Johannes Goebel | Expiry date for digital bits

Family photos, scientific data, art videos, text, poems, financial data, documentation, websites and archives – We are happy to believe that everything that is digital or digitalised can be set aside perfectly for the future, as it is saved in a “universal code”. That it can be copied at will without loss as, well, a bit is a bit. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Leaving aside the continual and accelerated change of hardware and software, just the physical durability of a bit is far more limited than we want to accept.

Video Documentary:

ZKM | Institute for Visual Media

Camera: Sarah Binder, Peter Müller
Editing: Francisco Aurell