On productive archiving as a discursive graphic design approach

Boxes, inventory cards, labels, acid-free tubes and file folders. This is the material infrastructure of our shared memory. In it lies the abundant traces of events, opinions, ideas, experiences and expressions. Once stored in archives, these traces are protected from fading from our collective memory. While preserving the past, the archives operate as mnemonic devices that are laying the foundation for understanding our contemporary reality and determining how the future looks back at the present. Yet forecasting what will be significant for the future does not rely on preservation alone, but also depends on a degree of activation. Deciding what ought to be remembered—and who is involved in making those decisions — namely, reflects deeply embedded power structures. Thus, for archives to function as shared institutions, common to this society and the next, the institutions need to take on the role of a forum in facilitating debates and questions. What do the mnemonic devices contain, and what are the selection methods or criteria? What, who, and whose perspectives are included and what is left out? And, what is more, what happens with documents and traces once stored in the archives? How can such traces form an active component of our collective memory?

This is where the graphic design comes in. In focusing on communication rather than preservation, design is inextricably linked to discursive events. While announcing and disseminating information, it is involved in how things are seen, spread and understood, hence, rememsbered or dismissed. Even more so, archives themselves are often heavily populated by designed mediums including pamphlets, posters, publications and other (digital) ephemera—resulting in an intimate relationship between archives and design.[1] This entanglement can be put to use in rethinking how archival materials can take an active part in our collective memory. Shaping the discursive assets—the means to mediate and facilitate debate—is namely par excellence the domain of graphic design. So, how can graphic design activate archival collections and indicate its social relevance? What constitutes a discursive design approach that enables raising questions and critical examination of the public role of archives as mnemonic devices? 

Mnemonic mechanisms: a closer look at archives
Prior to examining the role of graphic design in activating archival matters, let us crystalise the concept of the archive. In contrast to a collection—which can exist without an orderly structure—the archive is a system of preserving a set of documents and can be defined by a triptych of traits; an organizational structure, an institutional affiliation, and a determination or specific intention.[2] This threefold definition borrows from the philosopher Paul Ricœurs, who reminded us of the pedagogical purpose of archives.[3] Originating from the Latin docere (to teach), the documents that are contained and structured by the archive are the traces from which we educate ourselves and derive historical narratives.

Essentially, archives contain documents and traces but not clarifications or explanations. That is to say, they are not centred on meaning, but on the traces from which meanings are derived. What seems like a nuance is in fact crucial to understanding the archive and made clear by Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, who define the archive beyond the physical institute.[4] In approaching archives as a system that structures our knowledge and memory, they come to represent discursive formations: the networks of language and ideas. “Between the obsessive memory of tradition, which knows only what has been said,” as Agamben writes, “and the exaggerated thoughtlessness of oblivion, which cares only for what was never said, the archive is the unsaid or sayable inscribed in everything said by virtue of being enunciated.”[5] That is to say, the archive is a testimony of what remains unsaid, yet is possible to say. Both the ‘unspoken’ and ‘sayable’ are enclosed in all that is articulated, and hence, stored in the archives. Situated between the material traces of our past and the meanings derived thereof, archives structure our knowledge and function as mechanisms of memory (mneme) contra forgetfulness (anamnesis).

Archival activation: discursive by design
In this interplay between matter and meaning—traces and narratives—design plays a pivotal role. Seen as visual communication, graphic design serves to extent language and shapes the utterances of discursive events. While enabling the visual distribution of language and ideas, graphic design likewise represents our collective memory in a public domain. In addition, by merits of its organisational capacities, graphic design may aid in negating the abundance that archives have to offer.[6] It is precisely in the publishing and revelation of archival documents that graphic design holds the potential to contribute to the activation of our collective memory and, consequently, to question and challenge it.

Rather than passively recording information, design intervenes in the organization, aesthetic framing, and dissemination of archival materials; thereby generating new meanings and interpretations. Graphic design can therefore be understood as a form of productive archiving—not merely a vehicle for visual communication, but an active agent in shaping how collective memories are constructed, accessed, and (re)imagined. This capacity makes design inherently socio-political as it amplifies suppressed histories, questions dominant ideologies, or brings overlooked narratives back into public discourse. As such, it plays a crucial role in the activation of memory, enabling the archive to serve not only as a record of the past but as a platform for imagining alternative futures.

However, on an counter position, working with archival material also brings up questions of authenticity and authorship. Every archival document has its own origin, community, situation, and context. Reusing such matters may come with concerns of appropriation and challenge notions of integrity. Especially in a digital environment, documents become ‘virtual ready-mades’ and undermine ownership and authorship, as Hal Foster points out.[7] However, as Foster insists, archives are not end points. If we can understand archives as systematic mechanisms of traces, we can also see that archives are not finite but instead a plethora of open ends: a range of opportunities and evidence which are only made sense of by examining, revealing, and representing them. Therewith, it is exactly by working with archival material, and republishing its traces, that we can partake in activating and questioning our shared memories.

Productive archiving: a graphic design intervention
Seen as an array of open ends—the unspoken yet sayable that provides the foundation for our collective memory—it becomes essential to draw connections and make sense of archival documents. In essence, there is no legitimate authority that controls our perception of social reality or history, and that is precisely why we have a shared responsibility of preserving our collective memory. The absence of such authorities becomes clear when observing how forces seek to undermine, manipulate, distort, or erase fragments of our memories—often with propagandistic and political intent. Jacques Derrida conceptualises these threats as archiviolithic forces.[8] Such manipulation of our collective memory—frequently relying on historical fabrication and falsified realities—not only challenges the integrity of memory but also threatens the democratic and pluralistic foundations upon which collective memory rests. Contrasting archiviolithic forces—the weaponisation of memory as a propagandistic apparatus—relies on active revelation and representation of our collective memories in the ongoing struggle over meaning. This shows the relevance of representational practices as graphic design, as much as a code of conduct that acknowledges the archive’s role in shaping shared futures.

