Memories: 'I was here'

People can leave marks on the environment and other things as an indicator of their presence or to say 'I was here'

Botany Bay, England

Old City of Jerusalem. Prayer of request placed in the western wall. This is slightly different. It is leaving a piece of oneself behind for a religious reason. There is the idea of it being a massive 'collection' of prayers which are placed in cracks in the wall. As thy are written in paper they will eventually degrade or get blown away. It is powerful.

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/graffiti-art/  banksy. Graffiti is interesting as it has enjoyed a change in reputation in the 21st century as being an art form rather than a nuisance and books have even been published about it. 

 Leaving notes on the fridge. Also an indicator of presence. Will eventually fade over time and get 'overwritten'. This impermanence is of value: it can be reused. The same way that people may use pencils rather than pens due to the fact that they can be removed.

Old cave carving.

Brainstorming presence: Perhaps the type of memory can influence the physical manifestation.

There can be illegal or legal types of people leaving their mark on the world. There can be marks in public or private places, and sometimes there can be religious 'marks' being left. Another example is the wishing well.

There is not often a forum for people to 'leave their mark' in places in a legal and meaningful way. Presence has been explored in this project before, but always part of a functional, one-to-one paired architecture.

Paul (a blogger) talks about 'how to leave your mark on the world'. An anonymous Yorkshire artist has been leaving his mark in the form of intricate wood carvings. Anonymity may increase notoriety i.e. Banksy. 

Art and fun is also a possible 'lens' to design for. 

False memory was also explored. It is constructed in the mind, but psychologist have various techniques to implant false memories. Problems with this are the need for a large amount of contact time with a subject and individual attention for these tested methods. Where people are recalling assumptions about things i.e. what was in a room they were just in, or what was in footage they had just seen, there are often carefully controlled environments and sometimes even actors. 

False memory could be incorporated into gaming i.e. a game where you have to identify an 'odd one out'. In 'Designing Interactions' by Bill Moggridge he discusses the difficulties in inventing games. 'Inventing a toy or a game is a rigorous process. Brendan has ten people in his team, dedicated to understanding play and focused on coming up with new ideas that have a chance of succeeding.' Prototyping and repetitive user testing is central to the process. False memories are used in the game sport the difference: noticing what is and isn't meant to be there.