problem. speak. past.


Wednesday, January 28, 2009
1:10 AM
(.beware..tons of text..)

got bored posting the technical and wordy texts...here are some youtube videos!! =)
**scary but..memories seem to be more than just pockets of info of yr life.
they r so unique that they form me. belong to me. if i pass u my heart. or the final
archive obj. will u feed n live on my memory?**




i feel really sad for him
**the memory is such an impt part of our life. time.**








** the heart. the heart.**



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*insert image*
hey!
searched --> how human memory works <-- and these r d online findings.
(summarized as much to my understanding ^^)


part 1 : how human memory works
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your baby's first cry...the taste of your grandmother's molasses cookies...
the scent of an ocean breeze..
these are memories that make up the ongoing experience of your life
-- they provide you with a sense of self.
they make you feel comfortable with familiar people and surroundings,
tie your past with your present, and provide a framework for the future.
it's our collective set of memories -- our "memory" as a whole --
that makes us who we are.

memory isn't a thing like bad eyes or a good head of hair.
memory doesn't exist like how your body exists
-- it's not a "thing" you can touch.
it's a concept that refers to the process of remembering.

in the past, experts describe memory as a tiny filing cabinet full of
individual's memory folders.
or memory as a neural supercomputer wedged under the human scalp.
but today, experts believe that memory is far more complex and elusive
-- it's located not in one particular place in the brain but is instead a
brain-wide process.

memory is a result of an incredibly complex constructive power
-- one that each of us possesses --
that reassembled disparate memory impressions from a web-like
pattern of cells scattered throughout the brain.
your "memory" is made up of a group of systems that have different
roles in creating, storing, and recalling your memories, working together
perfectly to provide cohesive thought.

if you think of an object -- say, a pen -- your brain retrieves the
object's name, its shape, its function, the sound when it scratches across
the page.
each part of the memory of a "pen" comes from different regions of the
brain. the entire image of "pen" is then reconstructed.

yet you're never aware of these separate mental experiences, nor that
they're coming from different parts of your brain.
because they all work together so well.
experts say there's no distinction between how you remember and
how you think.

scientists still don't fully understand exactly how you remember or what
occurs during recall.
search for how the brain organizes memories and where they're stored is a
never-ending quest for decades.

-- the process of memory begins with encoding, proceeds to storage,
and eventually, retrieval.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-memory.htm
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part 2 : memory encoding
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encoding is the first step in creating a memory.
it's a biological phenomenon, rooted in the senses, that begins with perception.
for example, the memory of yr 1st love.
your visual system registers physical features, like color of eyes and hair.
your auditory system picks up the sound of their laugh.
you probably notice their scent or felt the touch of their hand.
these separate sensations travel to part of your brain called the hippocampus,
which integrated these perceptions as they were occurring into one single
experience -- your experience of that specific person.

although a memory begins with perception, it is encoded and stored using
the language of electricity and chemicals.

the connections between brain cells aren't set in concrete
-- they change all the time.
brain cells work together in a network, organizing themselves into groups
that specialize in different kinds of information processing.
as one brain cell sends signals to another, the synapse between the two
gets stronger.
the more signals sent, the stronger the connection grows.
with each new experience, your brain slightly rewires its physical structure.

the brain organizes and reorganizes itself in response to your experiences,
forming memories triggered by the effects of outside input prompted by
experience, education, or training.

to properly encode a memory, you must first be paying attention.
since you cant pay attention to everything all the time, most of what you
encounter is filtered out, only a few stimuli pass into your conscious awareness.
if you remembered every single thing, your memory would be full before you
even left the house in the morning.

how you pay attention to information may probaby be the most important
factor in how much of it you actually remember.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-memory1.htm

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part 3 : short term and long term memory
________________________________________________________________

once a memory is created, it must be stored.

there are three ways we store memories:
first in the sensory stage; then in short-term memory; and ultimately,
for some memories, in long-term memory.
because there's no need for us to maintain everything, the different stages
of human memory function as a filter that helps protect us from the flood
of information that we're confronted daily.

creation of a memory begins with its perception:
registration of information during perception occurs in the brief sensory
stage that lasts only a fraction of a second.
your sensory memory allows a perception such as a visual pattern, a sound,
or a touch to linger for a brief moment after the stimulation is over.

after that first flicker, the sensation is stored in short-term memory.
short-term memory has a fairly limited capacity;
it can hold about seven items for no more than 20 or 30 seconds at a time.
you may increase this capacity by using various memory strategies.
for example, a ten-digit number like 8005840392 may be too much for your
short-term memory to hold.
dividing into chunks, 800-584-0392 may stay in your short-term memory
long enough.
by repeating the number, you can keep resetting the short-term memory clock.
important information is gradually transferred from short-term memory into
long-term memory.

