Featuring: AC Larsen, Amy J Wilson, Chaney Manshu Diao, Christina Cushing, Clark Keatley, I. Nakhla, Isabelle Peas, Jingyi Yu, Li Yu, Maggie Menghan Chen, Wenxuan Chen and Yiyang Lu.
DUMP presents The Archive of Forgotten Forms, an exhibition that investigates the archive not as a static repository of the past but as a dynamic and speculative construct—a site where meaning is contin- uously reframed across temporal and conceptual boundaries. The exhibition brings together the launch of DUMP Doom Simulator, a video game set in a speculative future landscape, with artworks by seven artists exploring the creation and interpretation of artefacts across various contexts. Whether personal, collective, historical, or technological, these works interrogate the fragility of material memory, the role of technology in reimagining preservation, and the evolving cultural narratives that emerge from shifting contexts.
Alongside the artworks by seven participating artists, DUMP Doom Simulator integrates 46 digital assets scanned from artworks held in. These works represent pieces that artists in London could no longer save due to storage and the pressures of the cost of living crisis. Set in a speculative future — a desolate world devoid of observable life — players navigate a landscape that blurs the lines between prehistory and post-apocalypse. In this imagined planet, the ruins of these artworks are scattered, awaiting recovery by the players.DUMP Doom Simulator examines the archive as a construct shaped by acts of preservation, recovery, and reinterpretation. The project reflects on the shifting value of cultural artefacts where material records have been eroded, framing preservation as a dynamic rather than static process. By addressing the ecological concerns of art production and the environmental cost of archival practices, the work critiques the art world’s entanglement with systems of excess and scarcity. Amplified by its open-source format, the game democratises access to these materials and reimagines ownership as collective and participatory. In doing so, it transforms the archive into a site of ongoing interaction, re-engagement, and critical reflection.
This exhibition also marks the culmination of the 3D Preservation Space, a platform developed by DUMP to explore the potential of 3D digitization and open-source technologies as tools for preserving material works in a resource-conscious and sustainable manner. Supported by Arts Council England (ACE), the 3D Preservation Space challenges traditional notions of the archive, proposing it as an evolving construct that bridges material and digital practices while addressing the urgency of contemporary cultural preservation.
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