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Act I: life until now

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Prologue

Prologue

Before we can answer this question, we need to explore what memory means. The creation, the storage and retrieval. The types and the importance of it - all in relation to the systems within nature...

‘‘Natures garden represents a beautifully dynamic equilibrium, everything in its place and yet constantly changing’’05 [Skene, 2019]

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There is something to be said for that in architecture. We as human are hoarders, especially of memory. We are rigid and generally not open to change. Nature evolves gradually, through natural selection, and adapts to an ever changing environment. It moves with its ecosystem, updating constantly to be more efficient in its current situation. We could take a lesson from this, by letting go of and learning from the past. Acknowledge we might not be what we used to be, but that maybe we are better06 .

All memory can be curated and controlled, a lot of the time it is not a true representation of events but rather a story of the imaginary. Stories can be rewritten, images can be cropped, videos cut, buildings removed and replaced or adapted. It could be said that memory is constantly changing, but the representation of it is not:

‘‘Every time you remember an event from the past, your brain networks change in ways that can alter the later recall of the event. Thus, the next time you remember it, you might recall not the original event but what you remembered the previous time’’07 [paul, 2012]

So this poses the question of how do we create the memories in the first place?

In general, it takes time for memories to form whether that is physical or emotional; in the physical body or in the emotional mind. There are two main types of long term memory:

Declarative [explicit] + Non-declarative [implicit] ----------- --------------

Both are types of long term memory with declarative memory allowing the brain to consciously recollect experiences in terms of facts like capital cities and events such as past birthdays. Non-declarative memory is the unconscious and builds up; for example learned skills such as skiing, riding a bike or playing an instrument. It also includes unconscious bodily responses such as salivating at the thought or smell of ones favourite food.08

05 Skene, K., 2019. Artificial intelligence and the environmental crisis. 1st ed. Routledge. 06 ‘better’ does not mean that we improve each time but rather we adapt to function at our most streamline for the current time and environment. 07 https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2012/09/your-memory-is-like-the-telephone-game 08 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/declarative-memory#:~:text=Declarative%20or%20 explicit%20memory%20is,for%20fast%20processing%20and%20learning.

‘‘collective memory is always selective; various groups of people have different collective memories’’ -Maurice Halbwachs [1938]

MEMORY:

SYSTEM: Every section in the table adjacent is about process/experience – the length of a process and number of steps or severity of event and its effect on a person’s life determines whether they form a long term memory or not.

The list is made up of created ‘groups’ with their associated ‘type’ as an attempt to further understand the terms ‘declarative’ and ‘non-declarative’.

Physical memory can be defined in terms of muscles and genetics -------where the muscles can remember motions for activities. Genetic memory is a theorised phenomenon09 in psychology which explores the idea that memories can be shared genetically, from parent to offspring and through generations of families. Usually they are associated with sensory experiences as they activate specific areas of the brain.

‘‘Until we uncover the actual triggering event in our family history, we can relive fears and feelings that don’t belong to us—unconscious fragments of a trauma—and we will think they’re ours.’’10 [Wolynn, 2016]

The theory of inherited memory holds a physical form which becomes interesting if you think about trying to record, or remove it. It is in DNA made of up code - so why wouldn’t we be able to store it externally and relieve carriers of their weight?

DOMINO is a platform for recording memory from DNA where there is ongoing research into the storage of human memory in a physical form. The team11 have written an article explaining their research:

‘‘The ability to process and store information in living cells is essential for developing next-generation therapeutics and studying biology in situ. However, existing strategies have limited recording capacity and are challenging to scale. To overcome these limitations, we developed DOMINO, a robust and scalable platform for encoding logic and memory in bacterial and eukaryotic

cells.’’12 [Farzadfard, et al. 2019]

Whilst this example is exploring memory in bacteria and eukaryotic cells, it is still only the beginning and provides and insight into what we might be able to do in the future.

09 Wilder Penfield in his pioneering 1978 book, Mystery of the Mind, mentions racial memory that today would be understood as genetic memory: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/genetic-mem ory-how-we-know-things-we-never-learned/#:~:text=Wilder%20Penfield%20in%20his%20pioneering,the%20 equivalent%20of%20genetic%20memory). 10 Wolynn, M. 2016. It Didn’t Start With You: how inherited family trauma shaped who we are and how to end the cycle. 1st ed. Penguin Books. p 77 11 A group of 5 individuals, all from MIT 12 Fahim Farzadfard, N. G., Yasutomi Higashikuni, Giyoung Jung, Jicong Cao, Timothy K. Lu (2019). “Single-Nucleo tide-Resolution Computing and Memory in Living Cells.” Molecular Cell 75(4): 769-780.

