Tangible Media: A Historical Collection of Information Storage Technology (opens in new tab)

In 2001, while rooting around in the back of a desk drawer, I found a computer tape cassette from the late 1980s. I knew what it contained: an archive of computer-generated images from grad school, the product of late nights and weekends in the computer lab. The tape drive that could read it was long gone. I held the data representing those images literally in my hand, but it was locked away in metal and plastic. I became obsessed with the idea of media that, unlike books or paintings, held i...