dessalles

As far as I can remember, I’ve made 5 transitions to new computers. For the first couple, the technological leaps involved were so great, and having nothing of substantial value to even consider bringing along, I pretty much just left everything behind and started afresh. But as each generational jump became less dramatic and the amount of digital media I’d produced increased, the decision of what to bring, what to leave behind and what to put in storage became a bit more complex.

Over the weekend, a friend desperately needed a computer after hers suffered a fatal blow, so I dusted off an old laptop and hauled it over. Turning it on for the first time in years, I thought I’d have a look around to see what had been left behind. It felt a lot like digging through the piles of bric-a-brac sitting in my parent’s attic.

I must have spent 2 solid hours rediscovering old school assignments, bad music I recorded in college, good music I listened to in college, random digital junk and potential digital heirlooms. Disappointing, however, was the actual process of digging through all my old stuff. There was no dark attic or musky basement involved. Booting up a really slow computer wasn’t in any way as engaging as opening a dusty trunk or beat-up cardboard box. It was all just the same files and folders we still use today.

What’s more disappointing is that I’d never thought to turn on one of my old computers to navigate “memory drive”, as it were. An old computer has no metaphorical equivalence to a photo album. It never became a container of memories when I replaced it with a newer model; so I never thought to take it out until I had a use for an old computer. And as the price of terabytes continues to fall, it’ll become increasingly economical to just archive and carry everything along with us when moving to a new computer; so it’s unlikely we’ll ever browse old photos and videos using anything but the most current interfaces. Lost is any enjoyment to be had in the archeology of our forgotten media. Re-living memories will be more efficient than ever and marginalized is the actual process of finding them.

So what I’d like is a digital trunk. A mass storage device with it’s own UI that I can dump a selection of old files into every time I buy a new computer. And when I take it out every three years I should have to sift through it’s contents in order to find a space to save what I want stored. And the files shouldn’t just stay in their place - when I “open” one I should have to actually put it back where it belongs or find somewhere else for it to sit. Also, no search. Physically, it should be fairly large. And most importantly, it should be explicitly positioned as a device in which sentimental media is stored for long periods of time. Maybe it should even come pre-loaded with photos of happy families wearing khakis and white shirts - just like photo albums do.

[Above, some posters I found while exploring my old laptop - from my "I think I want to be a graphic designer phase" circa 2003.]