Digital Mini-Archives: Social Media Users as Curators of an Architectural Utopia

Abstract

This paper explores the importance and meaning of a new concept of architectural archives – digital mini-archives in the form of social media profiles (Instagram profiles), whether they are public or private. The paper's interpretation of digital architectural archives is based on Jacques Derrida's interpretation of archives. The aim is to analyze the relationship between archivists and users in the context of social media platforms, and the structure and content of digital mini-archives. I tried to select examples of different Instagram profiles whose content (photos, videos, and quotes) relates to architectural history and architectural design presented in an innovative manner. The hypothesis emphasizes a curating role of social media users as interpreters of architectural history references and their (new) meanings, as well as curators of the future of architecture. Also, the concept of architectural utopia concerns Nathaniel Coleman's theory of utopia in architecture and its contemporary interpretations. There is a strong bond between architectural utopia and digital mini-archives which enable architecture's utopian potential because of their flexibility, openness to change, and transformability. Thus, experimental projects with utopian potential are created based on digital mini-archives. However, do these digital mini-archives contribute by deciding which (part of) architectural history ought to be forgotten or remembered in collective memory and translated to another temporal context through experimental architectural design?