How Andy Warhol's Amiga Art Was Recovered

Vimeo / Carnegie Museum of Art
Vimeo / Carnegie Museum of Art / Vimeo / Carnegie Museum of Art
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News broke last month that a series of Andy Warhol's images had been recovered from his 1985 Amiga computer. Today, the Carnegie Museum of Art has released a documentary explaining in detail how it all happened. A good portion of it happened in an Amiga enthusiast's basement. And it is awesome.

The film is a portrait of computer geeks and art geeks working together to solve a puzzle. As a computer geek, the most exciting moment for me came just after the 14-minute mark when the team realized they could convert an Amiga IFF file into a PNG file using ImageMagick. (This was also apparently the most exciting moment for the resident art geek in the film, Cory Arcangel, who explained the significance of uncovering a piece of clip-art modified by Andy Warhol 30 years ago.) This is worth a look for fans of retro computing, art preservation, documentaries, and/or Warhol. Enjoy:

The Invisible Photograph: Part II (Trapped) from Carnegie Museum of Art on Vimeo.

If you want to see the YouTube clip referenced in the documentary above, check out this 2009 post. And—just from me to you—if you visit the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, be sure to check out the basement. (There's a photo booth down there.)