User:ThomasW/thesis v1

Thesis underdevelopment, not proofread

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Ink, Photography and Bytes

The earlies humans relaid on spoken history, people shared stories around camp-fires and only the worth while stories stayed in peoples memories, later the one that survived and new stories got written down, in stone, clay, papyrus, paper and now since the 1950s, in digital form.

But since then, the notion is that we are saving more and more of your history, we are somehow persevering a lot, but is current form of information storing new thing in human history? And how does the past influences your current state, can we learn from the past and does its success and failures relate to current practices.

Is digital media like magnetic storage, solid state and the “cloud” any different from papyrus, paper and national libraries? It will be to hard to answer them all in this thesis, but by giving some context, I hope to make you understand more of questions.

Ink

Library Alexandria

The Library of Alexandria is probably the most well know of all libraries but mostly for it burning down. It was the first joint country library, collection mostly Egyptian, Greek and Roman text. A lot of this can be contribute to the local law that stated that all new arrivals had to hand over their writing texts in the possessions so they can be copied. It was as much or even more a political decisions then of idea knowledge sharing.

We have to remember that museums and libraries were closely linked to the nations power structor, so when they were burned to the ground, silence legitimized the catastrophe” (Baez,2008,p2) The collection got larger over time and a lot of this where not located in once place, a lot of the collection where located at the docks of Alexandria, natural close to the ships where most of their collection came from.

“Agothon of Athens, a tragic poet quote by Plato and admired by Socrates , apparently wrote books of an almost irresistible perfection, but today we have nothing but weak fragments” (Baez,2008,p41) As a part of a larger system and power structure, the library where are target for people opposed to the current system that was in charge. It never did burn down once as most people think. It happen over time. In its existence from around the year 145 BC to its last big burning in 642 AD. It suffers multiple burnings. The main theorise of what destroyed it is everyone from the Romans, christian rebels, Earthquakes and economics as founding may have been cut over time. Not so different from today time with budget cuts.

“Nowadays there are no examples of Greek papyri prior to the fourth century BCE. In fact , despite the labor of libraries and the widespread book business of the Hellenistic era, texts on papyrus not recopied or copied onto codisc were lost. (Baez,2008,P88 ) Comparing the Library of Alexandria you can see the connection with days system of “cloud services”, you had you information over the 3rd party, with or without you consent. If its your image collection or your GPS ordinates true a “social app”. The library was a part of the power structor of its day, today day the power structure still governmental but also private corporate systems.

“paper was introduced during the ninth or tenth centuries, and the first paper found there is of the oriental type (called bombykinon or bambakeron). The fact that is was cheap than and other material gradually gave it ascendancy, but its rapid deterioration was a matter of great concern to the monks” (Baez,2008,p95)

Photography

In the late 1800s the invention of microfilm made the storing and sharing of information a much space saving endeavour. It can be traced back to 1839 and John Benjnamin Dancer. Later 67 years later Belgian Paul Otlet used the microfilm as a key part of his archive. Paul Otlet was a 19th century utopian, an inventor and peace activist that wanted to gather all of the world knowledge in one place. His most famous invention was the universal decimal classification system for library’s together with lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau Henri La Fotaine. Paul Otlet was also a huge proponent for microfilm and its capacity of storing information.

As a 19th century version of the floppy disc, it was easy to store, and made that library’s and archive was able to share books with no need for the copies to be shipped around but in stead on roles of microfilm.

Paul Otlet had the idea of the storing his collection at the Mundaneum. The Mundaneum is located in Mons in Belgium where he want to make into a central facility for all of the world knowledge. The Mundaneum moved many times and the content was removed from the building under World War 2 to make room for Hitler approved art. It later got located to a building where it was located too around the 2000s.

QUOTES

Paul Otlet collection was moved around more the once, every-time something got removed or lost. His struggles with the politics of his time, getting locked out of his own building. The conflict of two world wars did not help the collection stay together. Again maintain a hug collection like this needs money and the access to founds to maintain the collection was also a major issue. The collection later got put in an old building in Mons for a period with no supervision after Otlets death. His microfilm collection also will experience vinegar syndrome over time.

