mnemeion
Basic information
Project Title
Category
Project Description
Mnemeion is an exploration of the possibility of human existence with a complete detachment from digital technology in a future world which is consumed by it. It is a sculptural expression that embodies the need to preserve and protect our thoughts, ideas and memories.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Mnemeion is an exploration of the possibility of human existence with a complete detachment from digital technology in a future world which is consumed by it. It is a sculptural expression that embodies the need to preserve and protect our thoughts, ideas and memories. Inspired by the movement of Arte Povera, the product re-purposes timber boxes as the fundamental building blocks of a speculative memory machine. The boxes, which differ in shape, size and material, store the hand-written artifacts of our diverse thoughts and memories. Thus, it is a monumental collage of our minds, unique to each of us. It doesn't have any defined form.
Since mnemeion is a representation of the human mind, it cannot be mass produced, but rather be co-created or orchestrated by our individual discretion. The brand itself ties in to serve a community or even an individual who has broken away from the shackles of the digital world, with these memory boxes to build their memory monument and help them preserve their thoughts.
Key objectives for sustainability
Since the concept behind mnemeion is to bring a renewed value to the practice of handwriting, the service is aimed to directly support this process.
In fact, the service develops beside two main use cases of the product: the first one is community-based — in which the final product, as a result of a dedicated university course, becomes a semi-permanent installation enjoyable by everyone during a special event — and the second regards a private sphere — where the product becomes a personal and private tool to store memories in the domestic sphere through handwriting.
Regarding the theme of sustainability, it is important to understand where the service action is placed along the whole product life cycle. Our service develops over several phases of the life cycle, assuming both a support and active role. The former, which is within the Sourcing - Design and Manufacturing - Distribution phases, makes mnemeion act as an intermediary between the various actors involved within the design process, starting from the collection of wasted wood used to build the boxes - and thus the final product- to the support needed for the setting up of the project launch event. In the latter, instead, mnemeion assumes a more active role during the mid-phases of Marketing - Sales and Product use, since it promotes brand campaigns.
Our strength related to environmental sustainability emerges within the supporting role of mnemeion, as the machine is made up of a series of pre-fabricated boxes and embodies, in some ways, the ready-made art movement. The boxes are supplied by an external wood supplier, given to the students to build the large machine and, once the promotion event is over, are distributed to private buyers who decide to sign up for the private program.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Inspired by the movement of Arte Povera — or poor art, an artistic tendency which, rejecting the cultural values linked to an organised and technologically advanced society, aims at the recovery of action, of the contingent, of the archetype as the only possibility of art — the product repurposes timber boxes as the fundamental building blocks of this machine.
The boxes are differently sized and shaped. They also differ in weight, permeability, and in terms of their locking, opening, and closing mechanisms. Their physical characteristics are symbolic of our thoughts. For instance, heavy, fragile, or precious. As a general method of categorisation, there are five types of these boxes:
1. The Fragile and Temporal: representing the unimportant or passing thoughts and memories.
2. The Compartment: Representing thoughts that have found a temporary place in our mind and are ready to be assessed
3. The Filter: Thoughts and memories that are being evaluated and analysed
4. The Recollection: These thoughts have found a permanent place in our minds and we remember them when we want to.
5. The Treasure Chest: These are the everlasting eternal memories that are very personal to us.
The “machine”, henceforth, emerges from the ground by the discretion of the user and it grows with every thought, memory, or idea that finds its place in it. It is intended to be a monument celebrating the fearless expression of the human spirit where one is in absolute control of what's most precious and personal to them. Their thoughts, their memories, and their ideas.
Key objectives for inclusion
Mnemeion symbolises the need for privacy of our thoughts and memories in a future where detachment from digital technology is the greatest challenge. The proposed intervention provides the means to those who wish to break free from the shackles of their digital existence and restore the privacy of their individual and collective memories, thoughts, and ideas through physical hand-written, or drawn documentation stored in memory boxes.
At a community level, the service would cater to events of co-creation where participants would collectively build the monumental memory machine that narrates the community’s thoughts and memories. The “machine” would be the truest sculptural representation of the locality it belongs to, shaped according to its citizen and un-corrupted by external influence, unlike the digital world. The memories and thoughts would remain safe from theft, manipulation, or corruption as they would always be public and “hand-written”. It would provide its co-creators the chance to live as humans again, un-enhanced by technology and accepted with all their human imperfections. It would provide the opportunity to look beyond the “convenience and efficiency” of the digital world and embrace a slower but more human form interaction.
The event of building memories of the community would have no boundaries, inviting people of all classes, gender, or race to participate. The common ground for all would be their willingness to detach from their digital identities and reinforce their physical ones and be humans once again.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Mnemeion is a speculative approach towards voicing the need for privacy of our thoughts and memories in a future that is consumed by digital technology. In terms of sustainability, the proposed “machine” is a creation of repurposed timber boxes stacked together to store the physical manifestation of our thoughts and memories. It does not involve the creation of new components from scratch. Thus, it also does not contribute to the additional use of resources or generation of waste. In fact, owing to its complete detachment from the digital world, it also does not contribute to ever-increasing “information waste”. What it proposes is a humble event of co-creation, involving the community to reuse and recycle timber boxes and containers.
At the aesthetic level, the composition and scale of the monument machine is a true representation of the community’s collective memory - almost like a 3-dimensional collage of our collective minds. Inspired by the movement of Arte Povera, the machine expresses a rustic, organic, and unpolished appearance, celebrating our detachment from “perfectly crafted” factory-made products that can be mass-produced. Mnemeion is unique to the community it belongs to, incremental and dynamic in its form.
Finally, it is a result of a collective co-creation of communities. The service of Mnemeion is imagined as an event of co-creation inviting people from all walks, gender, age, or race to participate in building their collective monument of memory. It manifests the need to be human in our ways and enjoy the freedom from our digital identities. It celebrates the acceptance of human flaws and imperfections and invites people to embrace a slower yet human form of co-existing and sharing. It is a silent yet powerful protest towards the unfathomable and ever-increasing theft of control of our natural lives in the physical world by digital technology.