TYPE

Non-declarative

Declarative + Non-declarative

Declarative

Declarative + Non-declarative muscle [repetitive motion]

genetics [theory of trauma being carried down generations]

phantom [stored in the mind and body]

GROUP

Physical [relating to the body as opposed to the mind] METHOD OF STORAGE

Psychological/

Emotional [relating to the mental and emotional state of the mind]

Objectual [relating to items having a physical form; not related to the human body]

Cultural [relating to the collective physical and emotional memory of people] trauma [often blocked by the mind until a healing process is explored or a trigger is discovered]

positive childhood experiences

pathways [in the mind]

photography/film [physical + digital prints]

computer [server, hardrive, USB etc]

art [painting, pottery, literature etc]

buildings

family recipes

religious acts

architecture

experience [large (usually traumatic) events which effected the running of society]

MEMORY:

SYSTEM:

MEMORY: Psychological memory falls mainly under a declarative type, ------------where repetition becomes important, particularly at the school age of a person. The conscious collection and storage of information for the benefit of a class or to expand ones knowledge.

From reading into the wheels adjacent, philosophers Ramon Llull13 and Giordano Bruno14 were exploring the middle ground between the arts and science in relation to memory. The act of drawing the diagram, and including text [literature] was an attempt at visually trying to understand the science of memory. How it is created, how it forms and how it stays or disappears.

With particular focus on Llull’s wheel, the elements which make a memory memorable could be seen as the first step towards Artificial Intelligence, where each dial can be rotated independently you get an almost infinite number of combinations enabling the creation and recording of memory. The understanding of the human mind could enable us to recreate it in a lab environment - an insight into the conscious mind and control.

By understanding the memory of the mind, we can begin to look at how it might be controlled, triggered or removed. Involuntary memory, or repressed memory [trauma] becomes unavailable to the conscious mind where a person cannot actively remember a situation however something could trigger it. This is where psychological memory is non-declarative; if declarative takes place in the conscious mind. The way emotions can be triggered by sensory cues means it is very unpredictable and relatively uncontrollable. The smell of mint tea can take you back to being at your grandparent’s house helping them pick mint from the garden, or the smell of fresh grass can take you back to playing football with your friends at school.15 Compared to all the senses, smell has the strongest link to memory as ‘‘the

human olfactory system is linked directly to the most primitive parts of our brain.’’16 [Styx, 2021]

13 died in 1315 Llull was not just a philosopher but also a theologian, poet, missionary, and Christian apologist from the Kingdom of Majorca 14 died in 1600 Bruno was also an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist 15 note both references relate to nature, which is often the case and interesting as these scents are not curated 16 https://www.verywellmind.com/new-research-explains-why-scent-triggers-such-powerful-memories-5116589

Figure 2: Frances Yates reconstruction of Giordano Bruno memory wheel from ‘De Umbris Idearum’

Figure 3: Lullian wheel

MEMORY: Objectual memory represents the idea of memorable events being --------held in public buildings, monuments or objects. This group explores the idea of ‘exosomatic memory’ best, with many forms of external memory devices, be it drawings of objects or the physical objects themselves.

The creation of the Mnemonic17 Alphabet came about by Jacobus Publicius in 1482. His aim was to create an illustrated alphabet by using familiar objects which echoed the shape of the associated letter. The idea behind this being that the organisation of the visualisation would help improve memory. They would act as triggers in a way. Inspired by Publicius’ alphabet, Robert Fludd [english physician18] came up with his own version with the idea being that a sequence of letters or numbers could be more easily recalled by picturing a scene of the objects which corresponded to the digits. The principles of each mnemonic alphabet are very much the same however the symbolic objects are different. This suggests that personal visual connections differ from person to person and possibly people who share similar backgrounds may see the same associated symbol and letter, whereas others would visualise something else but be grouped with other people of similar mind structures.

Figure 5: Jacobys Publicius Mnemonic Alphabet [1482]

17 meaning a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something. 18 died in 1637 Fludd was also an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist and Rosicrucian

Figure 6: RobertFludd Mnemonic Alphabet (1617)

MEMORY: Cultural memory can be explored in terms of collective memory -------and therefore shared experiences. There are a combination of storage devices from the other groups which can make up the cultural section. However the difference in this section is that many people can share the same memory but remember it differently. Whilst their personal memories may differ slightly when it comes to the details, the triggers will more than likely be the same. For smaller groups, the smell of a family recipe being cooked in the kitchen can bring them back to the last time it was cooked. In a large group, it may be something less personal, like bullet damaged walls from war in the city. This visual trigger of memory is powerful, as it can bring people together who share traumatic experiences but it can also allow younger generations who did not experience the event itself to reflect and feel as though they are part of something bigger - and so culture is continued.

