'Destorying'

Rogi links to the provoking Goodbye Romania. A series of photographs accompanied by spare text present brief vignettes of post-Ceaucescu life. 'It's a story about Romania,' explains the introduction, 'that is to say it is a story about change.'

The twist that makes the site compelling is that each time a photo is viewed, a pixel is removed, thus slowly eroding the image: 'by visiting this site you will destroy it' it declares. Once (I estimate) 90,000 visits have been registered, it is gone.

So simple a device suggests several lines of enquiry including the role of consumption in destroying a way of life, how retelling a story enevitably changes and obscures the 'original'. In effect we could call the process 'destorying'.

It reminds me of Douglas Adams' and Mark Carwardine's Last chance to see – see it before it is too late, but don't forget that you are directly implicated in its demise. It is nothing less than a story about sustainability.