Lectures “The future of design herit­age”

Build­ing an archive today does not just mean preserving for future gener­a­tions a collec­tion of arte­facts and docu­ments relat­ing to the devel­op­ment of design in French-speak­ing Switzer­land. It also means defin­ing the relev­ant elements that the museum should preserve in order to offer future research­ers the possib­il­ity of answer­ing the vari­ous ques­tions that they might be faced with. Devel­op­ments in design, produc­tion, and commu­nic­a­tion tools mean that archiv­ing proto­cols need to be re-examined. In this context, the way in which design­ers are show­cased and their work is covered by the press is essen­tial for their promo­tion and public percep­tion. These aspects influ­ence not only the recog­ni­tion of design­ers, but also the way in which their work is trans­mit­ted and docu­mented. To enrich this reflec­tion, round-table discus­sions with journ­al­ists and other stake­hold­ers will explore how media stor­ies can be integ­rated into archives.

Can we then imagine new meth­od­o­lo­gies and new uses to facil­it­ate the imple­ment­a­tion of design research projects, and more specific­ally on design in French-speak­ing Switzer­land? Can new tools help museum insti­tu­tions and private compan­ies to manage their assets? Can arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), with its accel­er­ated data manage­ment process and its abil­ity to gener­ate images and texts, now be seen as an ally in the work of museums and research­ers?

mudac has launched a prospect­ive programme explor­ing the collab­or­a­tion between its human intel­li­gence (includ­ing the inter­ac­tions of people work­ing within the museum) and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (result­ing from recent advances in simu­lated intel­li­gence). Studio oio has been commis­sioned to produce a proto­type explor­ing these issues, a spec­u­lat­ive object that will provide a better under­stand­ing of what is at stake. The project will take the form of inter­act­ive inter­views with design­ers within the exhib­i­tion space, conduc­ted by both a member of the museum’s curat­orial team and AI. This process will explore how the digital archives that the design­ers have selec­ted and trans­mit­ted to the museum can be enriched by inter­ac­tions with AI. Studio oio has also developed a spec­u­lat­ive reflec­tion on the possib­il­it­ies of AI, and will offer, at the end of the inter­views, a digital poster for a mono­graphic exhib­i­tion imagin­ing what an exhib­i­tion dedic­ated to the designer might look like in 10 to 15 years’ time.

Well beyond the consid­er­a­tion of AI as a simple tool, or conversely as a great replace­ment, this applied spec­u­la­tion opens up a number of ques­tions for the museum and the play­ers involved in design in French-speak­ing Switzer­land: what are the ethical chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with the use of this tech­no­logy, partic­u­larly gener­at­ive tech­no­logy, in the preser­va­tion of design and copy­right? Could these neural networks capture intan­gible elements such as the stor­ies and know-how involved in the creation and manu­fac­ture of the objects collec­ted, which cannot be preserved in the usual archives? Could AI help over­come certain cultural, gendered, or species-ist biases at work in the creation and manage­ment of our archives?

• Lecture by Maroun Zahar, editor-in-chief of Espaces Contem­po­rains, Séver­ine Saas, editor of Magazine T (Le Temps) and Corine Stübi, editor-in-chief, Mais­ons et ambi­ances
• Lecture by Anna Nieder­häuser, Head of Design Promo­tion at the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in Bern, Cécile Vulliemin, Head of the Design Depart­ment at Pro Helve­tia – Swiss Arts Coun­cil and Alex­an­dre Edel­mann, Head of Pres­ence Switzer­land, Federal Depart­ment of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Bern
• Anthony Masure, Head of Research, HEAD – Genève, whose research focuses on the social, polit­ical, and aesthetic implic­a­tions of digital tech­no­lo­gies for design. And oio, a design studio led by Simone Rebaudengo and Matteo Loglio, who work with arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI).