Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS
ON FORGOTTEN FEELINGS AND FALSE MEMORIES
Artist | Zeynep Abes, (TR)
Art Form | Video Installation
Motivation | Our identity, who we are, and what we do today is closely tied to our past or what we remember. But how trustworthy is our memory? Our recollections are fluid, subject to alteration every time they're retrieved. That is, we don't remember our past the exact same way each time. Moments Within explores memory deteriorating over time and the change in the way we retrieve a fading past, whether with natural memory loss or patients with Alzheimer's.
Methodology & Implementation | Using a 7-Tesla MRI scan of a brain as a poetic and practical tool, the continuously disfigured visualizations focus on the parts of the brain that are crucial in determining the stability of memory like the amygdala, hippocampus, and neocortex. As a one-channel video installation, Moments Within visualizes our cerebral vascular system as dreamlike landscapes in 3D space to create an immersive experience of remembering and forgetting.
Scientific background | »STEAM Imaging IV« was hosted by Fraunhofer MEVIS in collaboration with Ars Electronica, the International Fraunhofer Talent School Bremen, the School Center Walle, and the UCLA ArtSci Center. The residency program allowed artist Zeynep Abes to engage in intensive exchange with Fraunhofer MEVIS experts to examine current methods, developments, and results of research in their works critically. A key component of the program was the shared encounter with pupils and their parents from the School Center Walle. In doing so, Fraunhofer MEVIS took an original approach: the art and research alliance enabled prospective university students and their parents to approach scientific and technical topics from a new and unexpected perspective and encouraged them to engage with science, technology, and art in a self-determined, creative way.
Credits | Moments Within was created during the »STEAM Imaging IV« residency program hosted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS in Bremen, Germany in collaboration with Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, the International Fraunhofer Talent School Bremen and the School Center Walle, Bremen and the UCLA ArtSci Center, Los Angeles, USA. Sound Designer: Arman Ataman. Special Thanks to Bianka Hofmann, Sabrina Tölken, Matthias Günther, Valentin Kraft, Susanne Diekmann, Victoria Vesna, Devin Embil.