Digital media, memories and representation: Rebirth

Symposium:

• ISEA2009: 15th International Symposium on Electronic Art
• More presentations from ISEA2009:  

• Interactive storytelling and memory building

• Digital media, memories and representation: Rebirth

• David R. Burns

Venue(s):

• Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Ireland

• Abstract

  September 11th 2001 was a perfect example of a paradigm shift in the way real-time memories are processed using technology. On September 11th, U.S. civilians experienced an attack on U.S. soil via digital broadcast in real time as the events were unfolding outside their homes. This catastrophe was an example of a larger shift at the intersection of technology and memory. Digital technology allows viewers to experience events in real time as never before possible. In addition, digital technology, in contrast to analogue technologies of the past, is lossless. In other words, although our organic memories, those that we keep in our minds, and our analogue film recordings, the recordings of our past, degrade over time, digital recording of raw material is intact and preserved in its entirety, irrespective of the number of times the memory is recalled and played back.

Category:

• Paper