the more information is repeated or used, more likely it is to become long-term
memory, or to be "retained."
unlike sensory and short-term memory, which are limited and decay rapidly,
long-term memory can store unlimited amounts of information indefinitely.

people easily store material on subjects that they already know about,
since the information has more meaning to them and can be mentally connected
to their long-term memory.

most people think of long-term memory when they think of "memory" itself
-- but experts believe information must first pass through sensory and
short-term memory before it can be stored as a long-term memory.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-memory2.htm

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part 4 : memory retrieval
________________________________________________________________

when you want to remember something, you retrieve the information on an
unconscious level, bringing it into your conscious mind at will.
most people think they have either a "bad" or a "good" memory, in fact,
most people are fairly good at remembering some types of things and not
so good at remembering others.
if you do have trouble remembering something
-- it'scause of an inefficient component of one part of your memory system.

let's look at how you remember where you put your eyeglasses.
when going to bed, you must register where you place your eyeglasses:
you must pay attention while you set them on your bedside table.
you must be aware of where you're putting them.
next, this information is retained, ready to be retrieved at a later date.
if the system is working properly, when you wake in the morning you'll
remember exactly where you left your eyeglasses.

if you've forgotten where they are, several things could have happened:
you may not have registered clearly where you put them down to begin with.
you may not have retained what you registered.
you may not be able to retrieve the memory accurately.

if you've forgotten something, it may be because you didn't encode it
very effectively, you were distracted while encoding should have taken place,
or because you're having trouble retrieving it.
however, you may not have really forgotten at all
-- instead, the location of your eyeglasses may never have gotten into your
memory in the first place.

distractions that occur while you're trying to remember something gets in
the way of encoding memories.
thus, not effectively saved into your memory.

you may forget simply cause you're having trouble retrieving the memory.
if you've ever tried to remember something one time and couldn't, but then
later you remember that same item, it could be that there was a mismatch
between retrieval cues and the encoding of the information you're
searching for.

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-memory3.htm

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end
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
3:09 PM
hi everyone! happy cny!

anyway.. i realised most of us are doing an archive of an issue or
something we're interested in.
but very few based it on an actual archive/collection of their own.
sth physical. like roger's collection of movie posters or viet tu's
hidden obsession of yellow stuff.
hee i know everyone's interpretation of the proj is different.
but when i found the definition of archive.

--accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime.
for example, the archives of an individual may contain letters, papers, photographs, computer files, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries or any
other kind of documentary materials created or collected by the individual--regardless of media or format.
--unpublished and almost always unique
--"by-product" of human activities

i felt it was closely related to my object of archive.


some tots during the last class (jotted randomly) :

--> somehw mysteriously i rem almost every single memory story
--> it's amazing hw much archive i have in my brain. must be my photographic memory!
(hee..realised..it's an archive based on another archive? my box of
stuff are jz tools leading to the intangible archive)
--> it's so dusty, old n smells. which im paranoid about. cz i imagine
im eating the dust
(yucks!)
--> journey?
--> my topic is intangible yet i still can rem
--> we forget.. but it's only temporary. lost for the moment.
tucked away.
--> how is my archive going to manifest?
--> how does the mind/brain store so many things?
--> i miss the past..so nice.
(in future i'll aso look tru at my current archive fever too)
--> even my blog entries. often abstract and simple.
(others wont understand cz onli i can comprehend)


possible solutions :

--> compilation of an archive. archive of an archive.
(in a cleaner way. saving space?)
--> personal diary. hidden tots behind my archive?
--> from the archive objects. visualizing into a story?
(letting others understand the link between memory and obj?)
--> poster of obj and ask.."remember?"
(is like letting others realise..eh? i rem this n that..
letting pple be amazed at wonders of their memory.
also seeing how different pple relate differently to an obj.
yet each is unqiue. part of their personal life.)


what should i do now? :

--> research how the human memory works, understand.
--> more about memory.


problem? :

--> there are too many things in my archive.
--> memory is a very intangible ting.
(need to narrow down to a certain essence that i wan to portray.
and focus)
--> what's do i wan to show?



another random tot :

dont you find it really tiring to read the wordy, pictures, technical,
long posts about archive fever?
i do. probably cause im not the kind to usually type long posts.
most of the time i'll just scroll and skip and pick certain parts to read.

isnt it abit like our brain/memory?
there's like 20+yrs of events yet we rem by small bits of our memory.

