Archives

The online archive of the Kunsthalle Bern is accessible here. The cataloguing and conservation of an archive raises countless questions, not least that of digitisation. Since, on the one hand, a complete digitisation from A to Z is enormously time-consuming and costly and is not in proportion to the documents in the Kunsthalle's archive and since, on the other hand, the documents are usually in good condition in terms of conservation and do not need to be digitised for preservation, it was clear that we would digitise a selection. But which selection and who would make the selection? In collaboration with Astrom/Zimmer & Tereszkiewicz, we opted for an unconventional approach and implemented a solution developed especially for the Kunsthalle Bern: The researchers who use the archive make the selection based on their research interests and the digital copies are created together with them through their use of the documents. In this way, research interests and the context of reception can become visible.

In concrete terms, this means that the dossiers are fitted with RFID chips during the cataloguing process. A work table manufactured for the Kunsthalle Bern allows researchers to create digital images of individual documents at the click of a mouse using a mounted camera controlled by a computer interface. Thanks to integrated RFID antennas under the table, the system knows which folder is currently on the table and so the images are automatically linked to their respective physical folders and stored accordingly in the database. Using the computer interface, the researchers add the necessary metadata before digitising the next document.
In this way, they are provided with a tool that allows them to consistently document and easily create reference materials while simultaneously populating the digital archive and gradually opening it up to external users. The online presence of the archive can arouse the interest of other researchers. The emerging narrative threads and content are visible to them and can be linked to other research interests.
Each document is digitised as part of a research project. As the digital archive grows, the documents can be placed in a narrative context as part of a story, with in-built links to other documents in the collection. Threads thus run through the archive, overlapping and revealing connections that would otherwise remain hidden. This tool can be understood as a recording device that records the use of the Kunsthalle Bern archive.

This project is both an experiment and a working tool. We are developing it further in close collaboration with archivists, consultants and guest researchers and with the generous support of Kultur Stadt Bern, Swisslos Kultur Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, UBS Kulturstiftung, Jubiläumsstiftung der Mobiliar, Sophie und Karl Binding Stiftung, Memoriav, Ursula Wirz Stiftung, mmBE Akzent and Gesellschaft zu Mittellöwen.