Exploring British Design: developing research competencies by connecting archive content

This project will transform the exploration of Britain's design history by connecting design-related content in different archives. A collaboration between researchers, information professionals, technologists, curators and historians, the aim is to build a portal that gives researchers the freedom to explore the depth of detail held in British design archives. Produced as part of an investigation into researcher behaviours, and co-designed with researchers, the project will be underpinned by technical integrity and data quality aligned to user needs and requirements. Its functionality and design will bring about a step change in the understanding of archival research and in design research possibilities in digital environments. More than a tool to access material online, it is an enquiry into 'ways of thinking with digital processes.' (Drucker 2013: 7)

This project will break down barriers between information professionals, curators and researchers. The ever increasing complexity of the Web and digital content demands a clearer cross-sector recognition of different perspectives. Researchers need to understand what is possible with structured metadata in order to improve their own research capacity and to provide informed input into digital developments. This project proposes a move away from a model where curators and information professionals provide services, and researchers consume them, to a co-design model where researchers have a greater stake in digital humanities infrastructure.

Archival collections provide us with a means to understand the particularities and complexities of design's history. This project argues that these unique collections need to be viewed and interpreted within the rich context that informs their understanding and interpretation. Archive collections are multi-level resources, reflecting complex relationships. Descriptions of archives are therefore hierarchical in order to reflect the way each archive is assembled. Traditional routes through descriptions descend from the collection-level down through series to individual items, be they documents, photographs, plans or drawings. This practice comes from the principle that researchers take a pre-defined route through content but this project will create a more dynamic navigation, across collections at different levels rather than the traditional top down approach. To enable this, we will build context and connections through the creation of rich authority descriptions that are designed to work with the Web and which adopt recently-agreed international standards. These descriptions are about much more than unambiguous identification; they are essentially about relationships and connections; they can provide a means to connect individuals and organisations together through establishing specific relationships and documenting key events. Connected to other key access points such as companies, exhibitions, design disciplines, objects, and materials, the Virtual International Authority File is a mechanism to connect sources across the world.

The project will present new research potential for design historical scholarship by conjoining data from disparate archive sources nationally and internationally, and secondly, it will provoke better understanding of archival data when encoded and arranged in digital environments as a key, yet overlooked, skill in digital humanities research practice. It will expose and debate the relationship between the original artefact and its digital surrogate, and the construction of the information architecture in which it sits. At the same time it will be a means for archivists to understand more about the research experience, and how approaches to cataloguing might change in order to to meet the needs of researchers and take advantage of new developments within the World Wide Web.

History of design research at Brighton has pioneered new methods of analysis and practices of interpretation to transform understandings of how design is produced, marketed and consumed. It has changed the ways in which international organisations representing the design professions regard and value their history, and it has shaped the study and public appreciation of the history of design worldwide. As such, it is the ideal base for a collaborative Digital Transformation Amplification project that seeks to devise new ways to explore Britain's design history.

1. Museum and Archive visitors/citizen scholars
Visitors to museum and archive websites will, via links to the Exploring British Design portal, discover new ways to engage with and understand Britain's design history. They will also experience and learn about archival structures and the way design history if represented in digital environments.

2. Public and private sector information managers including archivists, museum collections managers, librarians, and technical innovators.
Archivists and information professionals will have a toolkit to consult when considering the adoption themselves of the recently-agreed international standard for authority files.
The project will contribute to the critical mass of authority files accessible to archival and information professions worldwide.
The project process will be documented on the 'For Archivists' section of the Archives Hub website.

3. Designers - sense of their past and professional identity
The design profession will, through access to the portal, have the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of the profession's past and its contribution to national cultural and economic life, all elements that can inform their own identity formation and future value. The project will be promoted through professional organisations and through industry publications (Design Week) and membership networks (CSD/Icograda etc).

4. Public Institutions - Royal Society of Arts, museums, art schools, universities.
The portal will support and bolster the UK's heritage profile by revealing the riches of UK HE resources and those in other repositories.
The Design Museum will benefit from a mechanism to enrich the visitor experience beyond the actual objects or items on display by revealing a wealth of additional contextual material.
Museum curators will have a new means to conduct research for collection documentation and exhibitions.

5. European and Global communities
The project will reveal socially relevant knowledge and contribute to design literacy (EU report), and so potentially EU citizens widely. A significant number of designers to be represented emigrated from various European countries and so their biographies establish direct connections to places, people and institutions in Europe.
5% of authority files will pertain to designers born or educated in Britain who are represented in the RMIT Design Archive, Melbourne with the intention of paving the way for further global reach and impact.

6. Project participants
All researcher participants in the workshops will gain an understanding of cross-sector working, co-design processes, and the potential of digital technologies. They will gain an understanding of transferable research skills that will inform their own research endeavours and their employability.