--> a possible solution to my archive fever.
--> simplifying and presenting onli the essence of my memory/ hw
the brain works

WOOHOO!!!
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
-project brief-definition-archive-
2:04 AM
i feel it's amazing how things can just spontaneously trigger certain hidden memories.
is like look. ah! i rem.
it's crazy shit.
im really amazed how i still can rem. not onli what happened but the actual scene, location, sounds, smell, storyline, mood, feel, etc.
ever wonder hw our brain/memory can actually store soooooo much?
is like magic.
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my.
archive. primary source. memories.
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found this box in my cupboard.

somehow..ive managed to rem putting stuff into the box..


hee..and surprisingly when i got this box..the lock no. was my fave no. already.

hee i love things wif no. 20 =)




haha..the box is really really super ultra dusty.

im pretty sensitive to dust. but most of my tings are actually..

dusty -_-

cz i collect too many things le..collect. chuck. dust.

all the coins my dad got fr his tour guide job.

he loved to give us the different currencies.

i rem me and my sis collecting the coins n notes and feeling happy with the money.

thinking that when we get a chance to go to that country, we got money to use! ^^

a lock fr an old diary (sadly i dont rem hw it looks like. but i rem a flat aluminium key)


wahaha..wonders of the portable pen!

transformers..more than meets the eye.

ha look like rite. i loved transformers. one of the crazy cartoons i craved.

rem myself waking super earli like 8am just to watch cartoons, power rangers,

carebears, my little pony, transformers.

and usually im happy to be 1st to wake.haha..now. i can visualise my old hse livingroom.

me sitting at the sofa and watching the old big tv. and quietly turning the old door knob so as not to wake family. hehe..omgosh! the morn light. my late grandma coming home with breakfast! food!! omgosh.


ha used to be crazy collecting tabs to win.but usually..nv even send ha!


can u guess wads this?

whaha if u are not my memory u wont know! wahahah..

ok i noe cz i played the game b4 and rem hw the seeds look like =p

it's from...mastermind! woohoo!





hee.my very first bank book.

still can rem bits of memories. excited to deposit money and looking at the bank book. and doing the thumb print.

ha did u noe..i loved to fold money and bus tickets into heart shapes ^^



such an old book.

dont rem hw i got it. but i rem having the doggy chop ha! cz me n sis used to play teacher and student. who does good work gets to chop and act seh..haha..

and seems like i had some fashion design love already =p





i loved sailor mars hehe.

this was from mum.

she used to work at BP (british petroleum) and they had a toy series.

would try collect the whole series haha..duno whr's it now..chucked somewhr i guess.


ha i was crazy collecting these old mrt tickets.

usually when mum gets the tickets.whenever i see a design i havent gotten, we would keep them and just buy another.

ha i rem a time we kept "donging" the money cause every design that came out i hadnt gotten. hehe..guess since young already loved collecting stuff..not cz of designs. but simply just collecting them..haha..prob reason why ive got tons of junk ha.










ive a loved for collecting cards.

hee back then mum n dad had alot alot of weird membership cards.

prob a trend back then to apply. since their free? =p






surprisingly. i rem holding this badge.

but the image is very blur.

haha u wont noe wads it..haha..thrs a story behind the diamond thing ^^

well. the blue one is necklace of lego doll.

and the diamond..barbie's earring.

i rem me n sis found diamond stuck into our room floor.

we tried "digging" it out cz we tot thr was real diamond burried on our ground, like pirate's treasure. we really tried all means to get it out. using pen to make a hold arnd the diamond, chipping the sides, tweezers, etc. nv succeeded. ha. still wonder hw it got there.


do u know. that if the last 4 no. of yr bus ticket adds up to 21. u can make a wish and it'll come true?

=) ive gotten a few and wished. hee.

the jade bangle i wore since young.

there are cracks. cause.......i was super accident prone. -_- always tripping at a step to my nursery sch. and just falling down even on flat surfaces. haha..tts y my knees are pretty rough. scars. ha

haha the image i can rem is my young naked self in bathroom with soap all over and struggling so hard to remove the bangle. y?

cause primary school had a rule no jewellery allowed. -_- so using soap would be easiest to remove. but! cannot come out.

so i had to shout for help fr the bathroom for mum to remove it out. was really devastated.

there was another bangle, silver one wif pair of bells. duno whr's it.


hehe..that's me. ha..

i rem the dress i was wearing. white with colourful straps.

they say usually u wont rem your baby or kid memory.but i do rem some. maybe was help from some past photos. but i still rem..the innocent times.

and ive got a barbie doll membership card. with this photo as id. ha.

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