The Mindless Keeper
A critical design practice oriented project which investigates the relationship between social media archive and its users’s memory issues. In response to the hypothesis ‘……..’, designer began to explore the trace of memory false in everyday experience to embrace how subtle they are to be recognised as well as the unwanted nature of memory. Throughout interviewed stories, the objective fabrication or self-initiated distortion in users indicates its complex impact to social communication than other unexpected memory distortion causes. Also, the interview data is analysed into graphic diagrams which somehow informed the later visualising stage.
In focus, the project specifically speculate on the user’s experience with social media archive in which way it inspires and stimulates people to go too much far beyond the honest desire of sharing. Beside that, there are many secondary researches conducted along design process to clarify the project proposal as it was too much concentration on general false memory knowledge at first place. The human behaviour research helped designer to sufficiently synthesise the extent of the project regarding its material, message content as well as target audience. The project looks at the interactive imagery archive of SM as subject matter to further experiment with. The diversity of archive appearance involves with strategic arrangement/ use of Instagram users to gain more attention such as filter applied, thematic colour or sequence. The phenomenal shorten language form with hashtag accompanies with the imagery is culturally reflected in design as well. As the result, the semiotic language is applied to enhance the visual constraint of project. At the end of process, the project end up with a range of outcomes that shows different way how designer critically approach to thematic context with print medium. The choice of medium is a result of divergent idea on how online archive can physically exist in tangible form and the appearance can be modified again by the texture of paper.
The explicit message aims to bring people the sarcastic laughters at the culture of SM while the implicit morale is to raise the awareness of memory false when user lose themselves, unable to realise their “self” through the content they manipulates. The project use paradox design approach to treasure human memory and privilege of originality.
My experimental video examines how viewers encode the visual and text to correctly memorise what they have seen and read. The video captured seagulls on its basis daily experience. However, i didn’t include “seagull” words in the video to test on the process of semiotics reading in our brain. Applying from theory of false memory, the viewers are believed to produce the semiotic error as they use their assumption regarding to similarity of appearance (resemblance), commonality is contiguity in time and place (collocation), commonality is conventionality, interpreted as agreement in a community of minds to code an event. This experiment determines to construct false memory upon the conventionality. Some people will recall the word seagull by any chances.
Video, graphic and sound can be investigated for potential medium to play with the idea of false memory. However, the content for a video will be a biggest challenge to deliver a critical thinking for whole design. Also, it takes time for people to respond to the functional message of video, to someone actually experience a false memory after watching.
Hashtag Impacts on Semantic Memory Maybe ?
Hashtags are a way of identifying social messages and #hashtags feature prominently on ads both in the digital world and the old school hard copy (billboards, bus posters, newspapers etc). Therefore, Instagram is not exclude.
In my personal opinion to the “Hashtag stuffing” phenomenon, it kinds of not effectively engage people’s reading experience as it couldn’t totally replace your personal writing literature or even deliver a full message on it own. That is quite similar with Filter issue as it could be troubles for later we try to recall the accurate details of an image/event.
Material/Visual Language Investigation
Filtered images apparently transform the way we see the world, however if SM has became the one and only source for memory archive, it would have been taken quite a few cues for memory recollection regarding to time, vibe and obviously colours.
Material and Visual Language Investigation
Changing the hierarchy for sequential experiment generates another visual story-telling with the same content of images. Online archive become a very own strategic medium for user to tell their stories to the world in the way they want.
Material investigation
Instagram users, some of them, using the strategy on colour managed archive to gain more unique imagery archive’s appearance at the end. This also contributes to the incoherent chronicle toward user’s memory.
Visual language/ semantic language and material investigation
Photo archive that mimics/investigating pattern shared photo of SM problem user. Each photo accompanies with implied Hashtag played as key idea to understand the meaning. The whole understanding construct a critical review on deceased behaviours of SM user as well as its False memory aftermath.
Contextual Investigation
Memory Under Social Media Delusion_Project Focus
The aim of this project is to investigate the complexity of psychological issues of SM users and its effect on their autographical memory. The applied research addresses all the causes of false memory as well as its unexpected dangers in social context. The fallibility of memory is emphasised throughout the applied research in order to validate the originality and ownership of memory as the invasion of SM into daily life, people seems creating a lot of unreliable, “borrowed” or even imaginative contents on online platform. Importantly, those false contents growing faster and more memorable in comparison to other platforms such as magazine , book, words of mouth etc..But also, the users themselves are experiencing the worst impact which seriously causes damages on their autographical memory, loosing track between their covered truths and fake truths. Memory is treasure of human being life whereas people almost takes it for granted. The interaction between users and technology is dreadfully transformed into more deconstructive relationship and it therefore needs addressing as apparent danger to culture and lifestye of SM user, especially young generation. Last but not least, the project dedicate to healthy beauty being true to the “self” as well as preserve true life chronicles of each individual.
APPLIED RESEARCH
This is my investigation on how do we tell if a particular memory is true or false?In the case of Belle Gibson, Social media has shown it great effect on how to implant a misbelief on something and its invasive influence of information toward users. The share and support from online users significantly helped to boost the rapid growth of Belle Gibson popularity and her business fraud which totally based on her compulsive lies. On other hand, maybe Belle is also a victim of social media regarding her attempt taking advantage of social media platform to appeal people’s attention as well as seeking support/empathy from users at first place and consequently, the more she was afraid of being exposed, the further she came with her lies . In this hypothesis, Belle may develop distorted thinking patterns, creating lies that become psychologically entrenched and morph into a life of her own. The lies then become reality. But we don’t know her motive while on the press, she blamed her childhood trauma as well as her parent’s upbringing. We can’t clarified whether it was truth, lie or false memory of what she claimed happening to her in the past.
Memory is very unreliable on its own already. Unfortunately, due to the nature of social media where people could decide to share/create more personal/confidential information so its information is more digestible and memorable, but also it causes the risk of the formation of false memory. Social medial platform such as Facebook, Instagram etc have become easy, hands-on tools for people to fabricate their life to the way they want. It further raises alert of anti-social personality disorder to all users on how we need to aware of the way we use it as well as the information we digest everyday.
_Gemma_FM#10
I have recently started to suffer from false memory. I ‘remember’ having conversations that I haven’t had and doing things that I have not done (e.g. reading and deleting a message from my phone that never existed). These ‘memories’ seems so real and are experienced with a full recollection of my feelings at the time, location, smells etc. This has been an issue on a few occasions when I haven’t told someone information they need, because I ‘remember’ having done so already. I think I must be dreaming that I have said /done these things, and that the dreams are so vivid that they are entering into my memory and being recalled as such. My dreams have become extremely vivid since I moved to India and have been taking anti-malaria tablets.
Collected from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/memory/understand/false_memories.shtml
_AngharadDavies_FM#9
I have recently discovered that a memory I thought was true is in fact false. In someways this has made me foolish and embaressed. The memory concerns how my father proposed to my mother. They were playing a game of chess, and my father casually turns to my mother and says “well we might as well get married then” and my mother agrees. As I said this is a completely false memory, but I have told people that this is a truth for years, and its only recently while talking with my mother that I discovered that I had fabricated this event. I am confused at this false memory. Why did I make this up, and how did I beleieve this for years and years?
Collected from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/memory/understand/false_memories.shtml
_Penny_FM#8
I retold a story about how I had fallen out of a top bunk on an overnight train when we went on a family holiday. I thought I was about 4 years old at the time. I found out when I retold the story in front of family members years later, that it wasn’t me at all, it was my older brother that had fallen. I felt very stupid as I honestly thought the event had happened to me.
Collected from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/memory/understand/false_memories.shtml