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DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7970999
Emilia Marra
Center for Advanced Studies, University of Rijeka
emiliamarra91@gmail.com
Archive impressions. Thoughts on archiving devices, from Wunderbuch to data-base
Abstract: The article contributes to the philosophical studies on the notion of archive. The ambiguity that characterises the archive, which can be understood as a technical tool, a physical place or the practice of archiving, allows for an investigation into the relationship between technogenesis and hominisation. Through the concept of grammatisation, it is possible to retrace three ‘philosophical’ stages in the development of the technical tool of archiving. If the transition from the Wunderbuch, praised by Freud, to the database cracks, as Bernard Stiegler proposes, the noetic faculties of the individual, a reflection around the externalised content reveals a corresponding fragility of the documentary object. What ultimately becomes the object of the archive, i.e. the document, transitions from individual and private memory to collective and social memory, thus losing its historical legitimacy and assuming at the same time the contours of a potentially creative practice.
Keywords: Archive; Stiegler; Derrida; Wunderbuch; Database.