Disclosing Futures Rethinking HeritageDisclosing Futures Rethinking Heritage

On Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 November 2022, the conference _Disclosing Futures, Rethinking Heritage_ took place at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. For two days, participants and visitors discussed innovation and the changing role of managing collections at heritage institutions. At the opening, Aric Chen, Het Nieuwe Instituut's artistic director, described heritage as "a wonderfully strange and complex beast." It is one that has so much to offer. Behrang Mousavi, Het Nieuwe Instituut's head of Collection, said he wanted the conference to provide a platform "for discussion, questioning one another, reflection and broadening our future horizons, without losing sight of the past and the present."

The conference is part of _Disclosing Architecture_. Het Nieuwe Instituut embarked on this six-year heritage programme in 2018 to improve the sustainability, visibility and accessibility of the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. It is supported by a one-off investment from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Disclosing Architecture develops new methodologies, promotes inclusive and multivocal research and builds networks around the collection for greater online and offline visibility.

The conference is sold out. Aric Chen gives his welcome speech to a packed room. Thinking about heritage merges the past, present and future, and Chen challenges us to see them as non-linear: "The concepts of past, present and future are dynamic, always evolving, and perhaps negotiable." This take on heritage sets the tone for the day. Behrang Mousavi talks about the origin of Disclosing Architecture, whose programme comprises three strands - sustainability, visibility and accessibility - in relation to three sub-collections: architectural drawings, photography, and Theo van Doesburg. In addition to conservation and digital accessibility, the programme addresses diversity, decolonisation and gender. Considering this, Mousavi says it is "important to make informed choices about what we should and should not preserve.' This conference will extensively discuss what the possible choices can be.

The conference has four topics: Rethinking Collections, Collaborations and Networks, Technologies of Heritage, and The Living and Open Archive.

The Speculative Archiving session ponders alternative and speculative archiving that offer scope for new narratives. Denise Olva and Fatma Çolakoğlu (SALT Istanbul) share the findings of the Istanbul Encyclopedia project, which stems from historian Reşad Ekrem Koçu's (1905-1975) ambition to compile an urban encyclopedia. Though unable to complete the project before his death, his encyclopedia runs from A to G. SALT tries to preserve and make accessible the articles and Koçu's thinking. Çolakoğlu says: "He was very interested in non-linear narratives and often chose stories of marginalised people. His encyclopedia is highly personal and, therefore, semi-historical and subjective. He developed a methodology to write each article using a fixed structure. We had to decipher everything and discover the logic he applied to this project." Historians are generally not concerned with fictional elements; here, the author's perspective sheds light on a period spanning several decades.

Zara Ashad and Vivien Chan (Design Archives in Asia) review projects based on alternative and speculative archive models, such as the Malaysia Design Archive, Wawasan and HKDHNet. When asked, "Why are alternative archive models necessary?" they reply, "The richest archives are those of people who have created archives themselves." In addition, "collaborative approaches and city walks" for Chan and "interviews and oral histories" for Ashad have become essential research methods in speculative archiving.

Graphic designer Remco van Bladel and artist Mariana Lanari initiated the Archival Consciousness project, which collaborates with libraries and archives in cultural institutions to implement methods and infrastructures that convert collections into data. The project promotes the long-term storage and accessibility of physical archives in conjunction with digital archives. Lanari's slides elucidate: we see a large gym full of publications stacked in outlined sections. Visitors can digitise fragments from the physical collection on site and add them to the database.

The session Van Doesburg: Through the Eyes of the Restorer features Elizabet Nijhoff Asser and Jurjen Munk (RNA), Wietse Coppes (RKD) and Herman van Bergeijk (TU Delft). They expand on restoring nearly 450 drawings and collages by Theo van Doesburg. Curator Elizabet Nijhoff Asser talks about this restoration's historical discoveries. For example, they mapped exhibition histories based on authentic museum labels on the back of works. They also discovered the drawings' original presentation form was in a passepartout frame. She describes the six steps involved in restoring the drawings: cleaning the surface, repairing tears and holes, flattening planar distortions with controlled humidifying, retouching peeling paint layers, repairing pressure-sensitive tape, and detecting previous restorations to determine what is authentic.

