Replicative Fading - An Exploration Of The Beauty Of Information Decay

replicativefadingthumb.jpgHave you ever wondered what happens if you scan a printed document, then scan and print the copy, then scan and print the copy, again and again, over and over?

This video explores the effect of just such an experiment.

About The Video

The orignal document was just an assortment of open-rights images that I picked for their different colours, tones and gradients.

I printed it out on plain paper, then used the copy function of my all-in-one inkjet printer to scan and copy it, then copy the copy, and so on, for 90 generations.

Dust, Ink, Distortion

The process could have been performed with care to eliminate dust, to ensure that each printed sheet was flattened before re-scanning, and to keep the printer ink topped up and the nozzles cleaned.

But in the end, I decided this was all grist for the mill, so dust, printing flaws, the slight cockling of the ink-wetted paper, plus the optical limitations of the scanner, the slight non-faithfulness of the inks and the reproduction process all took their part in eroding the image.

Note

Before, during or after the video(s) embedded in this page, the player may display advertisements or links to additional videos - these are not affiliated to Atomic Shrimp and the selection is something over which I have no control.