WHO | WHAT WHERE | WHY & WHEN
Alekya Malladi
Gesthimani Roumpani
UCLA AUD IDEAS ENTERTAINMENT STUDIO 2019-20
Natasha Sandmeier & Nathan Su
Yanrong Yang
FILM TREATMENT
LOGLINE Mistaking it as a clue for one of his cases, an investigator unravels the traces of a mysterious object against misalignments and corruptions of memory, only to find himself amidst the feud of two archenemies.
CONCEPT The visual representation based on memories from various perspectives is characterized by subjectivity, ambiguity, misalignments, and corrupted data.
GENRE
Comedy-mystery.
CHARACTERS
Mr.I
Dr Desktop (DR_D)
A low-tech and low-tier private investigator in his 50s, living and working alone in The City. He has never had any big break in his job, and has no particular achievements to showcase.
A self-taught computer engineer around 20 years old, operating a small scale computer hardware store. Miss T (MS-T) is his archenemy.
Mother B
Misty Data Corp (MS-T)
A motherboard (object), used as a component of an arcade game.
Dr Desktop’s (DR_D) archenemy. A huge technology corporation that feels threatened by Dr Desktop’s talent and is trying to absorb his business.
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PLOT OUTLINE & STRUCTURE
ACT 1 (SETUP) EXPOSITION Mr I is struggling with his latest case, looking for a burglar who stole valuable artifacts from a wealthy art collector. He is trying to save whatever is left of his reputation, but his only lead is a witness who saw the culprit running into a dead-end alley. CCTV is of no help.
INCITING INCIDENT Mr I visits the alley area. This is when he discovers what he sees as a clue: Mother B.
PLOT POINT ONE Examining clues on Mother B, he realizes she is a motherboard potentially holding important data. He sets off to find who she belongs to, in hopes of recovering her digital data.
ACT 2 (CONFRONTATION) RISING ACTION Connecting different types of memories, Mr I starts his adventure in all places Mother B has been. On this trip down memory lane, he encounters obstacles caused by memory ambiguity and gets introduced to Dr Desktop. He realizes Mother B is not a clue connected to his initial case, but is determined to make this his new case.
MIDPOINT With Dr Desktop’s help, Mr I discovers where Mother B came from; an arcade game. Restoring the game’s memory reveals Dr Desktop had withheld crucial information that has now compromised the quilt of memories stitched so far; Mother B embodies an ongoing feud between Dr Desktop and Miss T (MS-T).
PLOT POINT TWO Mr I sets off to discover who Miss T is, in an attempt to settle the feud between him and Dr Desktop.
ACT 3 (RESOLUTION) PRE-CLIMAX Mr I hits a dead end. Nobody seems to be able to put a face on Miss T, and he is running out of time; the arcade will soon be recalled and along with it will go the evidence attached to it. Against all odds and recorded memories, he restarts with a clean slate to figure out what he had missed.
CLIMAX Mr I bases his new storyline on collective memory and finally finds the identity of Miss T (actual name being Misty Data Corp); a huge technology corporation, set on making Dr Desktop fail by attacking his ego and hoping this will reflect on his job. He adds Misty Data Corp’s memories to the storyline, and informs Dr Desktop, who finally finds peace. Mr I marks the case closed.
DENOUEMENT Mr I is now boasting the memorabilia he was awarded for solving Mother B’s case and restoring peace. He revisits the alley to reminisce himself of his success (his ONLY success). Suddenly he realizes something: all the memories and knowledge he collected through Mother B’s case are now revealing a completely new clue for his initial burglary case; time for a new adventure!
PRIOR RESEARCH
CONTENTS
01
02
03 04
05
ABOUT MEMORY Types of Human Memory Genetic Memory Techniques for the Individual The Mind Palace MEMORY RECOLLECTION Personal Totems Collective Memory Collective Memory & Humans Collective Memory in the Digital Age Mr Feynman & his Ant Experiments PERFECT COLLECTIVE MEMORY Human Parable on Blockchain Blockchain Why Blockchain Is Rigid OBJECTIVITY VS SUBJECTIVITY Scientific Experiments Study #1 Study #2 Human Memory Decentralization Can Subjectivity Be Reduced? The Perfect Social Memory Speculations The good The bad The ugly Conclusion VISUAL EXPLORATIONS
ABOUT MEMORY
TYPES OF
HUMAN MEMORY
When referring to human memory, there exist two main categories: • Short term • Long term
Long term can be further divided into: • Explicit • Implicit • Autobiographical • Memory retrieved in dreams
GENETIC
MEMORY
Genetic memory is a memory present at birth that exists in the absence of sensory experience, and is incorporated into the genome over long spans of time. It is based on the idea that common experiences of a species become incorporated into its genetic code.
TECHNIQUES FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
Humans have been trying to improve their personal memories through various techniques. Just to name a few, we have mnemonics, chunking, and explicit effortful processing. But, we also need a place to store all this information. And that’s where the most effective technique, the mind palace, brings spatial characteristics into play.
THE
MIND PALACE
The mind palace (or memory palace, or loci) is the most effective technique used for memory storing and retrieving. In media representations, like in Sherlock, Hannibal, or the Mentalist, it is often shown as a very intricate place. On the contrary, it is supposed to be a place with which the individual using the technique is incredibly familiar with, such as their apartment.
MEMORY RECOLLECTION
PERSONAL TOTEMS
Memory can be triggered through all our senses, like smell, sound, taste etc. But it is often advertently or inadvertently tied to objects. We have seen the idea of a personal totem in movies like Inception, or Memento. In Inception, each character uses a totem as a medium to confirm whether they are in the real or the dream world - only the totem owner is familiar with the object’s exact shape, size, and weight. But, can one single totem be used as a memory trigger for many people at the same time?
