An archive is a site of collective memory, a collection of documents and records that is preserved for historical purposes.

But the stability and permanence of the traditional archive has been reconfigured by digital archives, which are “living,” flexible and virtual repositories. How has this change in archiving practice affected our relationship to the past, present and future? Will the erased, forgotten and neglected be redeemed, and new memories be allowed? Will these new archives offer the democracy implied by the idea of the public domain, or will they offer new ways for public instruments of power to operate? Lost and Living (in) Archives: Collectively Shaping New Memories, part of Valiz’s new Making Public series investigating the notion of “the public,” explores this critical question of the archive at a moment of its redefinition.