Painting made from recycled computer floppy disks Artist Taylor Smith turns outdated computer system floppy disks into large-scale picture paintings made up of these recycled storage gadgets. Hand-assembled into the canvas, numerous these products end up being the base for screen-printed and painted pictures of figures, from Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn to David Bowie and Abraham Lincoln. The outcome sits in between mosaic, pop art, and archives utilizing recycled computer system floppy disks.
In each artwork, the faces and bodies are from a grid of floppies, each one a different color, every one bring its own printed label. If viewers look closely, they can (almost) check out the labels on the recycled computer system floppies: Supreme, 911, MacBooks, Adobe Photoshop, Kodak, TDK, Microsoft, and more. A screen-printed paint layers straight over the physical disks, including a burst of color to the already vibrant massive portrait paintings.
all images thanks to Taylor Smith( Abstract Modern )still legible labels on the magnetic storage devices Artist Taylor Smith’s practice provides a renewed ending for these obsolete things. By sourcing salvaged disks and making them into permanent art work, she removes them from the waste stream. Each painting locks hundreds of recycled computer floppies, but this time, their lives might last far longer than the information they when carried and trash can they were as soon as in. And the labels on each disk, still understandable, still bring the names of old software and handwritten notes, enter into the art work’s significance. The artist calls it a collaboration between herself and the original owners of the information whose digital lives now form the texture of art work hanging on walls.
The present generation may not understand, however the 3.5-inch floppy was presented by Sony in 1981 and became the worldwide standard for storing and sharing digital files through the 1980s and 1990s. The outer shell is stiff plastic made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, the exact same household of plastic utilized in LEGO bricks. Inside, a thin circular disc covered in magnetic iron oxide particles shops information by magnetizing areas in patterns that a computer can check out. By the early 2000s, they were outdated, but that plastic shell, that magnetic coating, that little metal shutter couldn’t enter into basic recycling. The majority of centers will not take them, and expert e-waste processing is needed to safely separate the products, so most floppy disks have simply been thrown into landfill, where the plastic shell takes centuries to break down, and the iron oxide covering can leach into soil with time. Taylor Smith takes them back, and under her artisanship, the recycled computer system floppies, as it turns out, have more files left to store.
Marilyn Monroe v2.1: oil, enamel, screen print and hand used 24 karat gold leaf halo on recycled computer system floppy disks, mounted on a custom-built cradled pane Queen Elizabeth II v2.2: oil and enamel hand painted with silk screen on recycled computer floppies and installed on a custom-built nestled panel Abraham Lincoln v2.0 (blue): oil, enamel and screen print, installed on a custom-made cradled panel Holly Golightly v2.2, Audrey Hepburn pop art: oil, enamel, screen print and hand applied 24 karat gold leaf on recycled computer system floppy disks, mounted on a customized nestled panel Butch & Sundance v2.0: oil and enamel hand-painted with silk screen, mounted on
a customized cradled panel