How do we conceptualize digital materiality?

Python scripts documenting digital preservation through decomposition. Framing digital objects as computational amalgamations works to question the status of artifacts and their renderings as a representation of corruption emerges by removing vector data from letterforms. Through this loss of data, legibility and perceptions begins to shift.

Intentional decay becomes an act of represenation, documenting the process of loss rather than the stable object. The resulting forms become records of their own loss. This project emerged from Drawbot expirements during Cooper Union's 2024 Summer Sessions Workshop and was revisited for print documentation following a course on digital curation (in-progress).

documentation of intitial program output

An installation on the reproduction of cultural materials.

Photographs, paintings, and poetry courtesy of Zintis: The Quarterly American–Latvian Magazine for Art, Literature, and Science (1960–1965) were digitized and preloaded as data in a Processing sketch. Interaction with a bespoke controller enabled editing over predetermined parameters. Input channels corresponded to specific variables within the creative environment determining grid size, text layout, and layering of images.

sculpture development with Enes Eldes

demonstration of input controller with Betsy Odom

Users collaborate in the reproduction of cultural artifacts through direct, physical engagement with archived content by subverting conventional design tools. Compositions were automatically saved and later printed. This capstone project was completed under guidance from D. Josh Cook at Loyola University Chicago.

installation output of collaged paintings and poetry