How do you go about preserving lived experiences — whether virtual or real? On 5 October, the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD) will organise a workshop outlining a number of strategies that can be employed for the preservation of experience-based events. This workshop will look into case studies from domains of oral history and virtual reality.

Remembering social movements, historical events, periods now referred to as ‘eras’, or simply the daily life of past times can pose evident and complex challenges. Information might be missing, contexts long lost, and hardware obsolete.

This workshop will look into the preservation strategies employed in oral history and virtual reality. Eric Kluitenberg, co-founder of Tactical Media Files, will elaborate on the concept of living memory and discuss approaches to and challenges with archiving it in practice. Susanne Neugebauer from Atria, the research institute for gender equality and women’s history, will talk about the methodological steps and concerns of oral history projects. Zack Lischer-Katz from the University of Arizona will share some of his research on archiving VR, focusing on ways in which immersive media requires archivists and conservators to rethink preservation.

The event is aimed at students, researchers and professionals with an interest or practice in archiving experiences and immersive media. Following a series of presentations from the individual speakers, time will be allocated for a public discussion.

Programme

• 4.30pm: Welcome and introduction Alexandra Barancová (NADD)
• 4.40pm: Living memory talk by Eric Kluitenberg (Tactical Media Files)
• 5pm: Oral history talk by Susanne (Atria)
• 5.20pm Archiving VR talk by Zack Lischer-Katz (University of Arizona)
• 5.40pm: Questions and discussion
• 6pm: Programme ends

NADD Workshops

The Network Archives Design and Digital Culture organises workshops throughout the year aimed at sharing expertise and the development of new knowledge. Topics range from knowledge about the management, maintenance and accessibility of archives to concrete judicial aspects, or broader questions regarding the longevity of heritage and diversity in archiving.