Artist Conjures Paintings Out of Floppy Disks / (Feb 09)
Artists frequently turn to technology for inspiration or commentary, utilizing components such as chips, ink cartridges and disk drives to make their art. Remember the Mona Lisa created from motherboard bits or the motorcycle from old hard drives?
Now, London artist Nick Gentry has turned forgotten floppy disk drives into art by using them as a canvas for mixed media paintings.
“The whole world was totally reliant on these physical media formats,” he says. “Now suddenly we are at a time where they are obsolete, replaced by countless intangible data files. Will humans be compatible with our own technology?”
Inspired by Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz’s giant world map made entirely of old computer parts, Gentry adopted floppy disks as his medium.
“I looked at using the disks in a grid to create photo-fits, constructing imaginary faces and identities that could draw connections to the personal information stored on the disks,” he says.
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