PHOTOCOPIERSThe Archive · Two Registers, 1990→2026
Features · From the 72-page private printing

The Lounge-Room Floor, Annotated

The photograph and the site plan

The Centrefold · Documentary Record ▣

The lounge-room floor,
annotated

Site plan of the collection at full deployment, c. 1991. Furniture relocated for the purpose. Family notified afterwards.
THE PHOTOGRAPH. The collection at full deployment, c. 1991 — the curator supervising from the rear, head on hand. Original print surfaced 2026, scanned, screened by the staff artist. The archive is no longer theoretical.

▮ Curatorial statement

Serious collections are exhibited. The National Gallery hangs its Streetons; this institution had broadloom and a strong position on natural light. Furniture was relocated. The floor was measured by eye and by knee. Visitors were admitted on the condition that they did not walk on the exhibits, a condition enforced with the full authority of a fifteen-year-old lying down at the back where he could watch everything.

Callout key — identifications from the photograph

The original print surfaced in 2026 and was rescanned at full resolution. Both readings that had failed verification turned out to be misreads of the low-resolution copy — the film grain was lying, exactly as the department suspected, though not in the direction it guessed.

The identifications

#Cover readsVerdict
1NP-115Full-res scan reveals a third digit hiding in the glare. Not yet in the rosters consulted — desktop class, verification open
2NP 8580Verified — 80 cpm, RDF, auto duplex. The print-room flagship (see the Canon review)
3NP-3325Verified — 25-cpm class, red-toner spot colour option
4NP-3225 & NP-3025The “NP-8225” was an 8 that was a 3 through the plastic. Adjacent covers read NP-3225 and NP-3025 — with No. 3 the photo holds the whole NP-3x25 family
5NP-2015Verified — small-office analog
6Canon Personal Copier (×2+)Verified — PC series, the cartridge revolution, heavily marketed retail
7Konica (model unreadable)Brand verified; blue banner cover; model defeats even the full-resolution scan
8“FC-5”Model verified real (1986 portable); reading low-confidence
9“200”Unidentified. A speed? A series? The department is taking submissions

Methodology note: identifications cross-checked against manufacturer heritage archives and period model rosters, then re-read from the 2026 full-resolution scan. A red “Canon PC-8…” cover and a partial NP-1015 also surface at full resolution. The archive was right to hold its ground.

The field, surveyed

Heavily Canon, as the callouts confirm — rows of NP-series brochures with the personal copiers massed at the front like infantry. Exactly the fleet a generous man at Canon’s Sydney office would have furnished to a persistent caller with a school assignment of unusual duration. The Konica banner at row three represents the balance of trade. The red plate at row four represents everything else this magazine is about.

Conservation status

Collection: deaccessioned without curatorial approval, c. 1994 (see Editor’s Letter). Photograph: extant, rescanned 2026, screened for this issue (opposite). Site: still a lounge room. Feeling: managed, mostly.

SOFA (EXILED) TV PIANO, PROBABLY THE CURATOR (CONTENT) 7 2 1 6 6 4 5 3 8 9 FIG. 2 — SITE PLAN, LOUNGE ROOM, UPPER NORTH SHORE · SCALE: EMOTIONAL PLATE No. 19a
THE SITE PLAN. Drawn from memory before the photograph surfaced; retained because the artist likes it, and because the callout markers refer to it. Red-toned plate at row four is believed to be the red one.