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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
A Memory Project
Henry W. See
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'A Memory Project' began as a quest to build a database which forgets. I initially sought to mimic the way humans forget, elaborating certain rules of forgetfulness, then transposing
these rules into algorithms which could be turned into computer code. Yet as I began this work, I realized that I was in fact setting down the road of artificial intelligence. Knowing that I had not the resources of those who are doing AI research in the grand universities and institutes of the world, I found the project took another course. It became an investigation of memory and forgetfulness, and a look at the way in which the human and the digital mutually influence each other: what happens when humans become models for computers, and then later when computers become models for humans?
Part One investigates memory; Part Two, forgetfulness. As the viewer works his or her way through 'A Memory Project', more and more areas of investigation become apparent, like the layers of an onion being pulled away. The process reverses in Part Two as the system begins 'forgetting' what is available, where the user has been, what she or he has seen. The piece ends with a blank screen and the voice of the guide exclaiming that he doesn't know what is happening. The guide is 'Bob', a cartoon character who speaks to the viewer, gives guidance (sometimes helpful, sometimes not), suggests new places to see, and makes passing comments throughout the visit. What is not remembered is as important as what is remembered. What is not shown is as important as what is shown. What is not said is as important as what is said. Empty space resonates with potential. Interactivity lies within empty space. (Henry W. See)
Technical Background
HW/SW: Macintosh HCl, Hyper Card
these rules into algorithms which could be turned into computer code. Yet as I began this work, I realized that I was in fact setting down the road of artificial intelligence. Knowing that I had not the resources of those who are doing AI research in the grand universities and institutes of the world, I found the project took another course. It became an investigation of memory and forgetfulness, and a look at the way in which the human and the digital mutually influence each other: what happens when humans become models for computers, and then later when computers become models for humans?
Part One investigates memory; Part Two, forgetfulness. As the viewer works his or her way through 'A Memory Project', more and more areas of investigation become apparent, like the layers of an onion being pulled away. The process reverses in Part Two as the system begins 'forgetting' what is available, where the user has been, what she or he has seen. The piece ends with a blank screen and the voice of the guide exclaiming that he doesn't know what is happening. The guide is 'Bob', a cartoon character who speaks to the viewer, gives guidance (sometimes helpful, sometimes not), suggests new places to see, and makes passing comments throughout the visit. What is not remembered is as important as what is remembered. What is not shown is as important as what is shown. What is not said is as important as what is said. Empty space resonates with potential. Interactivity lies within empty space. (Henry W. See)
Technical Background
HW/SW: Macintosh HCl, Hyper Card
Henry W. See (USA) worked in independent filmmaking and graphic arts before moving into interactive work. Works: ‘The Odyssey’, “The Glenn Gould Profile’. He is currently designing the interface for the Software which will permit public access to the entire collection of over 8300 films produced by the National Film Board of Canada.