About
Electronic history, understood through evidence and given an earned musical role.
We don’t own history. We care for it.
Curated Corrosion is an independent electronics workshop and archive founded by John-Henry Jackson. We preserve, document, understand, and transform electronic history into musical instruments. An old component carries the work of its original engineers, the traces of its previous service, and the possibility of a new voice.
Our responsibility begins before the circuit. We study what has arrived, preserve what can be known about its origin, and ask what its observed behavior can support. Historical significance, electrical suitability, and musical purpose each deserve their own evidence.
Every specimen deserves to be understood before it is used.
We observe before concluding, measure before assuming, and document what we learn. A marking is evidence to investigate. A measurement is an observation under particular conditions. A listening impression belongs to a particular circuit, player, and rig. Unknowns remain visible until the evidence changes.
Rarity and age do not automatically earn a place in an instrument. Modern components belong wherever they best serve reliability and musical purpose. Reclaimed specimens earn their roles through characterization, evaluation, and deliberate placement.
Identity is assigned; roles are earned.
Our practice follows a shared progression: Observe → Understand → Validate → Assign an Earned Role → Preserve the Record. An acquisition records what arrived. A specimen record preserves an individual history. An instrument record carries that history into a particular build.
Some specimens return to service. Others earn conservation, further study, or documented deaccession. A dead specimen can still carry historical value. None of these decisions erases its identity.
Status may change; history does not.
The archive continues inside the instrument.
Formulas are developed circuit stages or recipes. Families are design lineages formed through their successful use. Each individual instrument receives its own OCI record, with the specimens, revisions, measurements, listening context, and decisions that made it particular.
The finished instrument begins another chapter: playing, ownership, service, repair, and retesting. Documentation belongs to the object throughout that life.
Every decision earns permanence. The amount of evidence required depends on the consequence of the decision.