A lizard is photographed from 360 degrees. The lizard will soon become part of a computer archive that is recreating digital simulations of every animal on the planet, starting with the ones most likely to become extinct. For whom is this lizard being digitally preserved? Future generations that will never have the chance to gaze upon a real one? Or for future technologies that will be able to do things with digital simulations that we can only dream of?

And does the lizard know that the technology preserving it might also cause its demise? Our Ark looks at the brief history of digital simulation and its interest in preserving the known world—from lizards to antiquity destroyed by terrorism to forests soon to be consumed by wildfires. Playing the 2022 Mimesis Documentary Festival on Aug. 5 as part of the Crt+S doc block.