The Tech Issue
ARCHIVIO opens its third editorial cycle: four thematic issues, each curated by a Guest Editor with deep expertise, offering access to worlds where past, present, and future converge.
The third issue, ARCHIVIO N°11, focuses on technology and is curated by Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, together with Cecilia Botta, technology historian and Head of Memories at Promemoria Group, the magazine’s publisher. Daniela Hamaui oversees editorial direction, while Alessandro Gori shapes the art direction.
The cover, designed by artist Ailadi, pays tribute to the early aesthetics of the digital age. Created using PETSCII, the character set of Commodore 8-bit computers, it evokes the visual language of technology in its formative years.
ARCHIVIO N°11 maps the international landscape of technology archives, tracing the roots of the digital revolution and exploring the places where our technological past is preserved, along with the collectors and institutions that recognized its cultural value.
The issue is structured in three sections — Stories, Institutions, Collectors & Collectives — and includes a special poster: an (in)complete mapping of Italy’s technology archives, researched by Promemoria Group and visually interpreted by Accurat.
Massimo Banzi,“Often the most important innovations are the ones people talk about the least. The 6502 powered machines that defined a generation: these computers processed dreams, turning teenagers into programmers and hobbyists into entrepreneurs.”
Guest Editor
Glimpse of the Month
Browsing the Future
An Archive of the History of Computer Graphics
A conversation between Pietro Grandi and Cecilia Botta
CB (Cecilia Botta) How would you describe your collection to someone who is not familiar with it? What is it all about, what lies at the heart of it, and what years does it cover?
PG (Pietro Grandi) My collection consists entirely of print materials, particularly magazines and books that specialize in the field of interest. It spans the 1930s to the 1990s. The history of computer graphics is the common thread weaving through all those years. Of course, in the 1930s, the technology did not yet exist, so the itinerary begins with traditional animation. It takes us through the evolution of computers, the birth of digital graphics, and the beginning of the Information Age.
