Tell Me What I'm Remembering

How do we assess the reality before us when it is beyond our comprehension?

Throughout childhood into adulthood, I have been reminded of random imagery in my head, of the memories I have never had. The scenes are vague but deeply embedded causing me to live in the in-betweenness of these dream-like realities. Over time, uncertainty has escalated, becoming progressively overwhelming. I always questioned what is beyond what seems to be. One day, my cousin accidentally told me I had leukaemia when I was little.

This work is in two parts. On one hand, I have photographs that represent the faded memories. I juxtapose them with a transcribing AI, which starts with an initial text of medical facts about leukaemia and is tweaked so it reads the text out loud, picks up its own sound and surrounding sound, transcribes them into text, reads this text out loud, and repeat. Over the course of time, the text is altered and distorted, ultimately changing the narratives.

When one remembers something, they are remembering the last time they remembered of an event, not the actual event. Both the photographs and the transcribing AI indicate the constantly shifting nature of memories with the influence of oneself and one’s surrounding factors.

Tell Me What I'm Remembering

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