Temporary.cc: the website that slowly deletes itself

Temporary.cc is a very interesting art project by Zach Gage. Basically it is a self deleting website titled “the internet is forever”.

It shows that while everything you say and do online might feel permanent some things still fade away.

Every time you visit the page (do it now!) it gets a little smaller. As Zach explains:

Virtual data isn’t subject to decay like traditional media. Despite this, we can still lose personal data to disk failure, viruses, or accidental deletion. Unlike personal data however, data on the internet has a seemingly infinite shelf-life. Between search-engine caching, cloud-hosting, re-blogging, plagiarizing, and the way-back machine, the net collects and eternally stores vast amounts of information.

Temporary.cc eschews this paradigm. For each unique visitor it receives, Temporary.cc deletes part of itself. These deletions change the way browsers understand the website’s code and create a unique (de)generative piece after each new user. Because each unique visit produces a new composition through self-destruction, Temporary.cc can never be truly indexed, as any subsequent act of viewing could irreparably modifiy it.

Eventually, like tangible media, Temporary.cc will fall apart entirely, becoming a blank white website. Its existence will be remembered only by those who saw or heard about it.

Sometimes I get the impression that by often reloading my website stats we get more visitors too. Guess this site appeals to the same set of emotions but in reverse. The more you reload the more will be lost. Guess it must feel really familiar to Geocities users.