Piles of Files: The Infinite Archive
Tomorrow I will give a short talk and participate in a panel in Berlin (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) around the theme: Piles of Files: The Infinite Archive. Following the program, “digitalization holds many promises: extensive accessibility, reactivation of dusty recordings and infinite storage options. The emerging platform technologies pose new challenges for institutional archives and collections. At the same time, however, the transition from collected objects to stored files also entails the random accumulation of masses of data and recycled audio culture, in principal retrievable anytime from streams and clouds. In future, the ascendance of past cultural- and knowledge production compared to those of today will become overwhelmingly large. But who listens to all of these MP3s?” I guess that I will both stress the way in which digital archiving of media assets has been radically altered during the last decade, but also pick up on some the experiences learned after working with Spotify for a number of years.