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More on Memory Palaces
I bring up Memory Palaces not to necessarily encourage a return to the ancient art in its same form.
The Art of Memory and the Method of Loci (back in the days) was really quite an immense visualization trick...and a feat I think that few people today would consciously use. What I'm very excited about is the probability that we're entering a new phase in the internet and a new form of memory retention (which traces back to this concept of memory palaces) will become second nature to the masses:
What we're seeing happen here...is that 'memory palaces' are, can and will be made in 3d graphic interface. You don't as much need to 'hold' the whole building in your mind...as you BUILD the building and return to it over and over.
Think of computer games....the addictive warring kind even...those who play them regularly come to KNOW all the aspects of the various environments...they know that over 'here' are power-point giving thingies...and that at this point some flying bad guys will come out of that door to the right..and they have to jump to that stone and click on that button and whatever whatever to keep going... They learn how to move from room to room, landscape to landscape, level to level of the game, just by playing it...by tracing the steps and gathering a sort of 'memory-skill'.
Now what I'm terribly excited about and see happening...is a gradual reordering of the internet in just this way. Our ways of storing information for retrieval are just not cutting it anymore. I have tons of information stored in 'files' but the accessibility is diminishing with each new folder.
Or take for a good example LJ itself. Our entries are reverse chronological when accessed for the first time by a new visitor or even ourselves. A different sort of spatial organization is needed for me to be able to offer all entries relating to a certain topic etc. And that's what the 'memories' button is supposed to be for ...but I think we all know it is lacking....because it's still much too linear...too scroll-based...
Now try to imagine LJ in a more spatial 3d format...where instead of our user intro page...you land at a house or environment of the user's design...with information embedded (clickable) within objects in a more intuitive way...and think of all the connectivity possible...the portals..:)And by returning to this place over and over we naturally learn/remember where to find the information. And multiple searching tools can be utilized as well...
ok, so the designing of 'home-pages' (see the term, eh?) becomes more and more immersive. ...
"A hypertext with its clickable icons and images is like a memory palace and each link is a locus .When you click, the idea stored there appears as a new document.The only difference is that you don't have to memorize the structure . From this point of view hypertext is much more like the Camillo Theatre: a physical space where you learn by walking. Virtual Reality is essentially a 3D hypertext.You now navigate not only with the mouse but with all your body:the dream of Camillo becomes true.We can now build a place where you learn only by walking."
-from Giuseppe Zito's page on the Method of Loci.
I think that secondlife.com/islands is a perfect experimental platform for us..in that we can explore the building our own personal 'memory palaces' and connecting them with others in a shareable 3d realm... (ha, now you see my 'Connecting Islands' artwork tell its lil secret story/prophecy..;)
And just like in LJ, aspects of your memory palace can remain public, 'private' or 'friends only' as you choose.
So much to think about here.
I think I want to solicit the help of a 3d builder or architecture student to speed up my process in this direction. So that I might offer you all specific visual examples sooner rather than later....:)
The Art of Memory and the Method of Loci (back in the days) was really quite an immense visualization trick...and a feat I think that few people today would consciously use. What I'm very excited about is the probability that we're entering a new phase in the internet and a new form of memory retention (which traces back to this concept of memory palaces) will become second nature to the masses:
What we're seeing happen here...is that 'memory palaces' are, can and will be made in 3d graphic interface. You don't as much need to 'hold' the whole building in your mind...as you BUILD the building and return to it over and over.
Think of computer games....the addictive warring kind even...those who play them regularly come to KNOW all the aspects of the various environments...they know that over 'here' are power-point giving thingies...and that at this point some flying bad guys will come out of that door to the right..and they have to jump to that stone and click on that button and whatever whatever to keep going... They learn how to move from room to room, landscape to landscape, level to level of the game, just by playing it...by tracing the steps and gathering a sort of 'memory-skill'.
Now what I'm terribly excited about and see happening...is a gradual reordering of the internet in just this way. Our ways of storing information for retrieval are just not cutting it anymore. I have tons of information stored in 'files' but the accessibility is diminishing with each new folder.
Or take for a good example LJ itself. Our entries are reverse chronological when accessed for the first time by a new visitor or even ourselves. A different sort of spatial organization is needed for me to be able to offer all entries relating to a certain topic etc. And that's what the 'memories' button is supposed to be for ...but I think we all know it is lacking....because it's still much too linear...too scroll-based...
Now try to imagine LJ in a more spatial 3d format...where instead of our user intro page...you land at a house or environment of the user's design...with information embedded (clickable) within objects in a more intuitive way...and think of all the connectivity possible...the portals..:)And by returning to this place over and over we naturally learn/remember where to find the information. And multiple searching tools can be utilized as well...
ok, so the designing of 'home-pages' (see the term, eh?) becomes more and more immersive. ...
"A hypertext with its clickable icons and images is like a memory palace and each link is a locus .When you click, the idea stored there appears as a new document.The only difference is that you don't have to memorize the structure . From this point of view hypertext is much more like the Camillo Theatre: a physical space where you learn by walking. Virtual Reality is essentially a 3D hypertext.You now navigate not only with the mouse but with all your body:the dream of Camillo becomes true.We can now build a place where you learn only by walking."
-from Giuseppe Zito's page on the Method of Loci.
I think that secondlife.com/islands is a perfect experimental platform for us..in that we can explore the building our own personal 'memory palaces' and connecting them with others in a shareable 3d realm... (ha, now you see my 'Connecting Islands' artwork tell its lil secret story/prophecy..;)
And just like in LJ, aspects of your memory palace can remain public, 'private' or 'friends only' as you choose.
So much to think about here.
I think I want to solicit the help of a 3d builder or architecture student to speed up my process in this direction. So that I might offer you all specific visual examples sooner rather than later....:)
Re: Tags
I really like that site she linked to also-Operating Manual for Social Tools (http://www.corante.com/om/archives/032470.html) - will have to look around some more there!. Found
the following chunk pasted from the bottom of a long post called news:State of the Goat 2005 (http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/82496.html):
Plans for 2005
Looking ahead to the future, we plan to focus on a few key projects, while continuing to make improvements in all areas:
*Opening up ScrapBook — we're going to continue developing features, but our immediate goals are to finish the necessary documentation and offer accounts the ability to upgrade disk space.
*Journal usage statistics — our own web report statistics have become a lot easier to maintain, so we'll be investigating the best way to offer individual journal statistics.
*Event Subscription Notifications — a much talked about project on LiveJournal, we now have better means to bring it to fruition.
*Journal post categorization — we're in the planning stages of offering user-managed post categories, so that users can organize their journals better and readers can filter the content they want to see.
*Improved taskflow and usability — we've made a lot of improvements in our usability design practices while developing ScrapBook that we'll be using on LiveJournal projects.
so yay, they're on it! in that format at least. I'm looking forward to it. Many other sites have it already integrated.
So I think the 'inbetweens' will be covered as we blink our eyes so I'm going to just try to visualize and play around with the ideas of memory palaces and the meshing of lj and secondlife which will probably happen sooner than we think then! hehe.
Re: Tags