Art + science = 1-0 for humanity

Over the past two years, PhD candidate in Media Studies Marije Miedema and theater maker Mees van en Bergh have joined forces. The result is the theatrical audio installation "Future of the Past," a project about how people want to be remembered digitally.

_{Text: Lieke van den Krommenacker / Photos: Reyer Boxem}

With a little imagination, you could say: art and science are on a pillow, with datasets and strict frameworks sleeping between them. In other words, a successful marriage between the two isn't a given. Marije Miedema and Mees van den Bergh know all about that. "Art and science often have such different starting points. What you see in science is that many things are often predetermined; certain buzzwords or requirements that your research must meet," says Miedema. Van den Bergh adds: "For both the artist and the researcher, it requires a completely new way of working to create an artistic end product from data and research."

They pulled it off, the PhD candidate in Media Studies and the founder of the Frisian theater collective PLOECH EN EIDE. For almost two years, Miedema and Van den Bergh worked on "Future of the Past," a theatrical audio installation that is both part of Miedema's doctoral research on digital heritage and a standalone artwork. The installation, created for the 100-day cultural event Arcadia in Leeuwarden, consists of six short, individually audible monologues, narrated by voice actors. Each monologue is accompanied by an object significant to the story, such as a saucer, cookie, or toy car. And each story revolves, at its core, around the traces people leave in their lives.

Digital Legacy

The starting point for the collaboration is Miedema's PhD research, which examines the social, material, and infrastructural conditions necessary for shaping and preserving our personal digital legacy. In this rapidly changing digital landscape, what do we want to preserve, and what not? And at what ecological cost?

In their joint project, Miedema and Van den Bergh focused on how we want to be remembered. Miedema: "I was approached by Arcadia and asked if I wanted to participate in the 2025 program. We then started looking for a place where I could collect relevant data for my research. This had to be a place where people from different walks of life could come together. And preferably, especially people who are not often asked to share their stories."

24 interviews

Miedema found the De Klomp Network Center in Leeuwarden, a community center where residents and volunteers can find accessible activities and support with everyday matters. For six months, Miedema visited De Klomp about once or twice a week. She drank coffee, chatted, and prepared the (free) hot lunches. This contact led to 24 interviews with the same number of loyal visitors. She asked them questions like: What brought you to De Klomp? Do you have a phone or an iPad? Have you ever lost anything digitally? Which files do you delete? Do you have backups? But also: Do ​​you own things that you always take with you? What do you think will remain of you when you're gone?

Everyday Objects

onnected" to Miedema by Arcadia, who then started working with the findings. That is, with the anonymized data, to protect the privacy of the participants. I don't know who said what, or the names of the interviewees. This way, I could also create something that not only translates Marije's research, but also stands on its own. That's important to me as a creator. I wanted to create something new that still resonates with De Klomp's sense of community.

To make this a success, Van den Bergh organized two more "work sessions" with ten Klomp visitors: gatherings where participants engaged in conversation using random, everyday objects. "These served as conversation starters and also provided input for Marije's research," says Van den Bergh. "Everyone was asked to choose an object and explain their choice. The idea behind it was that I could then abstract certain elements. I didn't want to create something that could be deduced directly: look, this is about De Klomp and these are the people who walk around there. As an artist and creator, it's about transcending the hyper-individual, to tell a more universal story, one that is simultaneously recognizable to the individual participants."

Values

What people do and don't want to keep, Miedema emphasizes, isn't so much about the objects themselves, but rather about the values ​​they represent. "For example, during a workshop, one of the participants chose a bubble blower as her object. She thought, 'That would be fun for my grandchildren.' But as the conversation progressed, it became increasingly about what the bubble blower represented for her: that you can temporarily create something beautiful with it, which then bursts again. In a sense, the bubble blower symbolized how she wanted to be remembered: as someone who experienced things breaking so easily, but above all, who brought a sense of celebration to life."

The anecdote brings Miedema to a key element in her research. "I try to investigate how what we want to keep relates to what we actually keep." What turns out? The values ​​or qualities we hope people remember don't always translate into all the cat videos or selfies on our phones. "I find that interesting."

Comforting

In addition to the workshops and interviews, Miedema spoke with experts in the field of archiving and digital legacy. Think of archivists, notaries, and funeral directors. "What I've learned so far is that much of what we preserve is about the same events or important people. War diaries, for example, which are incredibly interesting and important from an educational perspective. But imagine living an average life and keeping a digital diary in Microsoft OneNote. And in five years, Microsoft says: we're shutting it down. Then there's nothing left."

Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, argue Miedema and Van den Bergh. "But there's a risk that you'll hear the same kinds of stories from the same group of people over and over again," says Miedema. "That's why I'm so glad we collected stories from De Klomp. People who are rarely asked for their opinions come there." They say: nothing of mine will be included in the archives, and I think that's a real shame.' The fact that these people's stories have been given a platform thanks to their collaboration makes the project very comforting, says Van den Bergh. "It's not about the individual, but about something that often quickly fades away in our digitalized world with its algorithms and economic interests: humanity."

• Future of the Past – and Beyond?

Future of the Past was listened to over 11,000 times this summer at the Oldehoofsterkerkhof in Leeuwarden. The next opportunity to visit the installation will be during the two-day conference "From Yesterday, for Tomorrow," on November 27th and 28th at the H'ART Museum in Amsterdam. Suitable locations for a follow-up tour in 2026/2027 are also being explored.