Permanent traces
(2024)
author(s): Matevž Čebašek
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Research Document of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023. BA Photography.
The research paper serves as a base for understanding the memories on a case of a person with dementia and their connections to the medium of photography. Photography is used as an attempt to retrieve my grandmother’s autobiographical memories which are often hard to retrieve. It is based on the assumption that every memory, no matter how vague, is still accessible by restoring to a proper process, similar to the latent image on the photographic film that becomes visible only after appropriate processing. Based on existing experimental memory research I constructed a method of finding a cue that can trigger specific memories in a conversation. Photographic images from the past were used as a base of the conversation. In most cases, they didn’t directly trigger involuntary memory, but they served as a starting point for a conversation, allowing my grandmother to start actively thinking about a period of her life. Due to dementia, the responses within one conversation were often repeated, yet after some time, the chain reaction of retrieving memories allowed her to remember some specific details. Her understanding of the fragility of memories was constantly present. On multiple occasions, she expressed that an artificial device, such as photography or writing, should be used to preserve them. The research doesn’t give a complete understanding of how memories and their retrieval work in general, but it gives a better understanding of how it can efficiently be done with my grandmother. The process I developed can be applied to other people if properly adjusted to them. I believe that essentially what counts is not what kind of cue we choose, but that we patiently take time to listen and guide conversations with some previous knowledge about their past.
Do Androids remember they once dreamed of Electric Sheep?
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Shizhe Qian
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2024
BA Photography
My research paper, Do Androids remember they once dreamed of Electric Sheep? investigates the interplay between artificial intelligence and human cognition, focusing on the theme of "dreams" as a metaphorical and literal framework for understanding large language models (LLMs). Starting with a personal reflection on the nature of knowledge, the research probes the philosophical question of what can truly be known, using the enigmatic functionality of LLMs like ChatGPT as a focal point. It challenges traditional views by comparing the often-unpredictable outputs of LLMs to the elusive and revealing nature of dreams.
