Immémorial (1996 - 2011) An immersive memory mechanism

Pascale Weber

CERAP-University of Paris 1, France

Abstract
Immémorial is an immersive artistic work. Owing to the technical process of spatialization via eight points and sound trajectories and the four-sided presentation of the images, Immémorial projects the viewer into the heart of an environment, which is divided into 26 ambiances based on poignant experiences, in order awaken long-term memory. The discovery of our senses, our earliest emotions, our frustrations and our desire is treated as evidence through audio-video case-studies; reconstituting them like a nature study: analyzed, identified, and quantified... a typology of the shared places of our memory, defining their "natural" or "cultural" characteristics, the extension by fiction. Immémorial deals with the functioning dynamics of our memory and its anticipatory prolongation through our imagination and the network of meaning that these functions continuously weave. Conversely, the structure of the computer language used for distributing the video image and sound spatialization guide the construction of the narrative and the return of the memorial experience in the device. Immersive experiences pull us out of a reality too complex to grasp, and evoking the real they invite us to focus on a detail, a micro feature. This is the world narrowed in the heart of an enclosed space, a metaphor for a major societal issue: Can we finally see the world as a plurality? Can we think outside of one's body, from other bodies, from a common body? Can we escape the limits of our physical body in the body-friendly device, as a network, extended by the machine, become system...

Keywords: Memory, Multimedia, Perception moods, Semiology, Neurosciences