Thu, 08 May 2025

Thu, 08 May 2025 Visit the Arctic vault holding back-ups of great works

An arctic vault holds digital back-ups of some of humanity's great works of art, history and technology.
A unique data storage facility, known as The Arctic World Archive (AWA), has been established in Svalbard, Norway, to preserve valuable information and data for potentially hundreds of years. Located near the world's northernmost town, Longyearbyen, the underground vault uses film to store digitized artefacts from over 30 countries. The AWA is a commercial operation that relies on technology provided by Norwegian company Piql, which also heads the project. Founder Rune Bjerkestrand says their mission is to ensure that information survives technological obsolescence and time. So far, over 100 deposits have been made, including 3D scans of famous landmarks like the Taj Mahal, ancient manuscripts from the Vatican Library, and even Norway's national painting, Edvard Munck's "The Scream". The archive's contents include GitHub's Code Vault, which stores hundreds of reels of open-source code that underpin computer operating systems, software, websites, and apps. The vault is located in a decommissioned coal mine and features ideal conditions for preserving film: dark, dry, and chilly temperatures. Data preservation experts warn of the potential "digital Dark Age" as technological advances render previous software and hardware obsolete. To address this issue, companies like Microsoft have developed innovative storage solutions, such as Project Silica, which uses lasers to transfer data onto glass panes. The AWA receives deposits three times a year and has already stored recordings of endangered languages, manuscripts from famous composers like Chopin, and photographs documenting the impact of climate change on island nations. As the world generates more data than ever before, facilities like the AWA are being explored as potential solutions for preserving our digital heritage.
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