hardcoded memory

source: designboom

troika has developed the artwork ‘hardcoded memory’, an installation commissioned by swarovski for the exhibition ‘digital crystal: memory in the digital age’
at design museum in london on display until the 13th of january, 2013.
‘memory is closely linked to forgetting. before the digital era, forgetting was easy, for better or worse, not only is it biologically in-built to forget, the analog world around us cannot guarantee that recorded memories will last forever. photographs fade, film footage can be lost and media out-dated, thus remembering was the exception and forgetting the default. now in an age of endless digital image reproduction there is no longer a need to remember.
we externalise [sic] our memories by handing them over to the digital realm enabled through digitization; inexpensive storage software, ease of retrieval and global access, blurring lines of ownership and making virtual forgetting close to impossible.
in the installation, low-resolution portraits are projected onto the gallery wall, generated by a hardcoded mechanical structure, which in the nature of its construction limits the selection of available images.
‘hardcoded memory’ is a reflection on the moment, and on time itself, standing as a metaphor for the human search for meaning and continuity, while celebrating forgetting in the digital age.‘
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source: dezeen

London Design Festival: in the first of three posts about the Digital Crystal exhibition at London’s Design Museum, we look at a mechanical projector built by London design studio Troika which uses Swarovski crystal lenses and LEDs to create portraits on the gallery wall.

The projector uses 858 custom-cut crystal optical lenses, each positioned in front of an LED.

Rotating cams move each LED towards or away from its lens, diffracting the white light into variously sized spots.

The spots of light then combine to produce three blurry, low-resolution portraits on the gallery wall.

“The recent past has seen a complete shift in the reproduction and selection process of visual information, and today we no longer need to restrict which and how many images we take,” Troika’s Conny Freyer told Dezeen.

“We are on the brink of a new age, still informed by the analogue world yet provided with new digital tools,” she added. “Hardcoded Memory is a reflection on that change and on the digital world by approaching it from an analogue point of view.”

The three portraits were selected according to their postures, in a reference to the traditional posed portraiture that was prevalent throughout the last century but is seen less often today.

Digital Crystal: Memory in the Digital Age continues at the Design Museum in London until 13 January 2013.

Other projects we’ve featured by Troika include an outdoor LED installation that displays yesterday’s weather and chandeliers that project overlapping circles of light.

2.60 m (H) x 2.0 m (W) x 0.4 m (D)
858 custom cut Swarovski crystal optical lenses, custom software, 858 LEDs, brass, anodized aluminium, dyed fibreboard.

Memory is closely linked to forgetting. Before the digital era, forgetting was easy, for better or worse. Not only is it biologically in-built to forget, the analogue world around us cannot guarantee that recorded memories will last forever.

Photographs fade, film footage can be lost and media out-dated. In the past, remembering was the exception, forgetting the default. Only a few decades ago, analogue photography was a limited edition of images taken of precious moments or the everyday: our grandparents, parents, children or ourselves. By selection, these images became meaningful, carrying the story for, and of, an extended period of time, a life, a person.

Now in the age of endless digital image reproduction there is no longer a function for a selection process, and so we do not need to forget. We externalise our memories by handing them over to the digital realm enabled through digitisation, inexpensive storage, ease of retrieval, global access, and increasingly powerful software, blurring lines of ownership and making virtual forgetting close to impossible.

Hardcoded Memory is a reflection on the moment and on time itself, standing as a metaphor for the human search for meaning and continuity, while celebrating forgetting in the digital age.

Low-resolution portraits are projected onto the gallery wall, generated by a hardcoded mechanical structure which in the nature of its construction limits the selection of available images. Custom-cut Swarovski crystal optical lenses project light from LEDs, which, motored by rotating cams, move away from, and toward to each crystal lens, transforming, through diffraction, the white light into a constellation of circular projections, creating a rhythmical fading in, and fading out of low resolution imagery on the gallery wall.

All pictorial information is hardcoded into the rotating cams of the mechanism giving a pre-determined selection of what can be displayed by the projector. And while the low resolution image is lending the portraits a universal appeal, the body posture of the portrayed informs a definite era or decade.

Experiencing the dream-like imagery on the gallery wall, the visitor is immersed in a digital memory embedded into an analog physical object, reinforcing Troika’s agenda of exploring rational thought, observation and the changing nature of reality and human experience.
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source: artssohu

走进伦敦设计博物馆（Design Museum London）三楼，Digital Crystal字样的水晶图像在闪烁中将人们引入施华洛世奇这场数码水晶艺术展。水晶在大自然中形成、生长，其声音在走廊两旁轰隆出现，如同开天辟地一般。这不是一场关于水晶的设计展，这是数码时代中艺术家们关于“记忆”的讨论。

　　最能体现这一点的莫过于英国公司Troika的作品Hardcoded Memory。超过850块仿水晶芯片将原本清晰的照片投射到墙上变成抽象而模糊的映像，反映着记忆在数码时代快速记录的同时渐渐模糊消散的现象。
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source: flair-magazinde

Die analoge Welt geht dem Ende entgegen. Das digitale Zeitalter hat längst begonnen. Doch was ist mit den Werten der analogen Welt? Wie haben sich Erinnerungen, gleich ob fotografisch oder schriftlich festgehalten, verändert? Und wie wird man in Zukunft mit Erinnerungen umgehen, wo sie doch mit einem Schlag, einem Klick ausgelöscht sein können? Diesen Fragen haben sich im Rahmen der Digital Crystal Swarovski talentierte Designer gestellt.

Anders das Design-Studio Troika. Mit ihrer Installation zeigen sie die unendliche Reproduzierbarkeit von Erinnerungen und das damit einhergehende Verblassen und Verschwimmen dieser auf. Analoge “Erinnerungsgefäße” wie die Fotografie oder das Tagebuch wurden einst gehütet und in Kartons aufbewahrt. Heutzutage können diese auf vielfältigste Weise reproduziert werden, wodurch sie sich nach und nach entfremden. Hard Coded Memory projiziert eine Fotografie durch ein Swarovski Objektiv, um eine unscharfe Ausgabe einer Originalaufnahme zu reproduzieren. Eine verblasste Erinnerung.
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source: arteconcodigo

Retratos efimeros que son creados para ser olvidados. El proyecto Hardcoded Memory critica a la era digital en la cual nuestra imagen, para bien o para mal, se vuelve eterna.

Como dicen sus autores: la memoria esta muy vinculada a la acción de olvidar. El termino memoria esta muy vinculado a las herramientas informaticas, por contrapunto esta obra pretende crear un sistema tecnológico que este vinculado al hecho de olvidar.
El encargo de estos retratos efimeros fue adjudicado a Troika por Swarosky, Swarosky encargó este proyecto artistico junto a otras obras para su Digital Cristal: Memory in the digital age.

El dispositivo es un proyector de baja resolución construido usando unas lentes de cristal de Swarovski cada uno de ellos con un led motorizado que proyecta su luz a traves de los cristales. dependiendo de la distancia del led al cristal la luz que se proyectara sobre la pared sera o más concentrada e intensa o dispersa y tenue. Esta matriz de cristales con sus respectivos LEDs generan distintas imágenes poco definidas que juegan con la metáfora de olvidar y los recuerdos pocos nítidos de nuestra memoria humana.