The fragmented recall of the past is something that fascinates artists and scientists alike. Our project addresses differences between subjective and objective approaches, and between phenomenological and biological concepts of memory.
The installation uses an original computer program to inform the sequential and spatial reproduction of audio and video sequences. The program explores different ways of fragmenting, shuffling and recombining images and sounds, following ideas of auto- and hetero- associative processes that are thought to underlie pattern completion.
Meta-data identifying each depicted scene and the way it has been fragmented is embedded in the sound and image sequences. The meta-data is used with a self-organising map to determine the ways in which the sounds and images are projected into the installation space.
The image sequences are projected onto constellations of glass spheres, the program determining how and when the sequences become visible in one or more of their surfaces. The sound recordings are reproduced binaurally using headphones, creating spatial and temporal relationships with the projected images.
Initially the images and sounds are hard to decipher, but as time passes they become increasingly coherent. The installation invites audiences to consider how the brain pieces together a memory and the implications this has for how our memories are structured.
The installation uses an original computer program to inform the sequential and spatial reproduction of audio and video sequences. The program explores different ways of fragmenting, shuffling and recombining images and sounds, following ideas of auto- and hetero- associative processes that are thought to underlie pattern completion.
Meta-data identifying each depicted scene and the way it has been fragmented is embedded in the sound and image sequences. The meta-data is used with a self-organising map to determine the ways in which the sounds and images are projected into the installation space.
The image sequences are projected onto constellations of glass spheres, the program determining how and when the sequences become visible in one or more of their surfaces. The sound recordings are reproduced binaurally using headphones, creating spatial and temporal relationships with the projected images.
Initially the images and sounds are hard to decipher, but as time passes they become increasingly coherent. The installation invites audiences to consider how the brain pieces together a memory and the implications this has for how our memories are structured.
Illustration of an auto-associative network