The memoryphone® was developed as a piece of critical design which simultaneously questions the way memories affect our ability to function on a day to day basis and our blithe acceptance of certain aspects of mobile phone technology, or technology in general.

I began this project with the thought of creating a device into which a person with failing memory could deposit their knowledge then use as a sort of external memory or triggering device. There were a number of issues I needed to consider, primarily: "How could a person who is losing their memory learn and then remember how to use such a device?", and "What would make the device itself "un-lose-able"? ".

I began by setting up an interview with a woman who had damaged her pineal gland - considered to be the seat of many of our memory’s little-understood functions. She had been involved in a car accident a year ago, and has been suffering from a dramatic loss of memory for the past 6 months. Memory recovery has been known in similar circumstances, as the brain can (after some time) construct new neural pathways, which lead to the missing memories. Yet, after a certain age such recovery is considered unlikely. I felt that if I could understand the problem from the point of view of someone living with escalating memory loss I would be more able to solve the design issues I was faced with, and any others which may come to light during the interview process.

To my surprise, the woman I interviewed didn’t actually have a problem with the fact that she was losing her memory. It was annoying, certainly, on a day-to-day basis, when she couldn’t remember simple, functional things like how to turn her computer on, or off, or how to print the letters she wrote on the computer, or how to find anything inside it. It was exasperating when she couldn’t remember where she’d put her keys, or her glasses, which she’d had only five minutes beforehand, or whether or not she’d turned the gas off before leaving the house. These things were definitely problematic. But they didn’t cause her stress, or concern her on a broader and more existential level. It seemed that, on an existential level, her memory loss was really only a problem for everyone else.

This response to the rapid and seemingly permanent loss of memory intrigued me. In the resulting exploration of my assumptions about the importance and role of memory I began to consider the possible value of a device which could facilitate the temporary or permanent removal of memories which cause us pain and/or prevent us from functioning on a day to day basis.

So much of our identity is intrinsically tied to what (and how) we remember. Our memories lead our interpretations of events and so inform the way we respond to situations. Added to this, each person’s experience of a situation and what they choose to remember differs from another’s. There are several factors which come into play – actual, physical perspective, being one, and interpretation, affected by our emotional, social, psychological and sociological background and environment (all affected by what and how we remember from our past) being the other, I would suggest, more dominant factor to be considered

The way we remember is also influenced by a very important phenomenon in the brain – that of classification or summarisation of memories. We remember the rule, or everything that fits with what we know, and we remember the exceptions, or that which doesn’t make sense with regard to what we know. If there are one hundred things which fit, and two exceptions, we only need to remember the exceptions and the rule itself, therefore the exceptions seem to take on a disproportionate amount of significance. Considering, in this example, that we’re remembering 102 discreet events or elements as merely three things – 1 rule and 2 exceptions, the exceptions seem to take on a significance as if, in fact, they are experienced more often, or (as we often interpret) more deeply. (Norman, D., (1998) The Design of Everyday Things, MIT Press)

But what if there existed a device with which we could temporarily or permanently remove specific memories that were affecting our ability to function? Would people want one? From personal experience I decided that yes, I would have liked, at certain times in my life, to have been able to erase or scramble for a time access to certain memories which made it difficult for me to get on with having a normal life. I don’t know if I would use such a device if it existed, but the possibility of the service it was suggesting was certainly attractive.

Surgically or electronically altering our brain is not something that many people would enter into lightly. We know so little about how the brain functions. It would be difficult to reassure people that they were not risking giving themselves some unsuspected, permanent damage beyond that which they intended or desired by using such a device.

I decided that giving added functionality to an existing device would perhaps make it easier for people to move beyond these very real fears to consider making use of the advantages I was proposing. I also felt that people would be more likely to add the kind of functionality I was considering to a familiar device, rather than go out and specifically purchase something entirely new. I felt that adding functionality to something familiar also presented me with an opportunity to highlight certain aspects of this existing technology.

I chose the mobile phone for a number of reasons. It is a device which many people already own and have comfortably assimilated into their daily routine. Mobile phones are known to channel microwave radiation into the brain(1), and this aspect of the technology is usually ignored or conveniently disregarded. Mobile phones can be reprogrammed using the existing numberpad/keyboard, i.e. they have an existing interface. And, lastly, mobile phones have an input port which is currently used to input power when recharging the rechargeable battery.

So the memoryphone® takes your existing mobile phone and gives it added functionality. It takes advantage of the radioactive waves that enter the brain and uses them to eliminate or put off until later those annoying, unsavory, painful or unwanted memories that are interfering with your ability to have a normally functioning life.

© danielle wilde 2002