Re-Source -
A Living Archive
Website + BookThe online platform RE-source.info is a living archive. It archives the designerly research performed by the designers, categorizes it and breaks it down. You can navigate the growing collection of designs, interventions, reflections and conversations through the use of labels.
RE-source.info is dived into two worlds, a practice oriented part (Practice and Design) and a more theoretical part (Theory & Reflection). On the one side, a collection of moments from the design process is taking shape, visualizations, blogs and video’s. On the other side a theoretical reflection on the project is taking shape. By positioning these worlds next to eachother, theory and practice, they feed into each other; the abstract and the particular. The collections of related moments from the practice side, selections based on overlapping labels, are juxtaposed by theoretical reflections on the left side underneath the heading ‘Artikelen’. The amount of overlapping labels determines the order. RE-source.info inspires and invokes further reflection as unanticipated and unexpected connections show themselves. The platform helps make the multiformity of the design process insightful and experiential.
By selecting your own labels, you can build collections and groupings, making RE-source.info into a research tool. The complexity of the RE-source project is made workable by offering the possibility of selecting and navigating based on type of residual flow and name of the designer. As well as an archival, communicative and research function, the online platform offers possibilities for education.
In June 2019, RE-Source was awarded with a Dutch Design Award in the category Design Research. A few lines from the jury report: “Extensive, high-quality research that has resulted in a layered website, on which a wide variety of design language, moving image, material and experts are skilfully interwoven. RE-source is exactly right and succeeds in approaching a complicated theme with a pleasant playfulness. The project has a richness that does justice to the complexity of the topic, from accessible projects to academic applications.”
After winning the award, the website was complemented with a book and an exhibition at the Dutch Design Week 2019. The book showcases a selected number of practices from the website, as well as theory and reflection, and has its own analog way of navigating by labels.