This flash piece is part of an investigation into digital and physical degradation. Digital data doesn’t typically erode or degrade with repeated viewings or copying the way analog data does. This version was an investigation into possible digital methods of degradation.

View the accompanying print piece about erosion.

Since digital data doesn’t degrade in the same way as physical data, I had to come up with ways of degrading the data. This piece uses Flash and records where a viewer clicks. It then erodes the pixels in that location in much the same way as the Vatican statue’s foot has been eroded by visitors’ touching of St. Peter’s foot. The foot has become unrecognizable over time.

View the original Flash piece here. (at this point, it’s unrecognizable as a foot)

Visitors to the Vatican regularly touch the foot of this statue and, as a result, the foot has become worn down over time.