“Microfilm was declared the saviour of newspaper preservation, and by 1946 the Bell & Howell Company made the filming of newspapers a major part of its business. But microfilm poses its own preservation problems. Acetate-based film, which was used up until the 1980s, deteriorates when not stored at the proper humidity and temperature, resulting in the loss of information captured on the film. In most cases, the original issues from which the acetate microfilm was made were discarded” (Kathleen, Nora, 2015, p292)

Large archives was moved to microfilm and their original thrown in the trash early in the 1900 century. Now it seems that the decisions was a way to optimistic for a long term solution, as microfilm deteriorates just as normal safety film, they all are subject to the issue of vinegar syndrome.

“The symptoms of vinegar syndrome are a pungent vinegar smell (hence the name), followed eventually by shrinkage, embrittlement, and buckling of the gelatin “ (The National Film Preservation Foundation,2015,Online) relation to current technical standards? 00000

MEMEX

The MEMEX was a concept for information storing and retrieval created by Vannevar Bush. He wanted to create a new from of mechanical information retrieval system, a system that made it possible to retrieve and store every type of information like books, sound. We can look at it as an easily for a multimedia device

The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it. (Bush,1945,Online)

The MEMEX was envisioned right before the microprocessor and was using current day technologies like microfilm, tube electronics and magnetic tape to store its information. It all was put inside a machine in the shape and size of an office desk.

“In one end is the stored material. The matter of bulk is well taken care of by improved microfilm. Only a small part of the interior of the MEMEX is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism. Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely. (Bush,1945,Online)

The MEMEX was never build, but its inspired people like J.C.R Licklider, Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson, Ted Nelson later work in then the new concept of hypermedia on his “Project Xanadu”.

“Consider film of the same thickness as paper, although thinner film will certainly be usable. Even under these conditions there would be a total factor of 10,000 between the bulk of the ordinary record on books, and its microfilm replica. The Encyclopoedia Britannica could be reduced to the volume of a matchbox. A library of a million volumes could be compressed into one end of a desk. If the human race has produced since the invention of movable type a total record, in the form of magazines, newspapers, books, tracts, advertising blurbs, correspondence, having a volume corresponding to a billion books, the whole affair, assembled and compressed, could be lugged off in a moving van. Mere compression, of course, is not enough; one needs not only to make and store a record but also be able to consult it, and this aspect of the matter comes later. Even the modern great library is not generally consulted; it is nibbled at by a few.” (Bush,1945,Online)

Not before post WW2 did the digital technologies take over, the memory storage. The cold war created the grounding for the study s and theory’s of cybernetics to take hold. It was most pushed ahead for people like Vannevar Bush and Nobert Weiner. Weiner defined cybernetics in 1948 as “ the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine” in his book “Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine” The use of microfilm have for all been stopped, but the archive of microfilm still exist and now are the only traces of the original material put on microfilm in there day.

The media of the present influence how we think about the media of the past or, for that matter, those of the future. (Kittler,1999,p xxi)

But even with with having old or outdated formats, we still are need to deal with them.

Bytes

The invention of the microprocessor and its technologies promise what Vannevar Bush. wanted with his MEMEX project. In the beginning the technologies was located to government and prvar institutions like banks, institutions that help supported its creations. Not before the late 1970s and the introduction of the personal computer became digital information something most people had to deal with and had access to. In the beginning formats like the floppy disk and tape casset where used in the home, but hard-drives and magnetic tape was the leader on the business side.

Unlike analog systems, digital technologies essentially convert information of all kinds, including sound and image, to a set of 1s and 0s. Digitized information can be stored efficiently and replicated an unlimited number of times within the circuits of a digital device, reproducing the data with almost perfect accuracy. In a communications context, information that is digitally encoded can be passed from one switch to the next with much less degradation than in analog transmission. (Hafner,1998,p37) Now the main format and system for storing data is hard-drives, solid state memory at are gradually taking over the place of magnetic plater hard-drives, this formats have their own share of problems related to them, but they are all dealing with bits and bytes in one or more way..

