Pockets full of Memories

1
Pockets full of Memories

• Online installation
• Centre Pompidou, Paris,
• April 14 - September 3 2001

2
Idea

• User as a creator The audience creates an
  archive of meaningful items, each associated to
  meaningful memories

3
Concept

• George LeGrady, Merz Academie, Stuttgart
• Timo Honkela, UIAH Media Lab, SCIG, Helsinki
• CIRCUS planning meeting, London, Dec 1998

4
Goals

• Combine artistic and scientific methods
• Artist as a toolbuilder
• Use material provided by the audience, not based
  on the artists choices
• Explore the virtues of a digital data structure
  as a site of collective memory
• Modeling the users Reflect the diversity and
  make-up of the audience
• Explore interactivity as an element of the future
  of the creative practice

5
Describing items in pockets

• Guests describe memories and contexts associated
  to items in their pockets using touchscreen
  interface
• A digital photo taken of each item
• Database accumulated

6
Displaying semantic similarity map

• Large wall-mounted display
• Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm
  (Kohonen 1982)
• WEBSOM text-based encoding technology (Honkela et
  al 1996)

7
Website

• http//www.pocketsfullofmemories.com/

8
Browse objects for data
9
See description
10
Implementation

• SCIG, University of Art and Design Helsinki Timo
  Koskenniemi, Petri Saarikko (SOM computation)
• c3 center for Culture and Communication, Budapest
  (touchscreen data collection, online and gallery
  interaction hardware , projection software).
• projekttriangle, Stuttgart (design)
  http//www.projekttriangle.com/

11
Acknowledgements

• Langlois Foundation for Arts, Media and
  Technology, Montreal, Canada, funding
• Timo Honkela, photos

12
Enabling Communities of Interest to Promote
Heritage of European Regions(CIPHER)IST bid
approved
13
Funding

• 30 months
• To begin Feb 2002

14
Origin

• Themes and synergies around cultural heritages
  and metadata, discussed in Dublin 1999

15
Partners

• Open University, Knowledge Media Institute, UK
• University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH (FI
• The Discovery Programme (IRL)
• Czech Technical University, Department of
  Cybernetics (CZ)
• Internet-Lösungen und Dienstleistungen RiS GmbH
  (Austria)

16
Goals

• General Enable communities to celebrate and
  explore natural and regional heritage on a global
  scale through the construction and use of
  Cultural Heritage Forums.
• Our contribution Tools for the user to classify
  and view CH data from his/her subjective point of
  view (open interpretation approach).