This project begins with a garbage bag containing thirteen videotapes. Not knowing exactly what to do with it, we decided to take it home. Only months later did we come to understand it as a very unique kind of list. We are constantly being bombarded with various kinds of movie lists: must see lists, best soundtracks, worst movies and so on. This particular list however, saw its elements selected only by the medium in which they were recorded. This was a list whose films (and, exceptionally, some other contents) were selected to be thrown away, trashed. By recovering these tapes, and processing them into this project, we are emancipating this obsolete character the tapes carry. By giving the user the option to trash this list once again, we are defining the criteria and exemplifying the consequences. You cannot throw something away without damaging it. Moreover, in the case of this particular medium, the VHS tape, you can’t even use it without damaging it.
Our project consisted of a Flash application and a PDF booklet, both representing a different kind of catalog for this list. These two digital objects, as well as every piece of media obtained from the tapes, still images and animated GIF’s, are stored in a blog.
Blog.
“Form determining content determining form determining content etc. It’s a continues flow, and in the ideal situation, you can’t really distinguish between form and content; they constantly change place.” — Experimental Jetset, About Lost Formats
Flash application
Publication
