Tightrope walker Tatian-Mosio Bongonga hangs from a tightrope as she pauses while scaling the Monmartre hill towards the Sacre Coeur Basilica (not pictured) in Paris, France, July 20, 2018. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

Factory waste including dyes from the many textile factories in the region drain into a tributary of the Citarum river on August 27, 2018 outside Bandung, Java, Indonesia. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)

A model presents a creation from the collection Agua de Coco during the Sao Paulo Fashion Week, Brazil on October 26, 2018. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

In the works of a photographer named Dave – who goes by Freaktography and never gives out his full name – haunting abandonment leaps from images of discarded machinery, tools and factory essentials. (Photo by Freaktography/Caters News Agency)

Students from Vida Nueva School present their dinosaur robot built with recycled materials during the annual robotics fair supported by the Bolivian Education Ministry in La Paz, August 10, 2015. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

People will spout about impermanence of digital records, but books are really fragile, too. Alexis Arnold from San Francisco wanted to illustrate that with her project The Crystallized Book: collecting books and growing Borax crystals on them. Books range from literature classics to magazines, and there’s even a mysterious and arcane tome called “Linux: The Complete Manual”.

Artist Joe Hill poses on his 3D artwork, from the “Joe and Max” project as part of an advertising campaign, during its presentation at a park in Moscow, Russia, July 4, 2015. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

Artists from the Beijing Dance Academy perform to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Budapest, capital of Hungary, February 6, 2019. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua News Agency/Barcroft Media)