a brief history
30 years ago 100KB disks were the most effective
means of transferring data between computers.
invented by IBM's alan shugart in 1971, floppies
are made up of a 'floppy' magnetic storage disk
encased in a plastic square or rectangular outer shell.
over the years its size was reduced by more than half
with the 8" version being replaced by the 5.25" and
the 3.5" surpassing that. from the mid 1970s to the
late 1990s the format remained popular until the
introduction of flash and optical storage devices
such as CD-Rs and USB sticks.

one of the first notable instances of the formats
wane came when apple decided to remove floppy disk
drives from their iMac in 1998, a move which would
soon be followed over the next few years by other
computer manufacturers. in 2007 retailers began to
announce that they would not stock floppy disks
anymore, though this didn't mean the end...

recent resurgence
in the last few years more and more instances of
the floppy have been spotted online, in galleries
and our streets and roads! musicians and
media-alchemists have also warmed to the re-use
of them for 'anti-corporate' releases.

art and design
one of the first instances of the floppy disk aesthetic
being used in the music world came via new order's
1983 single 'blue monday'. peter saville's die-cut record
sleeve is said to have cost so much to produce that
factory records actually lost money on each copy
sold - hence the sleeve was soon replaced by a
similar non-die-cut design. the lavish nature of this
piece is somewhat removed from what we see
happening with floppy creations today.
numerous 'street artists' blaze their designs across old
floppies which are then randomly glued or strategically
placed around various public places.

other crafty artists prefer to keep their work indoors such
as the american george w. hart, who's 'disk
combobulation' features thirty 3.5 inch floppy disks.
each of them are slotted into each other forming a precise
five-color pattern. fellow floppy enthusiast, lara weigand also
tried her hand at working with the plastic diskettes, this year
she decided to cover her car in them as part of the
seattle art car blowout.

the huge amount of redundant floppies have found
their way into the hands of aspiring designers and
hobbyists. online you can find, dresses, bags, notebooks
and other office novelties conjured up from them.
for instance, see imanalchemist's disk designs at
instructables. 'geekgear' is also at it, they create basic
office supplies such as notepads and pen holders from
old 3.5" disks.

if you don't fancy paying for a floppy disk note pad,
why not try making your own:





music and video games
whilst the thought of listening to recordings from a
floppy might seem unattractive compared to the powerful
playing options around today, it's 'low bit rate / old skool'
feel has drawn 'progressive' artists to the medium
of late. as documented in november's 'dazed and confused'
magazine, several labels such as 'aint bad for a floppy' and
'my little floppy' along with artists like 'johan agebjorn' are
releasing their music on floppy disks. the low-cost DIY
ethic of the music disks makes them desirable enough for
fans to track down and find a means of playing them.

'I like that you have to make some effort to hear the stuff'
johan agebjorn

some seek the technical challenge of squeezing as many
songs as possible onto a single disk whereas others prefer
to get creative with their packaging - aint bad for a floppy
having released a disk stuffed inside the body of a found
teddy bear. you can read more on this topic over at
kid shirt's blog.

in addition to music being squished onto the 100KB,
format, computer games are also fair game - nothing
new you might think? but games such as
'foshizzlenakpeeyuyu' bear a slight difference.
not only does its creator (of the same name) make
extremely low-fi looking games in all their bright
colored glory, he also distributes them freely as 'art
pieces', placing them in public places for people to
take home and explore. all of this, is done in the
name of the 'teatons project' (an 'art movement' which
aims to get as many people involved as possible
in the distribution of free art).

floppy disk CDRs?
designboom mart participants 'baba akcja' of poland
have designed recordable CDs that look like
3.5'' floppy disks - now available from the designboom shop.


---
see also


designboom article on cassette tape culture