NEW IDEAS
3.2.15
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I have decided to change from the idea of a 'memory box' (which is still a project I wanna undertake) and transition down a more experimental route.
I wish to explore digital memory, and it's fragile connection to the memory it is recording.
After a bit of research, I came across a speech given by Jonathan Safron Foer at an introductory seminar welcoming new students to Middlebury College in America.
The speech, being about 24 minutes in length is mostly quite droll, however, around 9 minutes in, Foer begins to talk about the relationship between human memory and digital memory. He states that
"If a memory can be retained forever, captured in a string of ones and zeros hovering above in an always accessible cloud...the memory is already on its way to being forgotten."
Foer goes on to say that:
"Human memory is in a constant state of renewal"
He also states:
"A single computer can remember more than every human on the planet put together, but no computer can remember something by heart"
In summary, I want to focus on the idea that whilst digital memory can store all our memorable information, it cannot replace the memories themselves. When we put stuff onto a hard drive, it is just our way of trying to hold on, when in fact it is just another step towards the memory being forgotten.
I want to make a film that focusses on human memory, the emotion it invokes and the ephemerality of it. I want to show how fast in can dissipate, and how digital storage can help retain that memory, but then eventually let it fade into the infinite mass of digital storage, lost to human input.
I want to recreate a memory using old footage found in hard drives of people on my course. I will start focussed on one shot, then zoom out to reveal 2 or three more clips in addition to the original. As we zoom out we will see hundreds of different shots, each one getting smaller as we zoom out farther. Eventually we will be so far zoomed out that the clips will become out of site and fade into a white/gray solid colour. It will remain this way for a few seconds and then the zoom will continue going backwards, revealing a grey hard drive sitting in a derelict attic in a cardboard box. It is in this continuous motion that the viewer will realise that the video clips (or memories) were files stored in the hard drive, and will hopefully realise how easy it is to upload our memories onto digital devices, let them archives of footage build up and then eventually forget about them.
THIS IS A GOOD IDEA I FEEL. Just gotta work on it a bit more. TO BE CONTINUED.....
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