Art historian Jurgen Munk shares a case study of nine floor plans, three series of three drawings, all of which have a coloured tape border. He argues that these nine are a set, and all nine were exhibited together during the first major De Stijl exhibition in 1923. Herman van Bergeijk then responds to the two speakers' findings: "It's like a forensic investigation. The body - metaphorically, Van Doesburg's works - must remain as pristine as possible in order to collect the evidence. However, as a historian, I am more interested in the perpetrator. Historical research must be based on the material; otherwise, it's just a theory."

Nelly van Doesburg's niece, Wies van Moorsel, is also present. As well as knowing Nelly well, she saw many of the works in their original state. She shares how long it took to get Van Doesburg's works from France to the Netherlands, and the often appalling condition of the fragile pieces. The audience asks whether the research results are publicly accessible. Nijhoff Asser replies they are already partially accessible using Het Nieuwe Instituut's collection system, and the intention is to link them to other databases using linked open data.

Immediately after these sessions the first Walk & Talk tours begin, in which Disclosing Architecture team members give participants a look behind the scenes and explain their work. The Van Doesburg Walk & Talk takes the public into the depot, where a selection of sketches, drawings, blueprints and photos are available. These illustrate the story surrounding the Van Doesburg collection, in which the design for Café Aubette plays an important role. The project leader shows the only extant model of the Aubette, the Van Doesburg collection's most recent addition, which is framed flat due to its fragility. She tells us about another, smaller acquisition that has been thoroughly restored: a picture mounted on cardboard whose acidity had started to damage the drawing and notes. Wies van Moorsel confirms this cardboard was original, and the restoration made the cardboard acid-free to prevent future damage to the drawing.

The Keeping the Digital session addresses the archival issues surrounding born-digital data, such as renders, animations or 3D models. Martien de Vletter (Canadian Centre for Architecture) introduces the session, outlining the history of born-digital data in CCA's collection. Damjan Kokalevski (Architecture Museum Munich) mentions the problems he observes when archiving architecture. Namely, that architectural heritage is slowly being lost due to a lack of a generally applicable standard and compatibility issues between software and hardware. As well as questioning the digital cloud's ecological and economic sustainability, he also mentions solutions. Stressing the importance of networks for preservation and sharing, he sees opportunities to link and close the knowledge gap between the humanities and data science. He mentions potential collaborations with software companies in archiving born-digital data. The audience critiques this idea during the Q&A, saying software companies have very different agendas from archives.

In her presentation, Ania Molenda (Het Nieuwe Instituut) discusses the role of software, sharing insights from her recently published research into the digitisation of architectural practice. She talks about software's guiding role in forming architectural archives: "I see software and computer systems as co-architects." She regards digital archives as a datascape. She advises embracing the "nerdy side of things" and using artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock these archives.

Manon Janssens (Zaha Hadid Architects) talks about the enormous born-digital archive of Zaha Hadid Architects. Accessing its over 200TB of data requires more than 250 different types of software, plug-ins, scripts and programs. She suggests that keeping all digital files is more manageable than deciding which to discard. Making exhibitions helps the archiving process because the exhibition team then systematises the associated material, making it easier to view and assess. All three speakers question the limited responsibility that software and hardware companies seem to feel for keeping the technology that reads born-digital data available and compatible. Archives must navigate this dilemma, that seems unlikely to change soon.

Paula Strunden’s VR installation Alison’s Room is in the foyer of Het Nieuwe Instituut. Two talks, Alison’s Room I and Alison’s Room II, examine the possibilities that virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) offer for archival research and the presentation of archival documents. Photo Johannes Schwartz.

Paula Strunden’s VR installation Alison’s Room is in the foyer of Het Nieuwe Instituut. Two talks, Alison’s Room I and Alison’s Room II, examine the possibilities that virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) offer for archival research and the presentation of archival documents. Photo Johannes Schwartz.

In the Future Roles and Practices plenary session, Fiona Cameron (Western Sydney University) talks about her research, The Future of Digital Data, Heritage and Curation in a More-Than-Human World. In Cameron's view, digital heritage is a collection of digital realities. Hence, digital heritage is influenced mainly by geographic, social and political factors and cannot be viewed separately from aspects that define the world. She calls this eco-curating: an ecological system of factors determining the context of born-digital heritage. She demonstrates this using Donald Trump's tweets, the context in which they arose and their resulting effects.

