Yelahneb aka “The Floppy Guy”

While smaller plans are being made for how to make the building more than just an empty shell and longer plans are shaping that will replace the block with new apartments and businesses, the old 15th Ave E QFC has become a strange kind of display for a strange kind of computer art.

This isn’t artificial intelligence renderings with six-fingered, oddly glossy humans. These are floppy discs — murals of pixelated images related to local businesses made with obsolete digital data drives. Yelahneb (they/them) aka “The Floppy Guy,”  has been collecting and repurposing these iconic storage devices for years.

The Floppy Guy’s projects involve arranging the 3.5 inch floppy disks, mosaic style, in various patterns and designs, often resembling recognizable icons or objects. “I treat each floppy disk as a pixel,” explained Yelahneb. “If I want to reproduce a Windows icon, for example, every pixel needs to match the original icon.”

Their latest canvas has been the beige half-block wall of the emptied QFC.

CHS reported here on plans from Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital for a five-story mixed building with around 150 apartment units and underground parking for around 116 vehicles on the site running from the middle of the 400 block of 15th Ave E to E Republican. The plans include demolition of the 1904-built Moore Family building home to a Rudy’s Barbershop and longtime neighborhood convenience store ShopRite and the adjacent grocery and surface parking lot that hosted a grocery since 1944 until QFC exited the street in 2021 in a tiff with the Seattle City Council over COVID-19 hazard pay.

If you want to help shape that project, by the way, the Pike/Pine Urban Neighborhood Council group that is active in area development outreach and feedback is hosting a meeting this week with Hunters Capital to discuss early plans for the project — The meeting takes place Thursday, June 29th at 5:30 PM at Community Roots Housing, 1620 12th Ave in the second floor Fish Bowl conference room.

Back on 15th Ave E, finding the right colors can be a challenge, as Yelahneb doesn’t alter the floppy disks with paint or other materials. “I’m at the mercy of what I find,” they said. “Purple is notoriously hard to get. I have about 10 to 12,000 floppies, and I try to keep them organized by color.”

Yelahneb says there is significance to working with floppy disks and their place in the history of technology. “As a kid of the ’80s and ’90s, floppy disks were the perfect storage medium,” they said. “It became the symbol, the skeuomorphic representation of ‘save’ in computers.”

The message, then, is a version of saving some of the memories around this part of Capitol Hill.

Yelahneb expressed their delight in seeing people’s reactions to the installation. “It’s extremely flattering and validating when people are excited to meet the person doing it”. Passersby often remark on having not seen floppy disks for years and ask the artist where they find them.

While the majority of the floppy disks used in the project are donated, the artist also sources them from recycling centers. They highlighted the challenges of recycling floppy disks due to their composition and encouraged others to repurpose them creatively.

Despite the artist’s deep affinity for floppy disks, they expressed a strict rule about never looking at the content stored on them. “I don’t look at them because people threw them away for a reason,” they explained. “It feels like rifling through someone’s trash, reading their old journal.”

More than two months into the project, Yelahneb is halfway done. Building on top of 4×8 plywood (which they hope to rescue before demolition), they’re covering the length of the old QFC building. “I’ve got designs for each of the businesses on that block. The one I just completed was the daffodil for Rainbow Remedies and this Saturday I’m doing a giant pair of Rainbow Scissors next to Rudy’s.”

The artist hopes to continue their work on different projects and collaborate with other organizations and businesses. They shared their dream of creating a giant AOL logo using hundreds of floppy disks on the side of a three-story building, but for now, are very happy with their first location. “I love this town, I’ve lived here for 20 years now. I’m excited about doing this on one of my favorite blocks, I’m just over the moon about it. To give back some of that love I have for the neighborhood.”

“It’s about bringing joy and creativity to everyday spaces,” the artist stated. “And if my art can also spark conversations about technology, recycling, and nostalgia, then I consider it a success.” If you check out their Instagram @TheFloppyGuy, you can watch the progression. Additionally, you can also see, and purchase, their work at Lighthouse Roasters in Fremont.

You can also have a say in helping to put the building back into motion while the long development process plays out.  Hunters Capital says the old 15th Ave E QFC could spark back to life — but not as a QFC. The developer said that QFC “has made the decision not to renew their lease in the property.”

“We will gain possession of the vacant grocery space in October 2023,” Hunters Capital told CHS earlier this year. “We are actively seeking users to revitalize and bring life back into this area.”

In the meantime, the company is looking for suggestions you might have for short-term activation of the vacant grocery store and parking lot.

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