[AI Summary]: Shannon Mattern shares her experience as the Design Indexer in residence at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum library in September 2025. Through a performance-lecture featuring curated collection items, she explores the index as a bibliographic form, media format, creative genre, semiotic category, and body part (the index finger). The presentation traces indexes from medieval manuscripts to digital search engines, examining various types including architectural indexes, the WPA’s Index of American Design, color and pattern indexes, material sample books, interactive books with volvelles and pop-ups, and the cultural significance of the pointing finger (manicule) in manuscripts and typography. Mattern connects these historical forms to contemporary issues around AI, information labor, and the need for accountability and attribution in our digital age.
- Author: Shannon Mattern
- Date: September 11, 2025
- Institution: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Type: Blog post/presentation transcript