As soon as digital imaging technology became available, affordable, and easy to use, major cultural institutions began digitizing their slide collections. By the early 2000s, vast holdings of 2-inch plastic or card-mounted film squares were suddenly rendered without a use or monetary value. Comprised of 35mm slides that were retired from art history department image libraries, Projection memorializes the photographic technology that once filled countless carousels and cabinets designed to archive and disseminate the history of art.

The title refers to light-based images that slides cast upon a surface. In an educational setting, such an illumination is associated with the Enlightenment notion that knowledge is what shines a light on the unknown, bringing it into the realm of visibility and thus empirical study. However, in this context, “projections” can also be understood as a forecast for the future; that the bodies of knowledge we amass today, may be inaccessible tomorrow. Will knowledge also degrade or lose its function in pace with the objects that store and transmit information?