12-6-99

Dear Ben Davis,

Let me take up the thread again and reflect the synthesis of McLuhan,

Yates, and Barthes by technology. Firstly, I have to mention that I got

new information about the Spatial Data-Management System which was

developed in the mid-seventies by the Architecture Machine Group at MIT.

Richard Bolt has been so kind sending me his publication on the subject.

The booklet was published in 1979, and what I found while reading was

that Richard Bolt and Nicholas Negroponte had already referred to

Simonides at that time. They introduced the spatial organization of the

artificial memory as the "Simonides Effect". Furthermore, Bolt made

clear that the "Simonides Effect" had been taken as a model for the

development of their "informational landscape" called "Dataland". What

also hit me while looking at the photographs that accompany Bolt`s text

and which illustrate the spatial and relational arrangement of all kind

of visualized information (icons, photographs, texts) is the formal

resemblance of the display of "Dataland„ and Aby Warburg`s screen boards

that constitute his Atlas of Images called Mnemosyne ... I am sure Aby

Warburg would have liked the computer.

But that`s not the point, at least not here. The point is that my

assumption that Negroponte projected the art of memory to the

development of "Dataland" after hearing of Memory Theater One proved to be wrong. As

I have told you, I noticed Negroponte`s reference to Simonides in his

book Being Digital which was published nearly 20 years after the

development of "Dataland". This supposedly late reference to Simonides

made me wonder when and how Negroponte got to know the art of memory.

But my suspicion was groundless. All that means that I have

underestimated the popularity that mnemotechny had already gained in the

seventies. Probably, Yates` rediscovery of the ars memoriae, as well as

McLuhan`s remarks on its oral quality and iconic mode were somehow in

the air, like today Paul Virilio`s theory of velocity is circulating.

So, you have been absolutely right in pointing out that, in connection

with technology, a lot of people referred to the art of memory - or at

least to essential aspects of it.

None the less, it makes a difference to refer to Simonides or to the

memory theatre inasmuch the memory theatre, a genuine phenomenon of

renaissance culture, is not only a kind of an externalized artificial

memory but is based on highly associative combinations of emblems,

images, and words. Thus, one probably has to differentiate between the

adaptation of the art of memory in form of Simonides` skill in

memorizing things spatially or in form of the memory theatre as a

process to juxtapose and visualize the elements of a specific conception

of the world / an environment. It is illuminative that Bolt`s quotation

of Simonides is aimed at the functionality of the spatial organization

of data which, not least, is rooted in the spatial organization of human

memory. That is to say, that Bolt and Negroponte exclusively judged

Simonides` skill from the viewpoint of cognition theory. They were not

interested in the arbitrary and complex relationship between the

signified and the signifier. Correspondingly, they were not interested

in the connection of image and word, although they recognized the

usability of the iconic representation of information. Surely, this

angle of vision to mnemotechny depends on the intended project, in this

case a visual interface as well as an instrument to organize and

retrieve data easily.

Unlike that, Robert`s adaptation of the art of memory is aimed at both

the functionality of the spatial organization of information and the

complex layers of meaning that originate from the juxtaposition of

diverse text fragments, words, and images. In Memory Theater One the architectural

setting, that is the spatial organization of items, and the associative

network of signs coexist. Respectively, the network of signs transcends

the limited architectural setting of 27 memory rooms.

Be that as it may, the different approaches to the art of memory

document the range of ways how this art was read and how and for what

specific purpose it was made accessible to electronic media and

information technology. They also confirm the paradigmatic role of

mnemotechny.

That will do for today.

With kind regards,

Kirsten Wagner

P.S.: I noticed with great interest that you taught at the Media Lab in

two courses in the Visible Language Workshop in the late eighties. In

Wurman`s "Information Architects" the Visible Language Workshop presents

Three dimensional, interactive, and immersive "Information Landscapes"

which were developed under the patronage of Muriel Cooper in the early

nineties. The concept of these "Information Landscapes" seems to stem

partially from Bolt`s and Negroponte`s 2 dimensional "informational

landscape". The "Simonides Effect" has a sustainable effect on

information visualization ...