COLLECTIVE MEMORY
Totem poles by indigenous tribes are an example of collectively used totems. They are constructed so as to commemorate historic events and legends of the tribes, forming a sense of collective memory that is passed down in time through these objects, and is often associated with history. Types of collective memories can also be: • Oral history, sometimes fully fictional (eg. epic poems like Homer’s Odyssey & Iliad) • Rai stone of Yap • Museums like the Holocaust museum. • Movies like “Schindler’s List”.
COLLECTIVE MEMORY IN THE
D I G I TA L A G E Due to the multiple forms collective memory can take, it is not always delivered as a trustworthy “immutable mobile�. Especially considering collective memory in the age of digital communication, the spread of fake news is an excellent example of how it can be shaped toward a falsified perception.
MR FEYNMAN & HIS
ANT
EXPERIMENTS Ants are using a method of collective memory for wayfinding, as their spatial acuity is too restricted by their small size. Instead of each ant operating as a single unit, they are behaving more like the neurons of the human brain; each contributing a small piece of information to form a chemical trail “map” that everyone can follow. This behaviour is illustrated in a very simplified way through the homemade experiments Richard Feynman conducted in his dormitory room (as seen in his collection of personal anecdotes “Surely you’re joking, Mr Feynman!”). However, studies have shown that even this chemical trail is not perfect, as it takes quite some time to form, when a new obstacle is placed along a known trail.
PERFECT COLLECTIVE MEMORY
HUMAN PARABLE ON
B LO C KC H A I N This brings up the question of whether a perfect collective memory exists. And it does indeed, as seen through the architecture of blockchain. Let us try to explain how it works through expressing it in terms of human life first. If someone asks you “What were you doing last Saturday at 4pm?�, maybe you remember you were out for a coffee. The way you retrieve that memory is sequential; you perceive this action as part of a sequence, and think of your day in blocks morning, afternoon, evening. So if you say you were having coffee, and nobody can verify it, then you are the only source of information and you have 100% control over verifying that information. But you could be lying. So, the more people can verify your whereabouts, the easier it is to verify the truth.
ABOUT
B LO C KC H A I N This is the way blockchain works too. It is a system with a ledger - think of it as a notebook - where you can only input things sequentially. To verify the input of each item, you have multiple, decentralized peer-topeer networks, which make it very secure. “Sequential� means you cannot input new information in between the existing information.
WHY BLOCKCHAIN IS
RIGID Essentially, changing an existing record in the middle of a blockchain is the equivalent of changing history through time travel; everyone who witnessed everything after the part you decided to change, has to agree to that change. This is why the architecture of blockchain is fully trusted and products like cryptocurrency are based on it. In computer terms, blockchain’s memory is objective, whereas human memory is subjective. What does science have to say about this?
OBJECTIVITY VS
SUBJECTIVITY
In scientific terms, “objective” memory refers to one’s ability to accurately recall specific data that can be fact-checked. A study by Shaozheng Qin, Hein J. F. van Marle, Erno J. Hermans, and Guillén Fernández (2011) revealed that the areas of the brain triggered when we are using subjective confidence (self-assessing how much
STUDY
data we think we remember) and when using objective detail mem-
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ory (actually recording and fact-checking the data we remember), are completely separate.
Another paper by Guohua Shen, Tomoyasu Horikawa1, Kei Majima, and Yukiyasu Kamitani (2017) presented the results of their study, in which they developed a neural network that can decode and reconstruct the images people have in their brains when looking at something.
STUDY
Although not yet clear, it is probably a matter of time until this technol-
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ogy is developed enough to produce accurate representations of what people remember.
HUMAN MEMORY
D E C E N T R A L I Z AT I O N Is there any way that human memory can be decentralized in order to reflect objectivity?
CAN SUBJECTIVITY BE
REDUCED? Memory subjectivity could be reduced if, similarly to the blockchain, multiple “as remembered� data was collected, after image reconstruction via neural networks is perfected. This way we could potentially achieve an accurate representation of memories and events.
This would essentially create the “perfect social memory”. The
THE
PERFECT SOCIAL MEMORY
combination of memories as shown in each person’s brain could eventually be reconstructed into a collective image that reflects “reality”. It is basically a more objective “witness” system. But is that description truly accurate? Objectivity is so inherent in memories, that removing it might entirely corrupt human perception as we know it.
SPECU LATIONS
THE
GOOD In the scenario of forming a “perfect social memory”, we could speculate about the implications of such a technology. Starting from “The Good”, imagine how easily the most debatable criminal cases could be solved, and wrongly convicted people would be exonerated.
THE
BAD Moving on to “The Bad”, if there could exist such a thing as an objective memory, then the whole notion of a narrative would be lost. “Significant Objects” is an anthropological experiment that proved how stories can increase the value of really inexpensive objects. This example is so powerful, yet only scratches the surface of the importance of narrative.
THE
U G LY
As for “The Ugly�, we can only imagine to what extent surveillance could go, and how privacy would be violated the most it has ever been.
CONCLUSION As a conclusion, we would like to close this chapter with the observation that memory is influenced by subjective social narrative. Thus, within a large, homogeneous group of people, “objective� memory can still be false.
VISUAL EXPLORATIONS
Inspired by the research on memory and how it works in various cases, we created a series of concept images in an effort to visualize some of the concepts expressed earlier. Whether dealing with personal memories imprinted on an object’s physical appearance, or an abstract illustration of what form collective memory could have, it seems that visualizing memory is an exercise in focus, details, and resolution.