Distorted Memories

Year of Creation:

2025

Media:

Custom Software, Raspberry Pi, Monitor, Ultrasonic Proximity Sensor, Video Playback

Dimensions:

Variable

Interaction Type:

Proximity-Responsive

Duration:

Looping / Ongoing

Description:

A looping video of childhood memories plays on a monitor, but the clarity of the image shifts according to the viewer’s distance. An ultrasonic sensor measures proximity: the closer one approaches, the more the video pixelates, until details dissolve into digital noise. The piece reflects on the fragile, reconstructive nature of memory. Nostalgia allows us to perceive past events as vivid from afar, but when we reach for detail, the memory degrades—its surface breaking apart in the very act of recall. Distorted Memories turns the mechanics of digital distortion into a metaphor for how human memory is constantly reassembled, altered, and destabilized in real time.

Core Question:

What happens to memory when every act of recall distorts the story we tell ourselves?