The Industrial Memories Collection is a collection of multimedia documents distributed in CD and DVD format.
• Program Director: Jean-Luc Lory (CNRS)
• Editorial Director: Olivier Pinte
• Scientific Directors: Jean-Pierre Daviet Univeristy of Caen (first compilation), and Denis Varashin, Univerisity of Artois (second compilation)
• Collection Manager: Patrick Fridenson (EHESS)
This collection has been created through an agreement with the Ministry of Culture and Communications, the Rhône-Alpes administrative region, the City of Lyon, the Marius Berliet Foundation, and the EDF Foundation.
The Industrial Memories Collection is comprised of three titles: the first two (“France’s Industrial Legacy,” and “Berliet: The Birth of the French Truck in Lyon”) are both included in a set of two CD-Roms which came out in 2001. This set is acknowledged as having “educational value” by the National Ministry of Education. The third title, “Memories About Electricity,” is on a DVD-Rom. It was published in 2007.
I – France’s Industrial Legacy
Like the architecture of monuments, sculpture and painting, production sites, machines, and manufactured products and articles constitute the tangible traces of Man’s creative journey. They bear witness to our civilization. Thus, their becoming a part of the industrial legacy is the same as deciphering, step by step, the identities forged by the intelligence of discoveries, cultural enrichment, and the transmission of competencies.
II – Berliet: The Birth of the French Truck in Lyon
The automobile was born during the 1870’s and sparked an incredible explosion of experiments, creations, and inventions. In the Rhône-Alpes region, this new type of venture, which gave birth to more than 140 brands, gave rise to a school of automobile manufacturers in Lyon, something that strongly marked the region’s identity, as well as the national and international history of the automobile. The name of one of its pioneers - “Berliet” – has become synonymous with the word “truck” in the collective mindset.
III – Memories About Electricity
The DVD “Memories About Electricity” presents the history and legacy transmitted by electricity. The work pulls on some thirty public and private collections.
Designed for the general public, “Memories About Electricity” takes us on an interactive voyage through both tangible (landscapes, buildings, machines, tools, and also artistic creations) and intangible components (memories and mythologies). It also teaches us about the social, cultural, and human repercussions that the development of this kind of energy has had.
A global innovation, electricity radically changed our societies, our ways of living, and our ways of working. It can be found everywhere today. A culturally constructed object, this legacy, carrier of sensibilities, thoughts and utopias, and a marker of economic growth and social development, has played a role in building specific identities, shaping collective memory, and a culture, which is not limited to only business and techniques.
The DVD has six chapters that combine scientific information and interactive animation:
• Electricity, A Wonderful Science: the history of a science that became an industry.
• An Industry’s Legacy: they initial stages in the formation of France’s electricity heritage.
• Architectural and Artistic Legacy: the diversity of electrical design.
• A Legacy Without Borders: electricity’s organizational and international models.
• Electrical Energy is Also a Social Bond: the male and female community of culture and use of electricity.
• The Art of Living Electrically: electricity and its applications; the foundations of a civilization.
This DVD-Rom includes an interactive glossary and a database of 140 websites that cover France’s electric energy legacy. Its media library has a collection of some 1,480 photographs, recordings, and images. Several original interviews, and almost two hours of video complete this unique work.
