Most of the art we feature on The Creators Project is high-tech, pushing at the limits of possibility by using technology as a tool to realise their creative visions. But, sometimes it just takes an ingenious use of old tech to produce something that feels just as new and captivating—like this series of paintings by Nick Gentry. What makes them stand out is, of course, that his canvases consist of not fabric, but the obsolete media format of floppy disks (if that term is unfamiliar to you—a rather depressing thought—check Wikipedia’s entry). They’re similar to Sami Havia’s Cassette Tape Canvases, which we featured back in February, but instead of recreating iconic album covers, Gentry uses these dead media to paint stylized portraits on.Unlike the cassette tape, which is fondly remembered for mixtapes and illegal radio chart recordings by children of the 80s, this once cutting-edge but now near-forgotten format has been pushed aside by shiny new USB sticks and their ilk, consigned to oblivion, a mere footnote in IBM’s history. So it’s encouraging to see it get a new lease of life, even if it’s not quite in the capacity of its once great storage data glory. Instead, it becomes a medium for artistic expression as components of the disks get incorporated into the facial features of these striking portraits, so the hub and the wheel become enlarged eyes, while stickers become an important compositional part of the picture. You can check out some of his work in the slideshow and video above, and you’ll find more on his website.All images courtesy of Nick Gentry
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