In this paper, I will investigate what is and what causes content to decay on websites, and how it can be used to propel new discussions on aesthetics and digital ontologies. In the specific context of the Web, content decay has a unique non-linear degradation process. The idea of novelty is prevalent in the rhetoric of design and technology, while failure and indeterminacy are less welcomed (Mazé 2007). However, the increased dependability on online services due to COVID-19 hastened a propitious momentum to address the ephemerality of Internet infrastructure. By focusing on its ‘ruins’, I would like to question how that desolate view can propel aesthetic and ontological discussions, addressing digital culture from a less instrumental point of view to propose a distinct form of ‘inevitable aesthetic` – stemmed from Lebbeus Woods’ notions on architectural decay (Woods 2012) – and its long-term implications. There is more to media and aesthetic experiences than normative ones powered by late capitalism, thus, paying attention to what is deliberately missing or left behind due to forgetfulness, offers new opportunities to understand and criticize the technological systems, and a chance for forgotten narratives to thrive and persist.
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