The Netherlands – In our digital epoch, reliance on cloud systems to store data is ever-growing. Modem’s Heirloom Hardware presents a tangible real-life alternative to preserve and pass down memories locked in a timepiece.
Cloud platforms brought us cost-effective and convenient data storage, to the point that many users turn into ‘data hoarders’ archiving pictures, emails and screenshots beyond measure. Modem lifted the idea that behind this convenience lies a paradox – while our lives are more documented than our ancestors', whether the data will outlive us is not certain.
As a response, Modem teamed up with industrial designers HB-AS to develop Heirloom Hardware. This range of real-life storage devices secures each user’s personal memories in the form of photos, videos and documents they can pass on to future generations. Heirloom Hardware offers a tangible alternative to transient cloud services, coding in the data in objects such as a pendant or canister.
In our macrotrend, The Paralysis Paradox, we highlighted how businesses will begin safeguarding futures, ensuring that legacies can be rediscovered, re-learned and re-explored. We expect initiatives to preserve legacy, such as Modem’s Heirloom Hardware, to multiply in the upcoming years.
Strategic opportunity
At a time when we digitalise many aspects of our lives, take cues from Modem and audit the long-run legacy of your work – how are you safeguarding your archives? Are you servicing analogue enthusiasts?