George Legrady
«Pockets Full of Memories»

«Pockets Full of Memories» is an interactive installation (in its current version using 2 to 4 screen projections, scanning station, 2 terminals, wall design) in which the public contributes an image of an object in their possession to an archive that grows throughout the duration of the exhibition. The data is stored in a database that is projected large scale in the gallery space, and accessible on the Internet. The objects move around on the screen looking for others of similar description. The Kohonen self-organizing map algorithm determines the location of the objects by positioning them in a 2 dimensional matrix according to similarities defined by the contributors’ semantic descriptions. Various visualization interpretations of the data are projected in sequence. The audience can also interact with the data online at http://www.pocketsfullofmemories.com to access descriptions of the objects and to contribute extended comments to the objects from anywhere in the world.

At the start of the exhibition, the database is empty but grows through the public’s contributions. The algorithm organizes the data throughout the exhibition to arrive at a final ordered state at the end of the exhibition. The phenomenon of proceeding from small local actions (each contribution) to arrive at a final ordered state is called emergence as the order is not determined beforehand but emerges over time through the local interactions generated by the algorithm each time a new object enters the database. In this sense, the system has been defined as ‹self-organizing.›