Stand-up philosopher Laura van Dolron concludes the session. During the day, she has searched for connection, disruption, emotion and vulnerability in the sessions, topics and conversations, which she shares now with the audience in the form of improvised commentary. Summarising her contribution would only detract from its sincerity and openness, so we invite you to listen to it in its entirety here. (starting at 43:20)

The Designing for Engagement plenary session kicks off day two of Disclosing Futures, Rethinking Heritage. Gerlinde Schuller (The World as Flatland) and Alexandra Cunningham Cameron (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum) show how digital technology offers opportunities for new forms of heritage participation by allowing more space for input from users, the public and communities.

Schuller gives as an example her personal research into landscape architect Mien Ruys, who designed the communal garden of her apartment complex. Her conclusions are: first, users want a narrative, not abstract data, because storytelling holds an audience's attention longer; second, users want to be surprised; third, stories told from different perspectives stimulate opinion formation. Schuller used her findings to develop a systematic method for storytelling. This assumes that user behaviour changes, whereby browsing through data is just as important as targeted searching. It provides appropriate filters, integrates non-linear storylines throughout the system, and gives users options for interaction (community building). Schuller's research into Mien Ruys's garden design and its restoration adds a new chapter to the archive and the story of this garden's design. Finally, she asks the audience whether archivists or historians are willing to give up some of their influence on archiving and hand it over to people to create their own archives.

Alexandra Cunningham Cameron's presentation follows on seamlessly from Schuller's question. She talks about the creation of the exhibition project _Willi Smith: Street Couture_, dedicated to the life and work of American fashion designer Willi Smith (1948-1987). Given the absence of a central archive devoted to Smith's life, Cunningham Cameron began collecting stories and materials from people in his circle. These stories formed the core of the curatorial research and exhibition. This also received an extensive digital counterpart due to Covid-19, providing complete digital access to this crowd-sourced archive.

Photographer Johannes Schwartz asked Collection staff members of Het Nieuwe Instituut about their favourite archive pieces. He then photographed them, putting together the series that you can see all over the building. Photo Florine van Rees.

In Rethinking Collecting, Setareh Noorani (Het Nieuwe Instituut) moderates a conversation between three speakers who offer their perspectives on questions concerning new approaches to collecting and valuing heritage. Noorani reflects on Fiona Cameron's talk from the previous day concerning "collecting with intention", asking with whose intention are we collecting? "Heritage is not an objective legacy, and we are responsible for our choices," says Noorani.

Hetty Berens (Het Nieuwe Instituut) discusses Collecting History, a Disclosing Architecture sub-project that critically examines Het Nieuwe Instituut's collection. She outlines seven "collection mentalities", perspectives from which the institute's current architecture collection originated: the genius; architecture from a social perspective; choices made by former institute director Dick van Woerkom; architecture in collaboration with research bodies; architecture and culture in a broad sense; architecture as presentation; and finally material related to other research projects within Het Nieuwe Instituut. As recommendations for a collection policy, she mentions connecting with others - not just with researchers, but with the general public - and the willingness to re-evaluate existing archival material.

Martien de Vletter (Canadian Center for Architecture) introduces a case in which material from the African continent is integrated into the CCA archive. During this project, they encountered all kinds of issues related to colonialism. They opted for the post-custodial approach: keeping the objects in their original location, having researchers conduct research on-site, and making the information accessible through CCA's globally accessible database. She calls it a transition from collecting to connecting.

Jeftha Pattikawa and Erik Mul (Nationaal Archief) share the developments surrounding the decolonisation of their archive over the past five years. Archival descriptions place an archive in a particular historical context, but the NA's mission is to 'serve everyone's right to information'. Part of this process is revising search terms and descriptions with regard to language and content. They say this is an ongoing process. 'We are looking for ways to involve the voices of these communities in this process. How can we solve the problem if the problem is not seen?' In the Q&A, Noorani asks further on Berens' argument: how do you deal with the conflict between your own ideas and those of the past? Berens says, 'We need more tools or collaborations to revise this "old" archival material in new projects. It is more complex than simply collecting different types of material from now on.' As an archival institution, you can already take many of your own steps, as Pattikawa and Mul's story shows. However, it often remains tailor-made in practice, as De Vletter's example shows.

At lunch, during the Design Drawings Walk & Talk, the registrars of Disclosing Architecture talk about registering objects and how they prepare for conservation and restoration. When the project started, they made a selection based on various criteria - topicality, social relevance, the material's physical condition - that determined which architectural drawings they would conserve during the project. These then go to one of the three permanent restoration workshops: VANWAARDE, Art Conservation and Art Salvage, and Hoogduin Papierrestauratoren. These all use the same guidelines drawn up by Disclosing Architecture. They remove creases, dust and fingerprints, seal holes, and replace paper containing acid with acid-free paper.

