future memories

2023 – 2024

The Gallery @ VCUarts Qatar

Yuz Museum Shanghai

Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art

Future Memories is a writing device that uses sand as a recording medium and a metal sphere as a writing tool. This installation refers strongly to the habit of writing sentences on beaches and the like. Words are engraved in the sandy surface, and quickly disappear thanks to the agents of the sea or weather.

Event prediction is the capability to estimate the possibility that some event may occur in the future. Studying statistics and past records renders particularly reliable the prediction of the occurrence of certain events and situations. However, often these predictions are delivered as numeric chances that an event will occur again. Future Memories transforms that somewhat cold and impersonal information into personal and intimate sentences that seem to describe mundane or exceptional events, and their emotional impact on our daily lives.

Slowly delivered on sand by a seemingly invisible force, the forecasts make it look like our lives have already been lived, while we simply wait for things to happen. Will you believe the machine, or act upon it?