The New Archive Project
Michel Foucault exclaimed “knowledge is power” 30 years ago. Thus, one can conclude, if one possesses a collection of “universal knowledge” of the world, one has ultimate power. Establishing comprehensive, global collections of knowledge has already been fascinating mankind for thousands of years. As Gerlinde Schuller pointed out two years ago, today, modern communication and information technologies offer quick and prompt collecting, high memory capacities and wide-ranging technologies. In addition, globalisation and the advance of internet produce a mentality that moves away from the local and regional towards the international and universal. As Paul Virilio said 10 years ago, we are like a glove inside-out, the local is placed under a magnifying glass and the global disappears. Collections of knowledge, such as archives, encyclopedias, databases, libraries, also follow the trend. They are engaged in the race against time in both technological and creative areas. We are so busy puting all our knowledge in the computers, maybe once computers learn how to multiply they won’t need us anymore and humans will become obsolete like Richard Dawkins ominously predicted 20 years ago. The clearly formulated aim of humankind is to establish a complete and up-to-date collection of “universal knowledge”.
At the same time, the way of life in today’s world is shifting creative and intellectual tendencies into more sincere, personal and immediate knowledge. Art and communication are selling private memories, situations and feelings. For, apart from those producing information, designers, scientists and academics have a great influence on how knowledge is conveyed. Just like Linnaeus did for natural history, they set standards for the classification and design of complex data that can go on for a long time to come. They can facilitate but also manipulate the transfer of knowledge. Harry Smith’s collection of American folk music (or even Ukrainian Easter eggs or paper planes), preserved invaluable knowledge and set the standards for future reference. Creative librarians design the strategies of collecting knowledge as well as their concepts of filtering and communicating complex information and content. Terminology and media tend to change and always appropriate new words, but the essence does not change: we all want to share our innermost predilections, express our gratitude to the ones who gave us knowledge, rejoice in the creative energy we were given and in communication and technical skills we are trying to develop.