FMP - Proposal

How it started

A few weeks ago, while I was looking for a note in my phone, it reminded me to review the photos I took one year ago. Curiously, I clicked into the album and found it contained photographs of my graduation trip. I was struck by the memories and tried to recall more. I swiped left and right, staring at these flat, screen-based photos, and got a little upset. Is that my memory? I was unsure. These photos were cold to me, though accurate. They can remind me of the very details but they also simplified my memories.

Thus, I chose "memory" as my main topic. I want to explore how can we record and experience personal memories in a different yet emotional way. At this stage, I am still exploring around "memory" and digital technologies generally.

Presenting proposal

I looked into mechanism of the memory, memory artefacts, digital memories and found out the following facts:

• While most of us are using phones as the main object of recording memory, they work differently when compared to our brain. Through either photos, videos or recordings using phones, the scene is kept as it was recorded. However, ‘human remembering is not a process of mechanistically retrieving facts from our past’ (Mayer-Schönberger, 2011), it is a constant reconstruction. Thus, the external digital memory is constant, while what we remember is always changing, which may lead to an unfamiliarity towards the external memory.

• There is also a critical view towards digital remembering. While these technologies expand our memory storage, it also deprive our right of forgetting. Forgetting is a natural process, while the permanence of digital storage turns it unnatural.

• Recalling a memory is not like watching a film of what happened. We edit and modify memories each time we recall them.

• The perspective through we which recall our memories–either seeing it through our own eyes in the first person, or viewing as an observer in the third person–can have an effect on the vividness and potency of the memory, with stronger recollection when perceived in the first person. Viewing memories in the third person tends to reduce the vividness of that experience, as well as the amount of emotion that we feel. Our memory system is very dynamic and flexible.

I also looked into related work and put them into three categorizes:

Memory sharing

• Supporting memory sharing for families (Kirk et al., 2010)

• Supporting memory sharing for deceased parents (Moncur et al., 2015)

Augmented memories

• A-me: Augmented Memories (Puig et al., 2013)

• Pensieve: Augmenting Human Memory (Aizenbud-Reshef et al., 2008)

Memory artefacts

• Rewind: Automatically Reconstructing Everyday Memories with First-Person Perspectives (N.Tan et al., 2018)

• The use of artefacts in memory sharing (Neumann et al., 2017)

Feedbacks

I was suggested with some case studies, such as music memory box - a design for people living with dementia in the UK; Memory objects - an exhibition telling us why me remember using objects; The Andrew Project - designed for remembering Andrew.

Still, my topic is too broad. By saying recording and experiencing memories differently, I need to clarify what memories and whose memories they are. Another question is that how can I position myself differently from the existing projects.

There are too many sub-topics under "memory". At this stage, I am still struggling with detailing the direction I am going to.

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References

Geertz, C. (1973) ‘Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture’. In Oaks, T. and Price, P (2008)The Cultural Geography Reader, Oxford: Routledge, pp. 41-51.

Hanington, B. and Martin, B. (2012) Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Rockport Publishers.

Houde, S. and Hill, C., 1997. ‘What do prototypes prototype?’, Handbook of human-computer interaction, North-Holland, pp. 367-381.

Kirk, D.S., Izadi, S., Sellen, A., Taylor, S., Banks, R. and Hilliges, O. (2010) February. ‘Opening up the family archive’, Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, ACM, pp. 261-270.

Mayer-Schönberger, V. (2011) Delete: The virtue of forgetting in the digital age. Princeton University Press.

Moncur, W., Julius, M., Van Den Hoven, E. and Kirk, D. (2015) ‘Story Shell: the participatory design of a bespoke digital memorial’, Proceedings of 4th Participatory Innovation Conference, pp. 470-477.

Neumann, S., Banks, R. and Dörk, M. (2017) May. ‘Memory Dialogue: Exploring Artefact-Based Memory Sharing’, Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, pp. 884-895.