Constructing a Virtual Depository

As Cold Storage readies for submission this week to the South by Southwest film festival, the interactive web component of the project remains ongoing.

The chapter-marked timeline of the short documentary and the blueprinted architecture of its setting, the Harvard Depository, become two cooperative scaffolds upon which to hang and hyperlink various media. The source material spans four hard drive vaults, and while two are redundant, that still leaves four terrabytes of unique content to sift through consisting of video, images, sound, text and combinations thereof. Perhaps this is less surprising as the memory speaks to an operation which itself has grown to store nearly ten million materials in Southborough, Massachusetts with seven modular additions since 1986.

As the site rises from its code foundations, a curatorial practice operates in tandem. How much does one resurrect from the cutting room floor? When does behind the scenes content reveal detract from the magic of unknowns and surprises on screen? Should there be a guide to all the embedded easter eggs, or should some remain latent for future archaeologists to unravel? Some of the content will be raw. Other content will be produced. Some will be original. Other content will be referential. Some materials come from the Harvard archives. Other materials come from Harvard students who partook in the Cold Storage humanities studio course, which metaLAB team taught in the earliest phases of production.

In the months ahead, we will seek the right balance of quantity and quality as well as of guidance and open exploration.