The Pre-Aging Trick (Updated)

Have you ever re-watched an old film you once loved for its special effects — only to find it didn't age well?

The media and tech industries raise the bar on production values daily. Museums can’t keep up. But an exhibition might have video, interactive or immersive content running for years. How can we keep our media fresh longer?

Pre-age it.

What do pre-ripped jeans, retro 8-bit graphics, and antiqued decorations have in common? They’ve been pre-aged.

If it looks interestingly old now when it’s new, five years later it will look … interestingly old. Meanwhile, what looks cutting-edge now might look out of date in a month.

The list of possible pre-aging approaches for museum media is endless. Here are just a few styles that are interestingly old when they’re new:

Manga 
8-bit
Watercolor
Black and white
Oil painting
Grainy
Woodcut
Underexposed
Overexposed
Papercut
Sketchy

Here's the thing:
Every exhibition includes media that needs to keep its value for years.

Avoid media content aging badly. Pre-age it.

Warmly,
Jonathan