Computers, by their nature, copy. Typing this line, the computer has copied the text multiple times in a variety of memory registers. I touch a button to type a letter, this releases a voltage that is then translated into digital value, which is then copied into a memory buffer and sent to another part of the computer, copied again into RAM and sent to the graphics card where it is copied again, and so on. The entire operation of a computer is built around copying data: copying is one of the most essential characteristics of computer science. One of the ontological facts of digital storage is that there is no difference between a computer program, a video, mp3-song, or an e-book. They are all composed of voltage represented by ones and zeros. Therefore they are all subject to the same electronic fact: they exist to be copied and can only ever exist as copies. (Warwick,2014,p 9)

Optical storage Optical storage have existed for a while now, the most well know optical format is the CD-Rom, since the burnable CD-Rom was introduce to the public in 19xx it quickly got its place in the home computer. Its storage size of 650mb was often larger then the current day hard-drives.Other format was the (TO BE ADDED). The laser-disc was experienced as a format for multimedia, most know from the BBC Doomsday project in 19xx. A project that stumbled on technical and economical problems. Its no only still exist because of media archaeology project with (TO BE ADDED)

Floppy

The Floppy disk was invented in 1967 by David L. Noble at IBM, They wanted an easy way to input information to their new System/370 machines. Its a magnetic coated plastic disk inside a plastic cover. The format have existed in numeral versions since it creation, the most successful where the 8, 5 and 3½- inch versions.

It was not before the success of the personal computer systems in the late 80s that most people came to know the floppy disk as a way to store and share information and not just something for major institutions and company’s.

There are libraries, archives and collections out there with floppies. They probably never got funding or time to take the data off – there’s a great chance the floppies are considered plain old acquisition items and objects, like books or a brooch or a duvet cover. They’re not. They’re temporary storage spaces for precious data that has faded beyond retrieval. (Scott,2011,Online)

As a format the floppy disc where able to read and write, its size and portability it served as the choice for most people. Most files where only a few kilo bites to the lasted successful versions to 1,45MB. There was other version that was made, but only

It became a standard format to swap information between people, as the internett still at the time was something for university and government instetutions. Everything for company files to pirated computer games where things easy to swapped between people. The notion of the “sneaker net” was born for file sharing between people on foot.

Offline file sharing was known in the 1990s as ‘Sneakernet’, where someone with data would put it on a floppy disk, and walk it to another computer.(Warwick,2014,p8)

The floppy’s magnetic oxide coatings coating

The charge got a “finate” life time, its highly sensitive to magnetic fields, like speakers or phones. And its portability worked agains it as a lot of bumped around. As magnetic storage.. can be deletd and revoed.. its magnetics got a life time, its information is waiting for it be recover or fade..

relation to current technical standards?

HARD-DRIVE

how was it generated?

how was it stored?

how was it degraded? (apparatus)

“The challenges of maintaining digital archives over long periods of time are as much social and institutional as technological,” reads a 2003 NSF and Library of Congress report. “Even the most ideal technological solutions will require management and support from institutions that in time go through changes in direction, purpose, management, and funding.” (Broussard,2015,online) relation to current technical standards?

CD

The modern plastic cd was invented as a replace meant for vinyl disk, Made as joint venture by Dutch company Philiips and Japanese company SONY. Proposes as a may more durable medium then the vinyl, it quickly found a new are as a storage disc as the cd had the capacity as 650mb when most hard-drives at that time where mer 50-100mb big. But still, its so posed superiority over others are fake.. its folmy as easy scratched. Xxx , one of the dutch engineers at Philips as noyed that the marketing department focus on the durability of the disc, and not the sound quality.

