Unpacking the memories of the UFRJ Computer Museum: about the podcast Memórias.zip

Abstract

In early 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro suspended non-essential classroom activities, including visits to university museum spaces. This necessary suspension also paralyzed the activities under development at the university’s Computer Museum.  In search of a new role for the Museum, so that it would not be forgotten, the team involved in its creation started the development of its virtual environment. In the movement of occupying the Museum through virtual spaces, some actions were defined: the construction of a website to make available data about its collection; the creation of a 3D virtual tour that allows visitors to enter the Museum and explore some of its pieces; the elaboration of stories and curiosities about the objects exhibited in the museum to be published in a podcast. At a time when the graduate program in History of Science and Technology and Epistemology celebrates the centennial of the 1922 Week, this work celebrates the possibility of telling part of the history of Brazilian computing, of this seed called Brazil, in a different way, beyond technical reports. In this paper we register the first steps for the creation of the podcast "Memórias.zip", a task different from writing technical articles. We believe that this article can encourage different forms of memory records for other institutions.