11/06/2026
Before the cloud, the hard drive, the floppy disk and magnetic tape, the earliest computers used simple paper tape to input programmes, store data and transmit messages.
Binary code was punched into the paper roll, which computers then read either mechanically (a pin dropped through the holes to complete a circuit) or optically (light passed through and triggered a sensor).
Our latest publication ‘Soviet Scientific Institutes’ by Eric Lusito shows scientific apparatus from this era still in use in the post-Soviet landscape. Pictured here are machines from Armenia and Romania, alongside examples of the tape itself. We adapted the punched holes for the cover design of the book itself, lending a physical quality to the Information Age.
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