information/storage.refresh combines two of  the most important storage media from the last 50 years: the magnetic audio tape and the World Wide Web.

Magnetic audio tapes have an expiration date, which depends on the used tape material, the possibility to read the tape format and on the environmental conditions of the storage location. Archiving analogue and digital information plays a major role for archives and historians.  The WWW is the most important medium in our information society. The durability of information in the WWW is the lowest of any storage media. Netcraft says,  that in 02/2009 around 215.675.903 websites were online. Accessible information exists in average, only a few days, hours or minutes.

Visitors actuate an interplay of generation and destruction of sound- and video information. – The magnetic tape ages in fast motion by controlling the physical parameters temperature, relative humidity, dust and magnetic interferences. Visitors document the process with snapshots, that are stored in the WWW. - The duration of using the installation determines the life span of the video information.

information/storage.refresh celebrates the interactive dilemma of storing and recovering/refreshing information as a media- and sound installation work.

Fränk Zimmer