1,000-Year Books, Medical Glitch-Art, and Why James Bond Should Wash His Hands More Often

The finest reading material in my weekly “Linkfest”

Monday hath arrived, so it’s time to PROCRASTINATE.

You could while away a lovely hour on TikTok.

Or you could read this “Linkfest” — filled with edifying material just for you!

1) 📘 A plastic book, designed to be read in 1,000 years

Plastic can stick around for 1,000 years, which is why plastic pollution is such a nightmare. After reading about this, members of the Vietnamese design agency Ki Saigon decided to create an art project: A letter to the future, printed on a book made of plastic — so it would be readable 1,000 years from now.

They asked contributors from around the world to write letters to their years-hence descendants, and the result is quite stirring …

“We wanted to create an emotional connection with the reader and the plastic they use,” Kumkum adds on the ultimate intention of the book. “A connection that would make them feel that the plastic we mindlessly use has a life of its own after it’s out of sight. A life that lasts hundreds and hundreds of years.” The emotional letters which fill its pages wish for peace and happiness in the times to come. Some share personal memories while others depict scenes of ordinary life for their future descendants to reflect on; scenes filled with blue rivers, elephants, forests and wildlife. The creative director finally goes on to say: “since most of the letters wished for optimism and peace for the generations to come, we thought that this book is almost like a prayer, so the first page of each book starts with: ‘This is a prayer to the future’.”

2) 🖼️ Medical-imaging glitch art

Sebastian Schaetz works in signal processing, and while doing work with medical-imaging technology, he has encountered some gorgeous glitchy images that are precisely the sort of unintentionally-created procedural data-art for which…