Maya Ben David

CumLaude

Department: Social Design

Save As

From Facebook to Flickr, as we reach out
to share what moves us most in an
expanding web of social networks, we risk
drowning in a sea of content. This led
Maya Ben David to create Save As: a
creative, interactive platform to translate
online experience into tangible objects.
How does it work? Anyone can upload
content relating to world events that has
made an impact on them personally.
Designers curate this source cloud of
content, weaving it into a gallery of virtual
objects that can be selected for printing in
3D. In this way, each printed object
becomes a symbolic, physical embodiment
of our ongoing digital narratives. The
objects can outlast the digital lifespan of
the data they represent, becoming
enduring incarnations of our most
important memories.

Putting her system into practice, Ben David searched the internet for content that best defines her feelings about significant recent events, such as the Arab Spring. She selected photos, YouTube movies and twitts as a basis to design a memorial vase. Together, such objects could be exhibited as a collection of
communal ‘figures of memory’; providing a
visual, 3D commentary on global events
as experienced on the internet.