““Cassettes were completely disposable. When CD came along and said this will last you a lifetime, customers really did lap it up. It felt new, it felt shiny, it felt exciting.” (Lynskey,2015,Online)“ how was it generated? The CD was created as a join partnership between dutch Philip and Japanese company Sony in the 1980, It was to be a project to invent a better and small audio format then the vinyl disc. The CD is two layers of plastic and on layer of foil in between.

how was it stored?

““My biggest bugbear about this industry is that they all think short-term,” says Webster. “Nobody ever thinks long-term. All these executives were sitting there being paid huge bonuses on increased profits and they didn’t care. I don’t think anyone saw it coming. I remember the production guy at Virgin saying, ‘In a few years, you’re going to be able to carry all the music you want around on something the size of a credit card.’ And we all laughed. Don’t be ridiculous! How can you do that?” (Lynskey,,2015,online)“

how was it degraded? (apparatus) The optical discs system are all subject to the same issues, the scratch easily, break and effect by temperature and oxygen. Old CDs will often turn yellow is colour, this is beosue of the layers between the plastic and metal layers is separating.

“Digital media, through the memory at its core, was supposed to solve, if not dissolve, archival problems such as degrading celluloid or scratched vinyl, not create archival problems of its own. The limited lifespan of CDs will no doubt shock those who disposed of their vinyl in favor of digitally remastered classics, that is, if they still use CDs or an operating system that can read them. Old computer files face the same problem. (Wendy,2015,p153-154)“

Its not only wonerbul from weather and use, but also a cenrtal type of mushroom have a negative impact on the CD.

“In 1999 it was discovered that certain mushrooms of the Geoterichum variety (used in cheese making) can damage compact disks” (Baez,2008p261 )“

relation to current technical standards?

““We should not put emphasis on the fact it will last for ever because it will not last for ever,” he says. “We should put emphasis on the quality of sound and ease of handling.” (Paul McCartney recently recalled the first time George Martin showed him a CD. “George said, ‘This will change the world.’ He told us it was indestructible, you can’t smash it. Look! And – whack – it broke in half.” (Lynskey,e,2015,online)“

relation to current technical standards?

Solid State Memory

usb, ssd how was it generated?

how was it stored?

how was it degraded? (apparatus)

Summary

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Biography

National Film Preservation Foundation (2015) Vinegar Syndrome, [Online] Available: http://www.filmpreservation.org/preservation-basics/vinegar-syndrome (06.022015)

Hafner, Katie (1998) Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet, New York, Simon & Schuster

Licklider wrote, “is that in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled . . . tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today.” Page22

Baez, Fernando (2008) A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern-day Iraq, Atlas & Co

Lynskey, Lorian (2015) How the compact disc lost its shine, The Guardian.com [Online] Available: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/28/how-the-compact-disc-lost-its-shine?CMP=fb_gu/ (01.06.2015)

Ludovico, Alessandro (2013) Post Digital Print, Onomatopee

Van Dijck, José (2007) Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, United States of America, Stanford University Press

"Memory is no longer what we remember it to be, but then, memory probably never quite was how we remembered it and way never be what it is now. The present is the only prism we have to look thought to assess memory's past and future, and it is important we look through this contemporary prism from all the possible angels to appreciate memory's complexity and beauty. page 182

The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory Author(s): By Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Autumn 2008), pp. 148-171 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/595632 . Accessed: 22/09/2015 09:06

Crucially, memory is an active process, not static. A memory must be held in order to keep it from moving or fading. Memory does not equal storage. p164

"The very nature of digital [history] is that it's both inherently easy to save and inherently easy to utterly destroy forever." (Orland,2015,Online)

“The challenges of maintaining digital archives over long periods of time are as much social and institutional as technological,” reads a 2003 NSF and Library of Congress report. “Even the most ideal technological solutions will require management and support from institutions that in time go through changes in direction, purpose, management, and funding.” (Broussard,2015,online) http://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:ThomasW/Notes_The_Irony_of_Writing_Online_About_Digital_Preservation

http://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:ThomasW/Notes_ButStorageisCheap