappropriation of personal memory and its territorial context, individual mnemotopes enter digitally into processes of collectivization, not as sites of mummification but of idea generation.
