How can museums create the basis for a future understanding of the impacts of digital technologies on society in times of digital transformation? Based on the example of two collection objects at the Technisches Museum Wien – an automated teller machine and a mobile device for cashless payment – we examine how digital infrastructures are dealt with, their everyday use and how much we (have to) trust them.
Project title: The codebreakers. Digital infrastructures in everyday lifeFunders: Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) and Vienna Business Agency
Call for funding: Digital Humanism Roadmaps 2022
Partners: aBITpreservation, Institute of Information Systems Engineering of TU Wien, Payment Services Austria and Salzburger Banken Software
Project period: 02.01.2023 to 30.09.2023
Amount of funding: EUR 40,000
The focus is placed on people-centred use and assessment. The goal is to develop a transdisciplinary set of methods that enables us not only to publicly document contemporary user experiences, but also to come up with new technical methods to maintain the functionality of (historical) software for the purpose of authentic interpretation. Only then can we meet the requirements of digital humanism in keeping with the call for funding.
As part of an open-ended think tank with (former) users and international experts, we develop possible strategies. The results of the discussion will be included in the collection strategy of the Technisches Museum Wien’s software collection established in 2021.
