Inner
Low Resolution Memories
Immersive Experience | 12 2015
We live in a high-resolution world, and we strive to make the image of entities clearer. The real impression, however, stays shattered in our minds. In memory, we grasp the silhouette and feel and let the details elude and fade.
"Inner” is an immersive experience built-in the Allosphere, California NanoSystems Institute. It is about the persistence of people’s memories— the storage of memories, processes of oblivion, and our resonance with the past.
Exhibitions
MAT End of Year Show, 2016
Spec
A computer program written in C++ using MAT AlloSystem and Cuttlebone library
Concept
The idea of "Inner" emerges from the story of an anterograde amnesia patient, Kent Cochrane (K.C). Anterograde amnesia is a condition in which a person cannot hold new memories for long, eventually forgetting everything new that happens in their life. After watching a strongly depressing interview series of K.C. doing a memorization test, I started to think about the persistence of people’s memories— the storage of memories, processes of oblivion, and our resonance with the past.
Special thanks to
Weihao Qiu
- a Course project in Computing with Media Data by Karl Yerkes
Kent Cochrane - Memory Test Part 1
Aesthetic
The visual aesthetic is inspired by the low-resolution work of Jim Campbell, who is famous for his sculptural LED light installations. We live in a high-resolution world and strive to make the image of entities clearer; the real impression, however, stays shattered in our minds. In memory, we grasp the silhouette and feel and let the details elude us and fade.
Description
"Inner" conveys the idea of memory through the dynamics of image fragments. When an image breaks into fragments, some part of the information is lost. The resolution further degrades when some of the fragments plummet and leave behind blank spaces. Compared to high-quality photo albums, the feeling of fragmented images more closely envisions the notion of memory.
Memory is also seen as an inner creature. Therefore, in Inner, aliveness is communicated via a beating motion resembling that of the heart. The creature gradually dies as the pieces drop.
When a viewer goes through the imaging tunnel, they can interact with the images by pressing a key. This process aims to visualize the recollection of memory. When the audience interacts with the broken pieces that are left, they may be reconstructed to appear clearer, yet the images will be different from what they were before.
