Fading Into the Digital Ether

So, think about this for a minute. What would we know about ancient Greek, Roman, Aztec or Chinese civilizations if none of their artworks had survived to the present day? What would we know about Picasso or Matisse if they had only worked in chalk on the sidewalks of Paris, washed clean after the next rain? For that mattter, can we be sure that there weren’t artists of that stature who did exactly that? How many masterworks have disappeared, and names of the artists who created them, without a trace, just because they chose to work in ephemeral media? These are not just academic questions. Paradoxically, even though this may be the most documented age in human history, archaeologists a thousand, maybe even fifty, years from now may find themselves staring at a complete and utter blank when looking back at this era. Will all our cultural output simply disappear? These questions have been bothering our old friend, Jon Ippolito, from the University of Maine. So much so, that he, together with Richard Reinhart, has written a book about it. Jon Ippolito joined the Buzz on October 27 by phone from Mexico City.