Archives du Design Romand
mudac, Switzerland
September 13, 2024 – February 09, 2025

From industrial design to graphic design, watchmaking, fashion, and interaction design, all these forms have thrived in French-speaking Switzerland, both in terms of creation and transmission. To understand the emergence and evolution of design, and to develop the necessary methodologies, mudac has decided to give the floor to the players involved: designers, historians, and journalists will take part in a range of lectures, interviews, and round table discussions. Staggered over the months of the exhibition, these meetings will be organised around six thematic phases. Free of charge and open to all, the meetings are aimed at both specialists and amateurs, inviting the public to meet experts such as university directors and teachers.

Images courtesy of mudac

Images courtesy of mudac

Images courtesy of mudac

This is an opportunity to accompany mudac in its reflections on the development of a new department entirely dedicated to design in French-speaking Switzerland, and to grasp the historical,
political, social, institutional, and technological implications of this project. Designed as a long-term project, Archives du Design Romand aims to produce, within five years if possible, the first book in a series dedicated to design in French-speaking Switzerland.

The open space, designed with modular structures, allows visitors to wander freely while documentation gradually builds up, enriching the experience of research and discovery. The layout has also been designed to accommodate the public during the presentations and meetings that will take place over the four months of the exhibition. The graphic design, for its part, symbolises the archives through motifs that feature cellular-like entities linking and weaving together to create new narratives. This colourful visual identity is used throughout the exhibition, creating a total experience within the project. To enhance this unity, the graphic designers have also developed a unique typography, available in six variations, each corresponding to one of the themes addressed.

The project you are about to discover is the result of a year-long residency, curated by Scott Longfellow, during which oio immersed itself in the workings and vision of mudac and the wider landscape of French-speaking Switzerland by interviewing over 20 local designers, brands, archivists, and technology experts. What if we could archive the unarchivable, giving archives the capacity to generate texts and images that are faithful to the creativity, approach, and style of each of the designers we have written about? An archive could then preserve not only real objects and the documents that led to these artefacts, the little stories and details, but also the attitude of the designers, their know-how, and their unique creative faculty.

The dreamer is a storage device that encodes the information and knowledge gathered; it creates a separate scalable artificial intelligence model for each designer. These AI models are not only databases that store dynamic information, but they also have the ability to generate unique images and texts. For this presentation, oio has taken a collaborative artistic approach with AI to envisage the nonexistent: imaginary posters for monographic exhibitions that the museum might host in the future. The result is a reservoir of infinite possibilities, the speculative programme of an Archives du Design Romand department that mudac is calling for. The museum focuses on a designer’s design and production process, from the genesis of his or her research to the final product. These archives document the evolution of projects and create potential narratives around the works in the collection.

Images courtesy of mudac

Images courtesy of mudac

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.

more. www.mudac.ch