Peter Maybury

“Unarchiving
They say that books last longer than buildings. Others say that the more this digital era advances the more it seems we need things on paper.
Unarchiving the material for this book is an exercise in digital archeology. Surprisingly some of the work to which I feel most attached hasn’t survive migration from hard disk to floppy disk to Syquest, to Zip or Jaz drive, to CD-R, DVD and back to hard drive. Only the paper remains. Even with more recent material, the vagueries of plug-ins and operating systems add to the effort. I can see why Steve Albini still records to analogue master tapes.*
While digital material might be contemporary, its longevity is not assured. As multiple copies are uploaded in ever higher definition the digital archive as a permanent record resembles more and more Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel. It must contain all useful information, but mostly it is gibberish.
While there is a compulsion to record and catalogue, it is perhaps not so much the need to preserve as the desire to adjust that is so consuming. Relating experience to make it manageable, or acceptable. Once a problem has been resolved it ceases to exist for the next one to motivate us. Perpetual preparation.”