Still from Triple Canopy, Dear Future Reader (View Contents of Folder), 2017.
An archivist addresses a reader in the future and explains how to read Triple Canopy and comparable publications, given the potential that the reader inhabits a world that is radically different from our own: decades or centuries ago, screen-based devices may have been replaced by biological computers, the English language (or even writing) may have become obsolete, paper may have been superseded by holograms, and alcohol and song may have been banished.
Dear Future Reader (View Contents of Folder) consists of the following files: Edith-Piaf_La-Vie-en-Rose_1954.mp4; Fales-Office_TC-Collection_2019.mp4; Fales-Library_TC-Collection_2019.mp4; Fales-Library2_TC-Collection_2019.mp4; Grace-Jones_La-Vie-en-Rose_1977.mp4; Library-of-Congress_Why-Digital-Preservation-Is-Important-for-Everyone_2010.mp4; Library-of-Congress_Snow-Byte-and-the-Seven-Formats_2013.mp4.
Dear Future Reader (View Contents of Folder) was commissioned for the exhibition “Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989–2017,” on view at Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna) from November 3 until January 28. The video is directed by Alexander Provan and edited by C. Spencer Yeh, with videography by Jessica Y Lee and acting by Andrew Lampert. Thanks to Marvin J. Taylor and Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.