Part 3. Possible Execution

Below are a few rough ideas of possible execution which is still in the very first stage, one idea will be chosen and proceed to develop the execution idea further:

Idea 1 This idea is based on one of the challenges of digital preservation which is changes in technology. Rapidly changing technologies can hinder digital preservation technique due to outdated and antiquated machines or technology. For example, digital storage media is highly machined dependent. It needs an appropriate hardware or software to access the information. The installation will be using one of the old digital media storage which is floppy disk. More than 40 floppy disks will be placed at the installation with a specific digital message storing in it. The message is to tell the users to send an email to the artist to prove that they are able to access the digital data in it. Due to technology advance, there are hardly any people who own a floppy disk reader anymore. I can make an assumption that, there will be less than 5 users who able to access the message in it. This installation is to point out that technology changes could affect the digital preservation techniques as the retrieval and playback technology are often neglected.

Idea 2 This execution idea is based on the challenge of increasing scale of digital content. It would require a lot of procedures in order to handle the huge quantities of data generated which in return becoming a significant challenge. This installation consists of a photo booth for user to capture their face. The photo of their face will be transferring into a generative art. The generative art consist of all the faces that are being captured and appear in a specific algorithm. However, there will be a limit of the faces to store in the generative art, once the limit exceed. Random faces will be replaced by the latest faces captured. Which in return, the users will able to see their faces disappear in the generative art. This is to express that the increasing scale of digital content will results in challenge to digital preservation.

Idea 3 This execution idea is about expressing all different difficulties of digital preservation in a visual metaphor way. Different challenges will have different kind of generative art. For example, rapid change in technology will have a fractal spinning in a very fast pace. Each generative art will be stored inside a pendrive. User has to plug in the pendrive and view the generative art through the monitor. This installation is to let the user understand about the challenges of digital preservation through visual (generative art) rather than just text or verbal.

Idea 4 This execution idea is based on the concept of fragility of digital media storage. Digital data store in digital media storage are often get corrupted easily. In order to make sure it can be access for as long as necessary; the digital material has to be keep “refreshing”. The installation will have around 6-8 usb ports to allow user to plug in the pendrive. Each pendrive consist a certain part of a digital content. The user has to arrange the pendrive in the correct sequence in order to view the complete digital content. This is to show that how fragile is digital content being stored in a digital media storage and the digital content in it get corrupted easily.

Idea 5 This execution idea is also based on pendrive (digital media storage). It is also showing how insecure is the digital media storage as the data will get corrupted easily. The user has to plug in the pendrive to the installation; the installation will read the data. Each time the pendrive plug in, there will be a display showing the number of times pendrive being plug in. Users will have to plug in and out the pendrive, and see how many times it takes for the installation to fail to access the data. Once the data is fail to access, the installation will show the number of time of the pendrive being used before the digital content in it gets corrupted.

Idea 6 This execution idea is to show that digital objects will be lost easily and need to be preserve. There will be around 5 monitors at the installation. The monitors will be arranged in a line from left to right. All the monitors will be displaying the same generative art, as the monitor moving to the right, the generative art algorithm get affected and thus affect the generative art pattern. The generative art is a metaphor of digital object, the algorithm data in it is getting lost as the metaphor of digital object getting corrupted. The changes of generative art on the monitor is a metaphor for digital object fail to preserve in its original state.

Idea 7 This execution idea will be expressing all the challenges of digital preservation based on my research. A generative art will be created based on an algorithm. The algorithm is the data or equation of those challenges. The generative art is a symbol of digital object and the algorithm in it is the challenge of digital preservation itself. User will be able to play with the algorithm data through the buttons and thus it will affect how the generative art looks like. This means that the user is actually controlling the “challenges” and affecting the “digital object” which is being “preserved”.