Martin Kunze is a ceramic artist and founder of MOM (Memory of Mankind), an archive of ‘bottom up’ history. The MOM project aims to ‘’preserve today’s stories in order to pass on our present to give the future a past. A gift both to our grandchildren and to a civilisation far beyond the digital age.’’ The archive is stored on ceramic tablets in the oldest salt mine in the world in a mountain in Hallstatt, Austria.

 

The project is open for anyone to participate. In return you receive your own MOM token:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tokens depict the exact location of MOM in Hallstatt, Austria. The token is designed so that a particular knowledge is required to decipher it, meaning only advanced future civilisations will be able to discover MOM. Every 50 years, starting in 2070, all holders of the tokens will gather and determine whether the content of the archive is still known and if it needs extension.

 

Martin first spoke with me in Feb 2018, but audio technicalities cut our conversation short. He kindly offered to speak to me again a couple of weeks later. During our discussion we talked about the MOM project, its location, the method for storing the knowledge, what knowledge is stored there, the possible future recipients of the knowledge and their required evolutionary attributes, the future of MOM, and Martins’ personal reasons for creating the project.

 

This is an abridged version of our full conversation, a number of other subjects were also discussed that feature in the film.

 

Please also note that unfortunately the video quality becomes a little poor at times.