"In my exploration of digital art, I have come to value not just stories and culture, but the preservation of the data that defines our shared history. As technology accelerates there is an emphasis on permanence and record keeping - older technologies may hold lessons that can shape our ideas of permanence."
Dandelion SSTV vinyl record, physical media, recorded November 2024. Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of audio tones. These signals can be decoded into visual images when the output from the record player is processed by a device/computer configured for SSTV (Slow Scan Television) using the Scottie DX mode. The original images (pre-encoding), with their corresponding audio tones, are also permanently minted to Arweave for decentralized preservation.
Dandelion SSTV is a story that begins with a study in preservation - taxidermy, memory, and a lost world. Examining what survives and what fades. Questioning permanence in an era where both data and material culture are at risk of vanishing. Encoding images into sound waves, transmitting them through open frequencies, and reconstructing them on the other side is a form of resurrection. Without a receiver, the preserved image stays dormant - Dandelion imagines a world where people accept technology without realizing the cost of its existence.
This project begins with digital paintings paired with their SSTV generated audio tones (each holding the encrypted visual data as a method of preservation). Each piece serving as a fragment or seed to the greater story.
8/11 tones of Chapter One are pressed onto one master vinyl record for analog longevity, 11/11 tones of Chapter One are stored on Arweave for blockchain-based/network permanence. This dual approach hopes to safeguard against digital obsolescence and physical decay.
Arweave promises indefinite data access. Through Manifold, these audio-encoded artworks are minted (to the master file contract $SSTV), ensuring their survival in a future where today’s tools may become obsolete.
Dandelion SSTV highlights the differences between digital and analog signal transmission, how each medium and user affects the integrity and preservation of encoded data - experimenting with the SSTV app’s signal correction tools we reveal the fragility of data and story.
Like the dandelion dispersing seeds, the original form shifts as it travels, leaving behind both recognizable traces and unexpected mutations/generations. In the future, when technologies have shifted, you will become part of Dandelion's process and story - choosing whether to refer to the original minted image or reveal its altered audio wave decoded state.
To transmit is to trust in the wind.
PROCESS: https://xs4sotiqt6uomy6a3f7cerj5sl3clxf34gyskakipj5v4n6utg2q.arweave.net/vLknTRCfqOZjwNl-IkU9kvYl3LvhsSUBSHp7XjfUmbU
INSTRUCTIONS: https://lo573djyansr6aymdk3qtnkbphwkdreiurbdgzhlsraaj342jzkq.arweave.net/W7v9jTgDZR8DDBq3CbVBeeyhxIikQjNk65RABO-aTlU
