Permanent Data

Permanent Data is a single, 12 km-long fiber-optic cable on which the entire Gutenberg Bible has been printed. Added to this text from the 1450s are thousands of contemporary YouTube comments found beneath videos on topics such as bit rot, data loss, and (failed) backups.

The Gutenberg Bible was one of the first mass-produced printed books in Europe. Printed by Johannes Gutenberg on his wooden printing press, it marked the start of the ‘Gutenberg Revolution’ and revolutionized the way information was accessed, shared, and used. Today, 500 years later, only forty-nine physical copies have (partly) survived. The introduction of YouTube created a similar revolution in terms of sharing, accessing, and commenting on online information.

In Permanent Data, both textual sources are connected through the question of how information survives: what of our digital and online information will be accessible in 500 years? Physical paper is considered a long-lasting medium—if stored correctly. Digital storage, through cloud systems and hard drives, is seen as future-proof, but at the same time, it is extremely volatile due to bit rot: the tendency for digital information to degrade or become unusable over time.

A fiber-optic cable is usually just a piece of infrastructure for transmitting data. However, the physical cable itself might very well outlast the data it transmits. Permanent Data therefore becomes an artefact that combines the ephemeral nature of digital data with the durability of physical information—and perhaps offers a solution for preventing a digital dark age: by printing data on the cable.