Myth, History and Memory 2.0/0.1 2011 -

The boundaries between existence in memory and historic existence have been blurred ever since the advent of "history". Ongoing developments in mnemonic and historiographic technologies (writing, printing, photography, etc.) meant that this discussion retained its relevance in every historical era. The Internet era also raises new questions related to the power of memory vis-à-vis the power of history.

This installation was comissioned for the exhibition « Alternative History » at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem.

(Full video docmentation of the work can be viewed here)

The information presented on the flickering signs is adapted from search results in online search engines. The search is repeated in 3 different languages, representing the 3 major religions (English, Arabic, Hebrew). Every term searched is accompanied by a number attesting to its presence in the web, and consequently in collective consciousness. The personas selected are taken both from history and from memory, with the number of results for each persona varying not only from person to person but also from language to language (read, culture to culture).

What do these numbers signify? Do they signify historic validity? Do they testify to the historical significance of each given personality? Its religious or national significance? These names have managed to survive the teeth of time and become more or less entrenched in our collective memory. In fact, these numbers index the current "popularity" of historical fi gures from hundreds and thousands years ago.

Much like any other dimension of present-day human culture, processes of memory and historiography are being digitized, democratized and transformed in countless other ways as a result of recent transformations in techno-cultural paradigms. This work directs our attention to the quantifi cation of memory by latter-day agents of knowledge – the search engines – which enable us for the first time to examine historical significance from a quantitatively dimension to historic significance.