'Failed memories': David Szauder

A photographer I particularly like when looking at the theme of digital memory  is the Photographer David Szauder. In one of his works titled 'Failed Memories' Szauder takes old past-time and historical portraits and distorts them using data scrambling techniques such as pixel sorting. In doing this Szauder draws a parallel between the passing of time and the deterioration of memories. 



The use of old images edited using the addition/removal of code from the scanned image and new digital editing tools such as photoshop allows Szauder to create a montage of things that used to be. The scrambling of data is very disorienting which could also be a statement on the deterioration of human memory as people begin to forget and their memories become distorted and blurred, as if given a 5000 piece puzzle with 5000 pieces that don't fit together.
___________________________
Digital memory test shoot


But although Szauder's work is really intriguing, my interpretation of digital memory is a little bit different.

concept drawing for memory box

"My initial idea is to continue the theme of a 'memory box', that allows the wearer to look into their own memories, only they cannot control what memories pop up. However, I want to change this idea slightly and turn the 'memory box' into a 'memory creator' with the power to extract data from the environment around the subject and manipulate the reality around them into something more pleasant, perhaps being a statement on the influence of new technologies onto our everyday perception of the world." 

Below I have included a few shots that I took during the week with my friends (thx guys xxxxxxx) in a session where we met up to experiment with techniques and discuss ideas.
I was really keen to test out the light trails as seen in the concept drawing above, and so with the help of my willing associates we got some torch apps on our phones and proceeded to have a play around with long exposures:






Although the  'memory box' is not present in the images above (as I haven't built it yet) I have tried to experiment with the light trails that would eventually come to represent wires that come out of the box to 'extract data'   from the environment around the individual eventually feeding information to the wearer of the box. I was quite happy with these light trails as they came out quite clean. I would like to experiment with a range of different coloured lights in order to create a more malevolent or sinister feeling.
________________________
LIFE CYCLE TEST SHOOT

This was quite a spontaneous photo shoot, although I have wanted to experiment with inks for a while now. Here they are:






I feel the ink dispersing in water is a good metaphor for the life cycle of humans. As the ink enters the water in the first photo it could represent the early stages of human life and our impact on our wider environment but then, as we get older we have more and more of an influence on the people and places around us as we acquire more responsibilities and meet new people. This is just a concept at the moment and the idea could do with some work. However, I like where this idea is going and it is definitely not off the table yet.