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The first heritage video stored on DNA: A case study on the future of digital storage
Journal of Digital Media Management,
11
(2),
161-170
(2023)
Abstract
It has been projected that by 2025, humanity will have outgrown its capacity to store the large volumes of data it creates. To compound matters, it will not be long before the storage of data on spinning or solid-state drives is no longer sustainable, economically viable or environmentally responsible. DNA storage has the potential to vastly exceed capacity for writing to disk and tape, but with dramatically smaller physical space and energy requirements, and far greater stability. This paper will demonstrate the potential of DNA as an archival storage mechanism by describing how the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage — the body responsible for managing the International Olympic Committee’s audiovisual archive — collaborated with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, to store heritage video data on synthetic DNA, resulting in a world-first for archives.
Keywords: DNA; storage; archives; innovation; heritage; audiovisual; digitisation
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Jan MüLler is Chief Executive Officer of the Netherlands Regional Public Broadcasting Organisation. Prior to this, he was CEO of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Media History at Macquarie University, member of the Australian Broadband Advisory Council to the Australian Government and Chair of the Australian Media Literacy Alliance. He has also served as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi in Amsterdam, CEO of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Chair of the Europeana Foundation, President of the International Federation of Television Archives, Member of the Council of the Polish National Audiovisual Archive and Chair of the Dutch Media Literacy programme and the Dutch National Coalition for Digital Preservation and Sustainability.
Yasmin Meichtry is the Associate Director at the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, where she is responsible for all Olympic patrimonial collections from acquisition to conservation and valorisation. In addition to heading the Heritage unit, she is also in charge of the Executive and Development & Innovation Services. Yasmin is an experienced film publicist and production adviser. She has previously directed the Fondation Suisse/Pavillon Le Corbusier in Paris, and served in the Swiss diplomatic services as Counsellor for Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
