Memory and Media

In relation to the Video we watched near the beginning of class, our memories really aren't to be trusted all that often. The video was about people who had been shown photographs of themselves as a child, 3/4 are real, and the 4th was them in a hot air balloon. A good portion of the people actually believed that they did indeed ride one, when they really didn't, and even if they didn't believe the photo, they'd make up the feeling that they've done it before.

I can safely say I've experienced a similar situation with dreams. A long time ago, I remember having this group of friends that I saw every now and again. One time we all decided to go outside into the woods surrounding our neighborhood, just for the heck of it. While we were there, we found an old box with nothing in it. One of my friends picked it up. After that we must have come back home.

The issue here amongst all of this? There isn't any woods surrounding my neighborhood that I know of. Yet this dream has stuck with me forever. This begs the question, did we walk really far until we found some woods, or did I just imagine it all?

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This in relation to my field of study, was mentioned in one class period, but I don't remember when exactly. The field of New Media is manipulative. We can alter peoples' realities. Sometimes it can be so drastic to the point to where they think that whatever we have created as entertainment, can deceive them to be apart of their memory as something they have lived and experienced. Games, Movies, TV, Art, anything that can be immersive can be considered dangerous on this level.

Keeping this in mind, we can use this to our advantage to help people with memory loss, people with Alzheimers, any issue with memory might be able to be addressed and or fixed using media.

It's a give and take in this field, knowing what you design will probably manipulate people, but not in a terribly inhumane way. The point in creativity is to make sure that whatever you might design that's new and innovative, it should be safe for people.