TOOLKIT Blender 3D Unity
Creating a fictional immersive 3D environment that draws parallels between human cognitive memory functions (connection, compartmentalization, cognition, and consolidation) and computer memory structures, exploring how our memories—the accumulation of our experiences with places, people, and things—define who we are and questioning the blurring boundary between human and digital memories.
Our memories are the accumulation of a lifetime of experience and in this sense, our memories are who we are. These memories consist of the places, people, and things we interact with in our day-to-day lives. “Computerized Memories” is a fictional immersive environment exploring the connection between human cognitive memory functions and computer memory structures. Human cognitive memory is multifaceted and complex consisting of processes such as the storing and retrieval of information. There are four main aspects explaining how memory functioning occurs in the mind – connection, compartmentalization, cognition and consolidation of memories. This project draws parallels between memory functioning in humans and computers through a speculative lens.
It begins with a scene focused on a desk, surrounded by elements that evoke a person’s memories in this case my memories. There are pictures on the wall that capture the person’s memories from the places they’ve visited to the moments they’ve had with their friends and family. The desk itself holds personal items like a computer, notes, headphones, and other essentials that reflect the person’s daily habits. Each object and image is a meaningful connection to the person’s lived experiences. The scene is modelled in reference to my own room and memories. The scene introduces you to the protagonist of this world. The protagonist of the story isn’t the person but it is in fact the computer! Sitting on my desk, looking at the photos on my wall one day I began thinking how would a computer form its own memories? What would the memories of a computer look like? How do human memories get translated into digital memories? This project explores these questions in many different ways. Delve into the computerized memory world to take a look at the inner experiences and memories of a computer. Begin by clicking on the computer screen to enter the computer’s brain.
As you enter, you find yourself in a digital landscape where memory takes physical form. Cubes float in seemingly random patterns, each holding a fragment of experience—this is how a computer remembers things in a discrete, modular manner. Unlike human memory, these cubic structures stand alone, unnamed and isolated.
But as you move deeper, something shifts. The second scene reveals fractals—intricate, branching patterns that mirror the circuitry of RAM. Yet these patterns also echo something profoundly human: the synaptic connections between brain cells. Here, the boundary blurs. Both computer and human memory rely on connection, on the linking of one point to another to form meaning.
The experience asks you to consider how does a machine remember? When you open Spotify, the computer recalls how to process audio. When you search on Chrome, it retrieves protocols for accessing the internet. When you use the calculator, it performs operations drawn from stored functions. But these aren't memories in the way we understand them—they're automated responses, triggered by input. A computer doesn't reflect on the song it played yesterday or wonder about the question you asked last week.
Human memory, by contrast, is messy and emotional. It consolidates over time, transforming experiences into something permanent, something that shapes who we are. The final scene brings you to the computer's control center—the settings—where traces of your actions linger. But are these traces truly memories, or merely logs? The computer holds evidence of what happened, but does it remember?
The journey explores computerized memory structures—compartmentalization through cubic modules, connection through fractal patterns, and cognition through application interactions—converging on the question of consolidation, the process by which memories become permanent, though perhaps in fundamentally different ways.
The interactions and 3D environments were created using Blender and Unity with the materials rendered through node-based programming.
To fully understand the gravity of this concept, we must also look back at where it all began. Initially, there were human computers—individuals who carried out the tedious yet essential calculations that drove the advancement of technology. During the 1960s and 1970s, most human computers were replaced by machine computers, ushering in the era of automated computing. Fast forward to today, and we see computers embedded in nearly every aspect of life. This prompts an important question: how do we navigate the ever-blurring boundary between what is human and what is computerized? As technology becomes indispensable in areas such as navigation, healthcare, weather prediction, education, and countless other domains, we are left to wonder—are we losing parts of ourselves to the computer? Where do our memories end, and where do the computer's memories begin? And perhaps most critically, can digital memories ever truly replace the cognitive memories that define our humanity?
This reflection on the intersection of technology and memory serves as a poignant reminder of the profound ways in which computers are reshaping our understanding of what it means to remember, to think, and ultimately, to be human.
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