Precedents

Describe theory, concepts, and research you have performed. Describe the prior work, ideas and projects that influenced your design. What work informed this idea.

Prior projects which influenced our design include The Laboratory for Forgetting, a participatory art piece by Naoko Wowsugi engaging people in “photography therapy”. The participant takes pictures of things they wish to forget, before burying and digging the film out of the ground again to be developed. However, by this point the image has been degraded from fading and saturation. The installation displays all the photos in a gallery, showcasing both what is lost as well as well as what art has been created as a result of forgetting.

This work was influential for our own group project because we also sought to incorporate the idea of natural and visible decay of a memory over time. This installation actively invites people to share bad memories but in an altered state. It’s through this ritual that people can interact with their image, and transform it into something new and artistic. It’s reflective of the reconstructive nature of our own memory. We made use of similar visual and natural elements like plants and earth to reflect the healing process. In addition, we focused on the concept of transformation, using the passage of time and physical destruction of a visualized memory to portray forgetting.