Join us for this exhibition late and panel discussion, part of Digital Ghosts exhibition programme.
Step into the forgotten corners of the internet with an exhibition that transforms real web archive data into playful, thought-provoking artworks. From vanished websites to fading digital traces, this exhibition invites you to reflect on what’s preserved, what’s lost, and what that reveals about our identities and values.
As the lines blur between online and offline life, the exhibition asks: who decides what’s worth remembering, and how does that shape our shared story?
During the Exhibition Late, the team behind the project will host a panel discussion on Scotland’s digital footprints. We’ll explore how web archives are created, what gets included or left out, and why those choices matter, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the politics of web preservation.
This event is partially funded by the ESRC Festival of Social Science, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Academy with support from the Institute for Design Informatics and Inspace.
This event is part of the Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 6 – 15 November 2025. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.
Event details
Speakers:
Andrea Kocsis – Chancellor’s Fellow in Humanities Informatics
Dorsey Kaufmann – Data visualisation designer, artist, and researcher
Graeme Hawley – Head of Published Collections, National Library of Scotland
Eilidh MacGlone – Web archivist, National Library of Scotland
Date: Thurs 6 Nov 2025
Time: 18:00-20:00 | Free/Ticketed
Location: Inspace, 1 Crichton St, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
Audience: General public (under 18’s must be accompanied by an adult)
This event has limited capacity and so registration is preferred. Participants with tickets are guaranteed entry.
Venue Access features: Accessible toilets, Assistance dogs welcome, Baby changing facilities, Seating, Step-free access, Wheelchair accessible
If you have any enquiries about the events and the venue, please contact us at designinformatics@ed.ac.uk .
Please note this workshop will be photographed, and may be used for future marketing, promotional or archive purposes. If you would prefer not to be photographed, please let us know at the event.
Speakers
Dr Andrea Kocsis is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Humanities Informatics, specialising in digital cultural heritage. Her recent research explores how web archives can be made more accessible, usable, and engaging through user-centred design and creative practice and how they can be repositories of collective memory. To explore this topic, she has held the National Librarian’s Research Fellowship in Digital Scholarship at the National Library of Scotland (2024–25) and the Archives of Tomorrow Methods Fellowship at Cambridge University Library/Cambridge Digital Humanities (2022–23), and is the lead investigator on the BA/Leverhulme Small Grant project Digital Ghosts – Exploring Scotland’s Heritage on the Web (2025–26), that serves as the basis for the exhibition.
Dorsey Kaufmann is a data visualisation designer, artist, and researcher who creates interactive data interfaces and participatory art installations. Employing digital design, data visualisation, code, sculpture, video, and technology; her work embodies the intimate and personal aspects of data collection and use – concerning people’s health, homes, local environment, and body politics. Her research further examines the use of visualisation as a creative medium to increase data literacy and shape human cognition, attitudes and behaviour in relation to the natural environment (see Nature article).
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