Jim Golden takes pictures of products, sometimes all by themselves. Other times he assembles incredible collections of everyday objects and antiquated technologies into stunning spreads, like this painstakingly placed array of retro video game systems.Golden's latest project is called Relics of Technology, and it's a bit of both. Collecting bits and pieces of obsolete technology like floppy disks and Betamax tapes, he's assembled some into pleasing patterns like his previous work. But he's also taken single, iconic pieces of bygone tech and brought them to life with some of the highest quality animated GIFs you've ever seen. It's one thing to see a still image of a rotary phone, but another entirely to remember — or realize — how the receiver would physically jump in response to an incoming call."The seeds for the Relics of Technology project started when I found a brick cellphone at a thrift store in rural Oregon," says Golden. "Since finding it, similar bits and pieces of old technology and media kept grabbing my attention. The fascination was equal parts nostalgia for the forms, and curiosity as to what had become of them. One thing led to another and I was on the hunt for groups of media and key pieces of technology, most of which have now been downsized to fit in the palms of our hands. These photos are reminders that progress has a price and our efforts have an expiration date."Click on image titles (like "Reel-to-Reel Tape Deck" below) for the original full-size animated GIFs.
- Reel-to-reel tape deck"A beautiful, simple, well-colored object to photograph. To me this is the essence of this era for tech. It was also the impetus to make the GIFs, I turned it on and it worked great."
- Electric typewriterWhy not an older typewriter? "Mostly the coloring, and it's an earlier electric model... a lot of these objects were chosen for their aesthetics as much as their functionality."
- Rotary phoneThere's no personal significance to the telephone number. "It's the number that it came with!"
- Slide projector"My father was a pretty serious amateur photographer and always shot slide film, so we'd have these great slide shows of fall foliage or his travels. They all just glowed, and I was mesmerized: the dim lights, the hum of the projector, the smell of the fan, the colors."
- Super 8 film projector
- Brick phoneAs popularized by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, the 1987 film.
Comments
The first 6 are amazing.
By Anfield on 04.25.14 3:42pm
Some of these look like robots from Mars…
By cybersaurusrex on 04.25.14 3:50pm
Robots? Which one of them looks like robot?
By iChandu on 04.25.14 5:29pm
Robots from Mars? u high man?
By Ammar Faidah on 04.25.14 10:44pm
It must be late, because I laughed way too hard at this.
By sufiro on 04.26.14 12:08am
Hey, in his defence, has anyone actually seen what robots from Mars look like?
By Uzair A. on 04.27.14 4:15pm
By y.a.k on 04.27.14 9:42pm
Technically that’s a robot from earth sent to Mars, not a robot “from” Mars.
By DeathsPlaything on 04.27.14 11:35pm
If we ever recover them back to earth, we can say they are ‘from Mars’
By PMPB on 04.28.14 9:12am
By Edmunn on 04.28.14 7:15am
They should have included an 8 Track. It actually had an advantage over the cassette in that you could toggle in between the tracks.
By crm-114 on 04.28.14 1:30pm
and it looks like someone is still using 8 in. “drives”: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/60-minutes-shocked-to-find-8-inch-floppies-drive-nuclear-deterrent/
By crm-114 on 04.28.14 1:54pm
OMG! I’m in Love <3
By Rizzywow91 on 04.25.14 3:53pm
…with your mom. no offense.
By quantumaspect on 04.26.14 10:58am
By Rizzywow91 on 04.27.14 6:16am
haha i concede defeat.
By quantumaspect on 04.27.14 1:30pm
Where is the WiiU?
By dicobalt on 04.25.14 3:53pm
Still on a store shelf waiting to be added to the collection. :-(
By doafhat on 04.25.14 5:15pm
Lol damn, low blow dude, low blow.
By lawfer on 04.25.14 5:26pm
Not even someone who collects dead tech bought one :P
By tipoo on 04.25.14 6:18pm
Right next to the XBox One, at least in terms of sales. The Wii U has significantly more power than the 360 and PS3 so it isn’t even close to dead tech.
By Casin on 04.26.14 5:58pm
In my house, next to
Wind Waker HD
Super Mario 3D World
Donkey Kong TF
and soon Mario Kart 8.
:)
By blimeylimey on 04.28.14 12:39am
And Smash 4, which will probably single-handedly double the install base.
By Bananaste on 04.28.14 8:34am
These GIFs are out of control, and the layout of the still photos is highly pleasing to the eye. Love this stuff.
By NathanIngraham on 04.25.14 3:57pm
They’ve been having a big clear out at the place where I work, and there are skips full of old control panels from (I guess) 1970s scientific equipment – SEMs and the like. They’re wonderful, I wish Mr Golden could have seen them.
By Peter Hull on 04.25.14 4:01pm