Het Nieuwe Instituut’s archive is an extensive collection of objects, drawings, and documentation related to the history of architecture in the Netherlands. Packed in boxes and sorted on shelves, the objects offer us a glimpse behind the scenes of architecture and the evolution of the Dutch urban landscape. Hidden in all these boxes lies a world of ideas: about forms, materials, people, and the environment, a world of possibilities, successes, and failures. A world that doesn’t reveal itself just like that. For anyone familiar with the structure of this archive, it is a well-organized database of shelves and volumes. For the layperson, it is an endless series of boxes.
The link between the boxes and the information they contain comes in the form of a digital file. You enter a search term into the computer and the program directs you to the right box. That’s assuming that you know what you’re looking for. For anyone with no knowledge whatsoever of architectural history, there’s not much the computer can do to help you.
Data Volume Explorer is a proposal for a spatial, interactive search machine for anyone who doesn’t know what they’re looking for. The installation allows the user to play with the archive. Instead of boxes in endless rows of archive cabinets, the boxes can be arranged in endless configurations: chronologically, by architect, by format, or by materials used. A gigantic construction of boxes with drawings, or a seemingly never-ending landscape of boxes full of architectural models.
The space in which this experiment takes place is a virtual one. With virtual reality glasses, the visitor can step out of the physical environment and enter the virtual archive. To make the transition clear, the installation takes the form of a small space built from real archive boxes. As soon as you put the glasses on, you see a virtual version of the same space.
Enter a search term and the space transforms into a new environment based on a new configuration. You search using a (virtual) keyboard. As soon as you type a letter, a list appears with possible search terms. By combining search terms, you can filter the results, from the very broad to the very specific. The result could be a landscape of boxes with pencil drawings that reaches as far as the eye can see, or that one box full of sketches of Rotterdam’s Blaaktoren (The Pencil). If you linger at a certain box, it can be opened, revealing its contents in the image. If you look away, you return to the spatial environment. The starting point for the installation is the discovery of the archive, ranging from very broad and almost random to very specific. You can sort very specifically, so that the box next to you is full of drawings by the same architectural office, in the same city, or models made of the same material.