Department of Digital Destruction
Maya Barter
Postgraduate Diploma 2024/25
E: barter.maya@gmail.com
IG: @mayabarter
| Loss comes in many forms. So much of today’s reality exists in the digital realm that the edges between the real world and the digital world become blurred. Digital loss has endless potential for physical impact. The Department of Digital Destruction is a fictional department that documents real cases of the ways in which digital loss can affect the human psyche. The digital realm is fickle, due to its ephemeral, and intangible nature. Regardless of this, a loss of intangible files is still very much a loss, and the impact of loss can be disastrous. A loss is a loss. The digital holds: memories, socially and culturally significant artefacts, echoes of the past and the future. The digital holds traces of communities and customs, music and voices no longer present in the physical world. The digital realm stores manifestations of things no longer present in reality. What happens when these digital traces disappear too? This project explores the human experiences of what it means to lose digital files. The loss of the digital intangible, leads to tangible consequences in the physical world. |