An artist is bringing obsolete floppy disks and videotapes into the 21st Century - by transforming them into shimmering portraits.
Nicholas Gentry encourages people on social media to send him their old tech which he turns into artwork, filled with personal memories from across the globe.
The 38-year-old uses the outdated storage devices to express the feeling of time passing through his portraits displayed at the Human Connection exhibition at London's Opera Gallery.
Credit: SWNS Credit: SWNS
Nick uses 100 disks per portrait for an average sized piece, measuring 2m x 1m.> Made from crushed compact disks, videotapes, fragmented CDs and old bits of film, his artwork preserves personal pieces of history from all over the world and raises questions about humans' relationship with technology.
Credit: SWNS Credit: SWNS
The eighties child was inspired by his childhood memories of the floppy disk and its prevalence at that time as the primary storage device.
Credit: SWNS
Nick, who studied graphic art at University, separates the devices according to colour into a mosaic-like arrangement.>He then strips the floppy disks of any metal and removes the aluminium from the CDS, converting them into 'data flakes' with the average portrait using 100 disks.>The flakes are mixed with a clear resin and an adhesive is applied to the floppy disks to piece the portraits together.
The artist photographs his subjects at his home garden studio on which he bases the portraits.>He tries to avoid identifying age, gender and race and said his portraits are 'like a void to be filled' which enable people to bring their own identities to his work.
The machine-like element to his work is achieved by using harsher lighting conditions when photographing his subjects.