It was clear by creating the table [on page 24] that it is very unnatural for methods to be divided in such a way as many elements are interconnected. The diagram adjacent was created with reference to the memory wheels of Bruno and Lulls. The connecting items demonstrate how memory is very fluid where sub-categories under the 4 main groups are related to each other. The diagram is very much open to interpretation and some may imagine connections where others do not. It is suggested that the middle zone of the diagram becomes the place where collective memory is formed. Each individual element is relatively isolated but the moment even two elements are brought together they are strengthened and hold a lot more meaning. It is this zone that the collective memory could really thrive. Several factors influencing a thought or experience means more people are brought together when it comes to the triggers that could remind them of a moment.

C A L I P H Y S OBJECTUAL

genetics storage literature building wars

t o m n ph a

COLLECTIVE MEMORY f ami l y r e c ip es

muscl e relig ion

pathways

ht gi del trauma

NAL O EMOTI C U L T U R AL

diagram created with reference to theory of the memory wheels and the authors produced table of memory categories.

NATURE:

SYSTEM:

MEMORY: Fluidity and cross contamination of cultural memory can be found in nature, specifically plants, we can understand that even though they are not ‘living’ in the same sense we are, with minds and consciousness, they are still alive. The dispersive nature of plants with their seeds and pollen means that they must be adaptable. A seed lands in a different type of soil to that it came from but somehow it still manages to grow.

‘‘Plants make structural changes in response to parasites, predators, geomagnetic fields, oxygen...’’19 [Skene, 2019]

So why can we not view cities the same? Why can’t our cities, in this case Athens, reacts to their parasites [abandoned buildings] and change their structure to deal with them? The ‘scattered’ nature of plants provides us with a new view on buildings within their cities. Seeds/pollen blow in the wind, being directed by external factors but still able to find a way to share and spread with each other.

Imagine a gardener in a greenhouse, taking a cotton bud and manually removing pollen from the male anther to the female stigma. There is an extra amount of energy required to do this, whereas if the plants were outside in their native climates, they would reproduce themselves20; using natural forces and already existing energies as they are meant to be used - embracing the inevitable and existing ecosystem. Centralised systems which we are used to in our current urban environments follow a similar principle to the analogy above. Where at the moment there are overpowering ‘controllers’ and bodies that create hierarchy in built places. These government powers are the gardeners in their greenhouses; in their sterile and completely controlled environments. The idea behind decentralisation21 is to remove this overarching power, and allow places to evolve into ecosystems.

In terms of built environments and design, we as architects are the wind and essentially the natural ‘pollinators’, helping to guide the inevitable.

Where buildings need to be changed, they will be recognised by the users [surrounding community] and adapted, allowing for a more fluid running of societal systems, where communities are given an environment in which they and surroundings can adapt naturally.

Taking the previous diagram into the historically rich urban context of Athens, Greece we can begin to see how sites exploring memory can be connected and strengthen the collective memory of place. Athens has many abandoned buildings which are represented with the grey blocks on the image. The icons are taken from the grid on page 36, giving them a place and purpose in the city instead of being an isolated concept.

19 Skene, K., 2019. Artificial intelligence and the environmental crisis. 1st ed. Routledge. p 71 20 themselves: meaning as part of their ecosystem, including sun, wind and pollinating insects 21 Caledonian Dream Unit ambition

Diagram of previous created wheel overlaying the city blocks, beginning to suggest the interlinking of sites creating a new collective memory experience within the city

MEMORY:

NATURE: Memory as discussed before can be split into several categories, and has many triggers. The idea of dedicating spaces in the city to specific points in history but also creating a space for memory to be explored is the aim.

Physical, emotional, objectual and cultural are the 4 categories introduced in the beginning and are the headings of the columns on the next page. With specific reference to Athens’ history, from ancient to modern, the initial idea is that objects which already exist in the memory of Athens could be architecturally formed across the city. As icons or memory devices to trigger the memory of the past including but not limited to first inventions, war events or urban morphology.

Each abandoned site in Athens [ruined memory] could be revitalised in terms of purpose. Turning the parasites of the city into gems. Instead of stripping the city of nutrients, they can be the nitrogen of the soil. These spaces in the city become about experience and memory rather than about building and become more about the symbolic objects which represent the connecting system and the type of memory.

‘‘Architecture, as an arrangement of material elements, must be understood both as a product of memory and as a physical support for it.’’22 [Fernandez-Galiano,

2000]

The list of objects on the following page exploring potential memory devices is of course unfinished, and for a reason. The idea would be for local users to decide what is appropriate for the area, and existing or potential community.

22 Fernandez-Galiano. (2000). Fire and memory : on architecture and energy. MIT Press. p 70

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