Recalling the future (2021)
The work focuses on the theme; "memory" and "time", also considers "existing" from the viewpoint of presentness through my grandmother's dementia; "disorientation". Also, the speculative narrative "Transfer brain memory data to Humanoid” illustrates the possibilities of evolution
Recalling the future installation view at solo show, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Speculate the future ~ The possibility of evolution of humankind
In recent years, migration to Mars is becoming more realistic, for example, the exploration of Mars by NASA's Perseverance this year. In this work, the story's present time is set in the far distant future, humans abandoned Mars to another planet, and brain storage machine leftover in Mars. This, then, examines long-term time, evolution, and history of the universe and humankind from a speculative perspective. ///
Furthermore, adding another axis to the story, this work examines the evolution of humankind by incorporating current research that attempts to digitize the consciousness and memory of the brain. Additionally, I consult with a neurologist who researches the practical use of digitalizing brain data.
Dementia and presentness
Over several years, I have taken pictures and filmed her dementia, capturing a sense of memory, time and song.
Her dementia is characterized by disorientation and is accompanied by a loss of recognition of space and time. Her memory lasts only a minute.
“Her body is living in the present, but her consciousness is floating in her past memories.”
Memories of song
While she is losing her memories, even her procedural memory (physical memory), such as taking a bath, going to the bathroom, and eating, still functions well as does her memory of songs. It is known that memories with impressive and strong emotions remain vividly in the brain.
Universe in the brain
The possibility that long-term memory may be stored across multiple locations within the network rather than in one area. This successive behaviour of the neuron network in the brain called "Hebb assembly". And this phenomenon that the memories will be linked and recalled appears in the brain as if the constellations were scattered in the galaxy.
~Tactile sensation experience inside of my grandmother's brain~
The installation envisions the speculative narrative of the brain storage machine when humans colonize Mars. And the concept and story of the installation synchronize with the content of the moving image.
When the audience moves their hands on the sensor, the hand motion virtually resonates with the 3DG brain data inside the box, created with my grandmother's actual MRI data. And the audience can experience as if they explore inside the grandmother's brain.
At the same time, following the movement of the image, two types of sounds come to be heard; One is the song of my grandmother, and the other is the conversation with my grandmother. There is a research article that the storage location in the brain differs depending on the type of memory. Based on that theory, in this installation, two sound sources, song and conversation, are placed in different places depending on the type of memory.
When the virtual hand motion comes closer to the point of sound (grandmother's song) in the brain 3DG, the sound becomes louder; then, when the virtual motion is apart from the sound point, the sound becomes lower.
This structure of the sound and motion represents and provides the experience to the audience as if the audience recalls, activates, or summons my grandmother's brain data.
Through Bone conductor headphone, the audience listens to the grandmother's songs and conversations resonating with the motion of 3DG, and the bone-conducting system makes the audience feel like the echoes of the songs inside the viewer's brain.
In the moving image work, the Bone conductor headphone becomes brain data transfer equipment. Therefore, the experience and interaction with the brain box is set in the same situation as moving image (transferring the brain data to brain storage box). And that experience makes the audience as if they are experiencing their brain transfer and storage in the box.
In the moving image, the box is illustrated as a brain storage box of my grandmother. The engraved text represents a universal history of the universe and humans on the surface of glass box; at the same time, my grandmother's history is layered on the backside of the glass plate. Furthermore, the speculative history of humans is following the current history archive.
