A Digital Ode To Decay | 2024
Audio-visual experience
04:20
personal project
"A digital ode to decay" explores physical and digital decay. I view decay as a transformative process that accelerates reincarnation rather than a mere gradual loss of information. The project is created with the intention of respecting and learning from non-human intelligence, including fungi, plants, and animals. Furthermore, it also aims to embrace the normally undesirable aspects of technology.
Decay of organic matter occurs through the action of bacteria and fungi, leading to rot. Fermentation is rot's cultured twin which produces chemical changes in organic substances through the action of domestic mold. It is a collaboration between humans and microbes. A taste of milk shared by humans and bacteria led to the creation of cheese. Some domestic molds knit the beans into tempeh.
In this delicious collaboration, food gets preserved longer and also allows the birth of something new.
︎Snippets I
Nowadays, we attempt to preserve things by making 3D-scan replicas.
Creating 3D replicas through digitalization brings an unwelcome result - digital decay. Digital decay arises from the error of computational operations, but the way I choose to see it is through a different lens.
One could refer to cheese as “delicious food” or “expired milk.” Along this way of thinking, could decay be interpreted as a transformation process that accelerates reincarnation rather than simply gradually losing information?
Within this rupture, a canvas for creation is born. As old confinements dissolve, new possibilities emerge.
︎Snippets II
︎Full Video