The Strategies for the Conservation of Analogue Archives session focuses on the conservation of analogue architectural archives, with zips (dry transfers, rub-ons or rubdowns) as a special case study. Paper conservator Marion Cinqualbre explains the problems associated with preserving zips, such as loss of adhesion, shrinkage of the plastic foil and formation of air bubbles. She also mentions a terminology issue, because archives that have variants of zips in their collection will often use different terms and names in their databases, which makes it challenging to compare knowledge about conservation. Cinqualbre shares her findings regarding the sustainable preservation of zips: open air is less harmful than airtight storage, they are better stored flat than rolled up, humidity accelerates their degradation, light damages the adhesion, and in addition to absorbent materials, electrostatic energy causes damage. Finally, curator Ellen Smit, leader of the institute's research project on analogue reproduction techniques, shows examples from Het Nieuwe Instituut's collection of design drawings that use zips.

How do heritage institutions address the unwritten rules concerning data ownership, particularly concerning indigenous cultural heritage? In the (Un)written Rules session, Cindy Zalm (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen) and Setareh Noorani (Het Nieuwe Instituut) discuss this, led by Carolina Pinto (Het Nieuwe Instituut).

Zalm explains how NMVW is increasingly adjusting collection access based on new insights into decolonisation. One of the results was the publication of Words Matter, a list of words that can be considered unacceptable or offensive. NMVW is currently revising the descriptions of colonial objects in the collection and how to make them findable for the people of the communities concerned. Processing data can lose information because you are selective and, therefore, not objective. An example is the ownership of a work: in certain cultures, the entire community, rather than one artist, is considered the creator of a particular object. In addition, registration is a way of structuring, which, again, is not always objective. "Museum catalogues are not neutral," says Zalm. "Decolonising your database is too big a goal. You have to start smaller." The next steps of NMVW are to build trust with new relations and involve them in making databases accessible, lowering the threshold and increasing data transparency, and creating knowledge together.

Setareh Noorani presents _Collecting Otherwise_, a collaborative project between Het Nieuwe Instituut's Research and Collection departments. The project offers an active form of collaboration focussing on accessibility. It is essential not only to translate knowledge, but also to mediate. Collecting Otherwise explores the collection's historical gaps concerning queer, feminist and colonial issues. The intersectional working group questions the outlook from which archiving takes place, resulting in various hands-on tools to apply to an archive. One of these is *asterisk, a tool named after the symbol that usually refers to a margin annotation or footnote. It expands Het Nieuwe Instituut's collection thesaurus to include more information and adds notes that allow the user to query the information. By using *asterisk, the margins become the primary conveyor of a storyline.

In the Q&A, Pinto asks Zalm how we can speed up the process of decolonising the collection. Zalm thinks it should go slowly so that decolonisation as an action can sink in. An audience member asks how the speakers deal with different perspectives within one community. Zalm replies, "I don't think there is a simple solution to this. Ultimately, the goal is to help a community develop a relationship with their cultural heritage. Linked open data can help to find their own story." Another person asks, is it better to keep the objects in their original place and make them digitally accessible or replace them? Zalm counters, "Who would that benefit? It very much depends on the community you are working with. This also has very practical aspects. For example, we are used to wearing gloves when handling an object, but for someone else, it can be important to feel a physical bond with the object."

The conference concludes with the launch of The Other Interface, the first beta version of Het Nieuwe Instituut's new collection platform. Gijs Broos, programme manager of Disclosing Architecture, talks about the platform's creation. Existing collection data have been converted to linked open data; using triples, a subject, an object and the relationship between them are determined. These triples are made into SPARQL queries. Design agency Linked by Air designed a user-friendly platform for accessing and presenting this data. Linked by Air's Dan Michaelson names four aspects underlying the design: the variety of user behaviour; visualising the relationship between things; the difference between data and interpretation; and creating a feeling. "A collection is hidden behind a search bar, but nobody knows what to type into it," he says. The Other Interface's design allows various ways of gathering information through horizontal and vertical search methods. The Other Interface currently links three large databases to Het Nieuwe Instituut's collection: those of Wikimedia, the Getty and the RKD. Broos and Michaelson cordially invite institutions with relevant data to join this project, which will be delivered in mid-2023.

Report by Linda Köke.