Our M&M analogy of Archives

Last week in class we had to work in a group of 4 or 5 and to define what an archive is. My group used a pictorial analogy to represent an archive in the simplest manner - a jar of M&Ms.

The jar of M&Ms represents an archive. The M&Ms inside represent information that is stored in an archive. An archive houses information, and unless someone needs the information, the jar will be closed and the information (or M&Ms in this case) just sits idly. But when the jar is opened, and when the M&Ms are taken out, the information is further sorted into groups.



M&Ms can be grouped into:

Colors
Green, red, yellow, blue, brown, silver...

Type
Peanuts, Reese's peanut butter, almonds, plain, crispy

Chocolate
Milk, dark chocolate, white chocolate

And that is the simplest representation of an archive. Also with the knowledge that we have, we now know that M&M doesn't produce fruit flavored chocolates, or perhaps even duo-flavored M&Ms! This could be a way to introduce new items or promotions for M&Ms, and it speaks a lot about how a designer should function as well with the help of an archive.

There are many different types of archives, but here are some:

1. Library: Sorts books and other media according to subject and call number
2. Music shop: Sorts music by genre and language
3. Personal computers: I sort my information by subject matter/type
4. Museums: Sorts information by timeline, geography, subject matter...
5. School lockers: Individual lockers for students, students in turn sort their own things inside
6. Digital database: Information sorted by subject, time, file type, location...

However wonderful an archive is it also depends on the shelf-life of the type of medium that it uses. Libraries have existed for a long time, along with their books. However books such as incunabulum are specially kept in conditions that will extend their durability as they were made since the 14th century. Other archives such as digital ones are prone to getting hacked or malfunctioning because of viruses and other problems. Sometimes without the internet, one is unable to access to a database that is put up on an online server. Digital information archived into rewritable discs or drives may become useless eventually due to the constant changing and evolutionary technologies. Even in physical forms, certain inks on paper won't usually last for a long time as the material deteriorates.

Although there are drawbacks to the way we archive, archiving is still necessary to us, as we live in a society that has the backbone of order and organization. Without archiving, we would fall apart as information gets jumbled up, lost or destroyed. Without an archive, there would be no reason for education, knowledge and a functioning society.