Data-palace: Modern memory work in digital environments
Derek Van Ittersum
Distributed Cognition
Drawing from the work done on trying to understand memory as composed across space within a cockpit, Ittersum describes the process of distributed cognition as “all the places where ‘memories’ can be stored.” It is in this way, reminds Ittersum, that CHAT centers the situational aspects of the interactions, mentioning the “simultaneously improvised locally and mediated by historically provided tools and practices” core to understanding the CHAT framework.
Recounting the work done on digital tools, Ittersum continues with an analysis of the ways in which searching is a distributed action across time and tools within a software context. Mentioning programs like Word and OnNote, Ittersum points toward a distributed cognition within these systems, proposing that the improvised and mediated actions within the interactions with software like those mentioned represent the same distributed nature as that of the pilot initially mentioned, linking the ways that both situations show the way in which ‘memories’ have a spatial component.
Re-membering identity: Recovering textual networks through a remediated canon
Janine Solberg
Embodied Memory
Pulling from the way texts and literacy was mediated through feminine bodies in the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, Solberg connects the use of secretaries with the themes of gatekeepers and external memory devices. In much the same way that a computer might be used today, Solberg points toward a networking interface of organizational memory.
Feminine bodies were supposed to be able to navigate their situational contexts, pulling from and working through the system of other nodes — other feminine bodies. As the connections between men, Solberg describes the way that feminine bodies became both the external memory (for the office) and a part of the internal memory (for the organization). There is also a third type of memory positioned between the two as well: muscle memory.
As the recording devices (in the sense women where objectified), feminine bodies need to be able to type quickly and move trough their desk spaces, becoming not only the medium of communication, but centralizing the embodiment of the memory in some situation consisting of both the body and its interactions in the space.