Promemoria

Heritage Landscapes vol.46

Heritage Landscapes is the Promemoria Group newsletter created to observe the contemporary heritage landscape. Twice a month we share the most interesting news and the most innovative projects, investigating those archival stories that turn an object, a brand or an insight, into a legend.

Between architecture, design, fashion, food, technology. With no limit to our curiosity.

1. The Long View

MTV Rewind
Feeling nostalgic for those afternoons spent in front of MTV? Don’t worry, the channel is still around—and not just in the memories of those who grew up glued to the TV. Despite recent shutdowns in various parts of the world, its history lives on as a piece of cultural heritage through MTV Rewind, a platform that brings the original MTV experience back to the forefront.
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MTV Rewind
Starting symbolically with the very first video aired on August 1, 1981, 'Video Killed the Radio Star,' the platform traverses the shows, genres, and moments that defined an era. It’s not just a dry collection of music videos, but a true digital archive that recaptures the flow, aesthetic, and spirit of MTV exactly as it was originally intended.

With tens of thousands of pieces of content, including music videos and vintage commercials, MTV Rewind proves how a legacy can become a living, accessible experience. Its curated playlists skip the algorithms in favor of journeys tailored by era and style, capable of reawakening a shared memory built on iconic visuals, sounds, and cultural touchstones. It is a powerful example of how archives can continue to resonate in the present day.

2. Augmented Craft

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Explore
AI and State Archives: Where Do We Stand?
In 2025, one of the most significant innovations in the archival world was the introduction of artificial intelligence for the automated transcription of documents held in the 102 State Archives located throughout the country.
The rollout of the Transkribus platform to all state archival institutions and ICAR (the Central Institute for Archives) marks a major milestone in this effort.
This initiative is supported by a training program consisting of 12 thematic sessions for archival leads, along with 30 TB of dedicated storage space designed to facilitate large-scale digitization projects.

3. Seen & Noted

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Dive In
Cadentia Farnese
A video game that blends interactive storytelling and the promotion of cultural heritage: Cadentia Farnese is a project developed by the Italian studio We Are Muesli in collaboration with the French Embassy in Italy. Set in Palazzo Farnese, the home of the embassy in Rome, the game consists of twelve illustrated vignettes spanning over 1,800 years of the building’s history, resulting in a unique visual novel. Cadentia Farnese was created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the residency of the Embassy and the École Française de Rome in the palace, offering a novel way to explore its archives, stories, and imagery.
Credits: MTV Rewind, Direzione Generale Archivi, Cadentia Farnese.
Archivio Magazine
“Often the most important innovations are the ones people talk about the least. The 6502 powered machines that defined a generation: the Apple II, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, and Atari 2600. These computers processed dreams, turning teenagers into programmers and hobbyists into entrepreneurs. “

- Massimo Banzi, Guest Editor of ARCHIVIO N°11

Newsletter

To keep up with our initiatives, discover case studies, innovations, projects, publications and more. For insights into how archives can become competitive tools that can transform the past into an extraordinary resource for the present.

Promemoria Group

Since 2011, Promemoria Group has been a reference in the world of heritage, historical archives and their valorization. We are in charge of recovering, preserving and organizing the history of more than 250 major companies and institutions, but also of telling and enhancing it in all possible ways. Our goal is to transform archival material into a strategic asset that can make a company's heritage a competitive tool.

At Promemoria Group we are humanists with a passion for science, and scientists with a humanistic spirit. Our work combines skills and visions, providing unique and authentic perspectives to archives and new value to history, objects, and knowledge.

We have a unique and patented method for researching, selecting, and organizing a company’s tangible and intangible heritage: Memories. A perfect synthesis of past and future that offers unprecedented strategies and tools capable of producing an archive of meaning, knowledge, content, and experience. The goal of Memories is to bring out a company’s heritage by codifying, classifying, preserving and enhancing knowledge, transforming it into economic and strategic assets.

ARCHIVIO, Archivissima and Legend are the ways in which Promemoria Group enhances heritage, showing the extraordinary content of archives through a contemporary lens. Whether through a magazine that changes editors every four issues, a national festival with a unique format in Europe, or a B2B event that investigates how a brand can cross time and become a legend.