Memories Linked to RFID Chips in Networked Cemeteries "Shaping How Networked Societies Remember with Information Technologies"

Artist and engineer Miguel Andrés Clavera will present the scanMemories Project (www.scanmemories.org) world premiere's public installation in the Cemetery of the City of Zaragoza (Spain) on Friday, June 27 and in the Expo Zaragoza 2008 on Saturday, July 19 in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology of the Council of Zaragoza. The project has been developed in the Social Technology and Cultural Interfaces (STCI) Research group, part of the Goldsmiths Digital Studios at the University of London (UK).

London, UK (PRWEB) June 4, 2008 -- scanMemories Project allows the public to access digital memories in a networked cemetery using RFID chips placed in tombstones, transforming it into an interactive space for memory reconstruction mediated by information technologies. Using a Bluetooth RFID reader, wireless networks and the latest technologies in mobile devices and video-streaming, visitors can walk freely around the cemetery and access memories of the deceased they wish. Once they approach and scan the RFID chip that restricts the information and they identify themselves to maintain privacy, the mobile device displays the public or private memories in the form of media content. The digital memories are created by family members of the deceased using the scanMemories online system or as an automatic process, using information from social networks and other media repositories online and visitors can leave multimedia tributes such as sound messages or video.

scanMemories will take place in the City of Zaragoza (Spain) and at the EXPO 2008 in collaboration with the Council of Zaragoza (Department of Science and Technology). The installation will be presented in the Cemetery of Zaragoza on Friday, June 27 and an installation of the project together with the screening of a project documentary will be displayed at EXPO Zaragoza 2008 on Saturday, July 19.

The project examines how memory practices in and around death can be altered by information technologies. This includes the questions about how information can alter the relation with the materiality of memory objects and spaces, and how this can change the issues of identity and privacy about the dead. Part of the research Miguel carries out at Goldsmiths Digital Studios reflects on how mobile, embedded and distributed forms of media systems and information networks affect memory practices and create new experiences in the physical space, altering the relationships between material objects, location, subjectivity and imagination.

About the authors

scanMemories Project has been created by Miguel Andrés-Clavera and Inyong Cho, co-founders of the STCI Research Group

Miguel Andrés-Clavera
Miguel is an engineer and PhD in Art and Computational Technologies candidate in Goldsmiths Digital Studios and co-founder of Stci Research Group at GDS.
He started his career as software engineer at Barclays Bank while producing net-art projects and interactive art installations. He then moved to the creative industry in London producing interactive videos, digital strategy research and digital content for web, mobile and wireless platforms in several Soho based agencies, working for clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Adidas, Sony Ericsson, The Central Office of Information and others.

Inyong Cho
Inyong is a PhD in Art and Computational Technologies candidate in Goldsmiths Digital Studios and co-founder of Stci Research Group at GDS.
He has worked as research director at the Media Research Lab in Streetwork Ltd. in Korea and has taken part in many locative media projects in Korea. He has also lectured in several colleges in Korea.

Contact details

Miguel Andrés Clavera
Email: miguel(at)scanmemories.org

For further information:

scanMemories Project
www.scanmemories.org
blog.scanmemories.org

Social Technology and Cultural Interfaces Research Group
www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/stcigroup

Goldsmiths Digital Studios
www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/gds

Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza
www.zaragoza.es

Expo Zaragoza 2008
www.expo2008.com

Cementerio de Zaragoza
www.cementerio-zaragoza.com/

###