Engram

»I have both memory-tracks grafted inside my head;
one is real and one isn't but I can't tell which is which.
Why can't I rely on you?«

Philip K. Dick – Total Recall

The work „Engram“ poses a central question about all of our identities: How much truth is there in our own memories, and how much can we trust what we have stored within ourselves?

Fake memories
Our memory images of the past fade over time and undergo a metamorphosis. Events that happened long ago become blurry, develop gaps, fragment, get supplemented, appear, and then fade away again. They change – in fact, it‘s us who change them. Engrams, physical traces in our neural tissue that collectively form our memory, reveal themselves as a fluid construct: they are not constants but variables constantly open to question. Our memories are individual, relative, and uniquely structured in each of us. So, what about their objectivity? Can we trust them and thus ourselves when it comes to bringing the past into the present by imagining inner images?

Generated Footage vs. found Footage
The basis of this work consists of 167 black and white images discovered in a found photo album documenting a trip of two couples to Italy in 1954. Carefully arranged, they are an organized aid to memory for long-gone moments. Over time, some of these images were lost – empty spaces and leftover adhesive corners in this album testify to the missing memories. I now fill these gaps, 70 years after the pictures were taken, as part of my work.

The 167 existing images serve as a starting point for an artificial neural network that generates new visualizations to compensate for the gaps in the lost material: images of events that never actually happened but were created by a machine based on stochastic principles. These artificially created representations fit seamlessly into the real images and, much like our own memories, turn out to be mere approximations of reality. They distort reality, much like we do with our memories over time.

The „Generated Footage“ and the „Found Footage“ were composed into a collage and portray a melancholic memory image that oscillates between simulation and abstraction. In the creative process, I confront them, equate them, detach them from actual or artificially generated reality, and transform them into a new form of representation that seems fragmentary and fleeting.

The question posed in the opening quote of the protagonist from Dick‘s dystopian story „Total Recall,“ directed desperately at his wife, should also be directed towards ourselves: Why can’t I rely on you?

Credits
Title: Engram
Format: 16:9 (UHD) 4K
Length: 05 min 07 sek
Concept/Video: Stefan Macheiner
Audio: Simone Salvatici
Year: 2024

Engram

In addition to the video work, an analog 8-part series is showcasing the image material used in the video behind satin glass.

Engram 01–08, 8-piece series, photo paper, satin glass, 22 x 22 cm, 2024

Stefan Macheiner
Studio: Lederergasse 67, 4020 Linz, Austria
hello@stefan-macheiner.com
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