An interactive installation that delves into the paradox that attempting to forget unwanted memories deepens the memory instead. This ironic counterproductive effect reflects memories as traces in time, where the attempts of erasure paradoxically reinforce them.
People can engage with the machine by pulling the pen attached on the box to inscribe memories they wish to forget. This action activates a pulley system that raises a stamp block. When people release the pen, the stamp block will drive the nails into the wood block, imprinting the trace of "FORGOT".
During the process, the will to forget unwanted memories is transformed into the power of imprinting, and a tension lies between the "FORGOT" as both textual erasure and physical trace. The will to erase traces ironically deepens it instead, mirroring the experience that attempting to forget unwanted memories intensifies them. The absurdity experienced during interaction expose human will to a greater context of time and gravity, revealing the impossibility of forgetting and illuminating the interconnectedness of traces and time, anti-traces and gravity.
During the processes, the will to forget unwanted memories is transformed into the power of imprinting, and tension lies between the "FORGOT" as both textual erasure and physical trace. The will to erase traces ironically deepens it instead, mirroring the experience that attempting to forget unwanted memories intensifies them. The absurdity experienced during interaction exposes human will to a greater context of time and gravity, revealing the impossibility of forgetting and illuminating the interconnectedness of traces and time, anti-traces and gravity.
In the first version, "Forgot" was imprinted on the bread piece and clay piece at the same time, forming two indications of the possibility of active forgetting: eating the bread with “FORGOT” on it is a wish to partake forgetfulness as a rural, while the “FORGOT” left on clay piece is fixed. Although the clay pieces themselves may dry and shatter naturally with the disappearance of the trace “FORGOT”, the fact that can’t be erased is that it is the will to forget that creates the trace. Disappearance and traces are stacked at different levels on the clay piece.
The main problem I was tackling was how to leave a trace of “forgot” which to a certain extent constitutes a dialogue with my topic itself: trying to forget is the exploration of the possibility of erasing traces. Therefore, I explore the possibility of semantic interpretation of erasing traces in a practical way of making traces. The traces left on different materials by different hitting materials vary in depth and clarity. During the experiments, I continued to perceive gravity through traces as the traces in my installation are made by gravity, which means that trying to erase traces is fighting against gravity, which is doomed to be a failure. Corresponding to the forgetting issue, the attempt to erase memory and forget builds the confrontation with the weight of memory which constructs the dilemma of the will in active forgetting. In both versions, a tension in “FORGOT” between its textual meaning as erasure and its physical attribute as traces is constructed.
The second version accomodates people's different wills to forget into time series by changing the material to be smashed from bread and clay pieces to nails and one wood block.
The initial nails form a neat and easily recognizable “FORGOT” shape. As the nail is struck multiple times from different angles, the letters gradually become blurring until they are completely hit into the wood to be invisible. Since it is impossible to completely erase traces, can memory become blurred and unrecognizable due to the inaccuracy of the smashing process?
The initial nails form a neat and easily recognizable “FORGOT” shape. As the nail is struck multiple times from different angles, the letters gradually become blurring until they are completely hit into the wood to be invisible. Since it is impossible to completely erase traces, can memory become blurred and unrecognizable due to the inaccuracy of the smashing process?