SITUATION #22

Fifteen years ago, the Dutch design studio Experimental Jetset was invited by the American typography magazine Emigre to design a special edition on the “End of Print”. In response, Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers und Danny van den Dungen inverted the – then and still now – impending end of print technology to create an homage to disappearances, assembling over 60 different silhouettes of electronic data storage formats, from the floppy disk to the Viewmaster reel, the audiotape, and the punch card. In their introductory statement they wrote: “There once was a time when every format contained its own specific data, while nowadays the CD-rom format is capable of containing all data.” They concluded that one day even this storage medium would disappear to make way for the “mythical non-format.” For SITUATIONS, Experimental Jetset continued the inspiring reflections on their Lost Formats Preservation Society and took a look both back and ahead. What is lost and what is gained by this medial transformation? And could new digital spaces potentially develop a physical form of their own and thus lead to a new concept of materiality?

From 3 October through 29 November 2017, the dynamic installation grew and changed on a daily basis. To round off the cluster, Experimental Jetset (Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen) spoke about their project in an artist talk on Sunday, 29 November 2015 at 11.30 a.m.

More by Experimental Jetset: experimentaljetset.nl

More about Lost Formats Preservation Society: experimentaljetset.nl/archive/lostformats, lostformats.tumblr.com