Crafting Future Memory

Haptic Memory

Project in collaboration with Laura Lang

Brainstorm

Movements of everyday life and how the body remembers them, for example the working situation and/or the differences between the hands of a factory worker and a graphic designer

Closeness to the body --> romantic aspect (to remember someones touch)

Let's Create! App for pottery: This App is based on working with clay. It's based on the haptic memory of clay. If there was no such memory, how would the sculpture look like?

haptic memory as trace for example in nature: trails caused by animals or humans, often used paths in old towns and staircases traces of usage on technical devices f.e. the keys on your keyboard use the most;

audio through movement

"Postcards"

postcard research: Ansichtskarte - picture postcard. a visual (and written) greet from a certain site material: thick paper or thin cardboard to send it without an envelope. dimensions/format deduced from size of a human hand - haptic within its format

poetic approach, deceleration, memory of a certain locality/ site through haptic and audiovisual inputs contradiction concerning material/weight - a heavy postcard/memory record and delete mode - renew memory personal/ hand-made, not purchased memory without words/speechless. material speech.

Project//Concept

Postcard Memorycard (Prototype) For the Crafting Future Memories Project we will make our memories of Rotterdam tangible and audible. The starting point for our project the experience of walking a lot through Rotterdam. Coming to a new city makes is interesting to stroll around without having a specific goal. We want to catch the memory of this feeling and of the places we visited. Our focus lies on the harbour and metal as a material connected to this place. Metal seems so be a fitting material for crafting the memory of Rotterdam.

Prototype

For the prototype we concentrated on the format of a greeting card. Staying close to the function of a greeting card, it's possible to open it and trough that triggering a metal sound. The front is made out of metal and the bottom side out of cardboard. Inside we put a photograph of the harbour and a google maps images. The recording and playing device is placed in the card too.

Greeting cards with noises are often used for birthday or weddings. Most of the time they show very kitschy and cliché motif. The shift in meaning and usage was interesting for us. Another important aspect was, that our greeting card is quite heavy, which in our eyes is questioning the original function and changing the meaning of the object.

The prototype turned out to be more like a collection to trigger memory on several levels. Through images, sound and touch.

Final Project (Plan)

For the final product we'll focus on touch and sound. (And a small reference to Rotterdam in form of an image). We are working with an poetic approach and trying to trigger memory with quite a small object. The touch of the metal and the sound make it possible to slow down and remind us of the location, where we listened the sound and the ground we walked upon.