What lessons for the future, can we learn from our relationship with an obsolete bit of tech? Aleks seeks out the last people selling, and experimenting with, floppy disks.
They were ubiquitous - taped onto magazines covers, bursting out of overstuffed office cabinet drawers, used to hold everything from secret family recipes, to photo albums, to legal documents, operating systems; anything you could cram on 1.4mb of storage was contained on floppy disks.
After a 40 year career as the go to storage method of, even gateway to, the digital world, they were declared effectively obsolete. But are they?
Aleks discovers some of the last people to be trading in, and experimenting with, floppy disks. She finds out which industries still depend on them, how artists are repurposing them, and how they birthed a new niche genre of music - despite never having been a means for storing or creating music in their heyday.
Why is it only when a technology falls into obscurity that we test its boundaries, and how can floppy disks guide us in our relationship with technology in a future world of unbridled, unlimited, data.
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Tom Persky
He tells us about where in the world floppy disks are still in use, how artists are clambering to get their hands on this obsolete tech, and how we cast the disks aside so quickly, illuminates what it means to live in a plastic society, where things are built for upgrade an obsolescence.
Nick Gentry
He shows us around his studio in London, explains how his floppy disk art can become a touchstone between humans and our machines, and explains how by examining this obsolete bit of kit, we can learn more about our relationship with technology, and potentially change it for the better as the digital world develops at lightning speed.
Michael Ridge
Michael Ridge is an artist than incorporated elements of sound, video, sculpture, installation, performance and collage into his work. He draws inspiration from a variety sources and objects including cassette tapes, phonographic records, field recordings, noise and utilising non-musical materials/objects in sound production. His approach is playful, experimental and collaborative – taking an approach akin to the methodology employed by Fluxus and Dada artists.
He shares his floppy disk sound experiments with us - some of which cannot even be uploaed onto contemporary music platforms - and explains how floppy disks became a source of inspiration for musicians, even though in their heyday they were never a musical medium.
Broadcast
- Mon 5 Jun 2023 16:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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The Digital Human
Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world
