Preserved in Plastic
Archives help preserve the past. Modern archives are dependent on technology. What happens when the technology used to store the past becomes obsolete? Will this information be lost forever at the next update?
Author: David Mizzi
D
o you remember that old school project
today. Most current recorded formats depend on
you had saved on a floppy disk? Using
some kind of playback equipment (floppy disks require
something like a floppy disk to store
floppy drives; SD cards require appropriate readers).
information is great, but only if you have
These tend to become obsolete very quickly. We
a floppy disk reader. Finding one today is
cannot assume that future generations will have the
a tall order; that school project could be lost to time. Future generations will be able to see our culture only
imperishability of plastic into a time capsule. The ingenuity
hard drives will eventually go the way of the dodo (or
of her research is bringing an art object, such as an
floppy, in this case), resulting in a digital dark age.
image, into the physical space. Enter the plastic slides. These 3D-printed reliefs fit in the palm of your hand
can become corrupted, degraded by bit rot, or obsolete.
and depict the recorded artwork when held up to the
Future generations may find it difficult or impossible to
light. Through 3D printing, these slides effectively
retrieve electronic documents and multimedia because
create mechanical reproductions of digital artworks and,
they don’t have the technology to retrieve it any more.
as a happy side effect, produce a physical archive.
But what if there were a way to permanently
While materials such as magnetic tape already exist
preserve works of art, without the risk of
and are able to record and reproduce a wide range of
technology making them obsolete?
formats, they need equipment to recover. As Julia puts
PRESERVED IN PLASTIC
it, ‘assuming the sun stays in the sky, the plastic slides
Julia Galea, an MA graduate from the department of
FOCUS
Galea's research has found a way to turn the
if they have the right technological tools. Our ‘modern’
Digital isn’t as permanent as we think. Digital formats
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means to process and understand our archives.
should always be capable of reproducing the image.’ Plastic’s long lifespan has led to widespread
Digital Arts at the University of Malta, has an idea to
environmental degradation, but it’s that same
‘future-proof’ an artwork with the technology available
property that Galea uses. Plastic slides are practically