As noted earlier, archives are not only repositories of the past but shape how we understand the present and how we imagine the future to be. They are not only reflective but also formative. Besides preservation concerns, archiving can thus be seen as a constructive practice too. In considering the archive as a dynamic and creative space of power and protest, productive archiving pursues the establishing of connections between archival traces to distribute collective memories and develop new narratives. Archiving becomes productive, according to Ernst van Alphen, when it explores creative and constructive solutions to the inherent problems of selection and organization, and when it fosters new connections and interpretations of the past.[9] While focusing on questioning and staging discourse, it enables forgotten histories to unveil or to amplify marginalized voices. By actively embracing curatorial processes of selecting, organization and interpreting archival matters, productive archiving bypasses the presumed neutrality in challenging dominant histories.

Due to the social responsibilities of archives, and consequently in working with archival documents, it becomes relevant to set guidelines directing responsible practices of productive archiving. Archiving, namely, inevitably comes with selection procedures of in- and exclusion. In addition, we may recall how questions of authorship and appropriation arise from working with archival ready-mades. In order to circumvent such challenges, we need to think of values that guide respectful use of archival material. Therefore, I suggest to consider how working with the traces of our collective memory contributes to a degree of accessibility, integrity, supplementary value, and dignity. 

First, activating the traces and mnemonic devices as collective memories requires a degree of accessibility. Safeguarding the relics of our past is not enough. In order to make sense of our past, and subsequentially our contemporaneity, these traces need to be able to reach out to people and ignite debate. In addition, for archives to function as public institutes, access to its collections needs to be guaranteed. However, as a physical entities archives are inevitably rooted in a time and place. By publishing archival documents, graphic design and productive archiving alike can overcome such barriers and trespass beyond the institutional frontiers. Second, when working with existing material — which too comes with a social and temporal origin — taking the original context and intention into account is crucial for the respectful reuse of archival materials. Second, all archival ready-mades come with their own social and temporal origin. Thus, taking its original context and intention into account is crucial for the respectful reuse of archival materials. Integrity, therefore, is pivotal in circumventing appropriation. In practical terms, graphic design may consider a degree of integrity by clarifying or citing the context of the ready-mades. Third, productive archiving can only function as speculative or constructive when it considers a supplementary value. That is to say, the representation and reproduction ought to take into account how it contributes to adding an auxiliary construct of meaning. Productive archiving is not about representation and reuse, but concerned with implementing archival documents to add value, construct new meanings, or challenge existing hegemonies. Lastly, when representing archival material and its social origins, design should take measures to maintain or add a degree of dignity. Underpinning integrity and its supplementary value, dignity emphasises the respectful representation of people and their social conditions in the public domain.[10]

Conclusion
In an age of contested memory and manipulated narratives, archives are no longer neutral repositories but active terrains of political and cultural struggle. Graphic design, as a practice entangled with the presentation and circulation of information, plays a pivotal role in shaping how archives are perceived and understood. Design moves beyond preservation concerns and partakes in activating the social urgency of archives. While embracing the social agency of matter to distribute and dissect our collective memories, productive archiving seeks to open the institute to function as a forum. By centralising accessibility, integrity, supplementary value, and dignity, it provides a method to respectfully use archival traces as discursive testimonies. As a result, designers can contribute to activating archival documents, through reproduction and representation, in order to question the mnemonic devices and to present pluralistic and engaging collective memories.

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Kylièn Sarino Bergh (1994) is a researcher and practitioner in the field of graphic design and design culture. He is fellow of the Wim Crouwel Institute in Amsterdam, lecturer Media Art Design and Architecture at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and teaches cultural theory at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Together with Richard Niessen, co-fellow of the Wim Crouwel Institute, he teaches a master program about graphic design history at the University of Amsterdam and moderated the panel talk It’s All Graphic: Between Archives and Urgency.

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This essay expands on the the panel discussion It’s All Graphic: Between Archives and Urgency. This event was organised by the Wim Crouwel Institute on the 10^th of September 2025 and hosted by Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam.

[1] See how graphic design artifacts make up for a large part of the collections of historical institutes including the International Institute of Social History (IISH) or Atria, the knowledge institute for emancipation and women's history.

[2] Paul Ricœur, Time and Narrative. Volume 3, translated by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 116.

[3] Ibid., 117.

[4] Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge (New York: Vintage Books, 2010),126-31.; Giorgio Agamben, “The Archive and Testimony,” in Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (New York: Zone Books, 1999), 137-72.

[5] Agamben, “The Archive and Testimony,” 144.

[6] Framing graphic design as practice negating abundance borrows from artist and author Renée Green who describes the negation as a canceling-out effect. See Renée Green, “Survival: Ruminations on Archival Lacunae,” in Documents of Contemporary Art: The Archive, ed. Charles Merewether (London: Whitechapel Gallery; Cambridge: The MIT Press), 49-55.

[7] Hal Foster, “An Archival Impulse.” October 110 (2004): 3–22.

[8] Jacques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 11.

[9] Ernst van Alphen, Productive Archiving: Artistic Strategies, Future Memories, and Fluid Identities (Amsterdam: Valiz, 2023), 10-29.

[10] The notion of dignity and its importance for the representation of people in the public domain borrows from Judith Butler who in Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015) argues for the right to appear in the public domain. This is brought in relation to graphic design in the conference paper “Disillusionment in Dark Times: Cultivating Compassionate Communication Design Through an Arendtian Lexicon” presented at the Designa International Conference on Design Research in 2024.