ABSTRACT
This paper introduces two ongoing research projects based at the Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture (ID+), pertaining to the preservation of specialised knowledge on the brink of disappearance:
Anti-Amnesia focuses on the recovery and documentation of human, social, and material narratives surrounding four dissipating traditional industrial contexts in Portugal;
Wisdom Transfer establishes a groundwork for acknowledging, communicating, and activating the contributions to knowledge, culture, and society made by retired Portuguese art and design academics.
Both approaches are human-centric, relying on ethnography to gather the essence of the respective realms — foremost from the point of view of the original masters and makers — to arrive at a position from where it is possible to duly appraise the involved historical and cultural legacies. The convergence of learnings forms the basis for substantiating the forming of a European-level consortium of academic institutions dedicated to legitimizing empirical and practice-led knowledge in design and media research.
