DATA RECOVERY

One of the haunting aspects of digital technology refers to the unknown durability of the equipment used. What will happen to the memory accumulated in DVDs and hard drives? Analogue film has a physical presence that enables its direct visualization, but for an archive in graphic format it is necessary to be decoded. We can make backup copies, but the doubts regarding images of immaterial nature persist. Diego Collado aggravates the issue by insisting that there is no place for nostalgia, all of these memories will be lost, but marvellous transformations will be made in the process. Data Recovery (2010-2014) retrieves erased images from memory cards and, using a digital first aid software, partially recovers the images, and completes the unrecoverable part following the criteria of the software. The software generates designs, textures and colours, which confer a surreal continuity to the section of the image that was recovered. The quintessence of the project is the metaphor of what occurs with the neurological mechanisms of our memory, which in time leave gaps that need to be completed. in other words, Data Recovery creates an image of a kind of amnesia. It also speaks to us in poetic code, in a universe saturated by imagery, of the images that fade and are lost. - Joan Fontcuberta