Noise Management in the Archival Ecosystem Debating Principles for Classification*

Abstract

Incalculable amounts of data are collected at every second, in real time, by a huge number of sensors placed everywhere. Most of this data is stored and classified in different kinds of archives and databases. Despite the apparently objective nature of this information gathering, the task of archiving is a process of communication that involves both a distance between the source of knowledge and the knower and a long-term relationship with uncertainty: A message is extracted from an information source and is kept as a signal for a future, unknown recipient. Inevitably, many sources of “noise” surround archival procedures. Beyond noises generated by the importation and collection of data, there is another important source of archival noise: Misunderstanding. Translation is an essential and transversal procedure of the archival process. Data may come from uncontrolled sources, provoking a lack of formal coherence within the different stages of abstraction——categories, files, code——in which it is compiled