PARSONS SCHOOL OF
DESIGN PRESENTS:

Ruby Thelot

Designer and Researcher
Ruby Thelot is a designer and researcher based in New York. He is the founder of the award-winning creative research and design studio 13101401 inc. His work focuses on the interactions between humans and artificial intelligence, the metaverse and the implications of being-on-line. He has given talks and shown works in Tallin, Berlin and Abuja, amongst other places.
Ruby Thelot is a designer and researcher based in New York. He is the founder of the award-winning creative research and design studio 13101401 inc. His work focuses on the interactions between humans and artificial intelligence, the metaverse and the implications of being-on-line. He has given talks and shown works in Tallin, Berlin and Abuja, amongst other places.
Thesis Faculty
Loretta Wolozin, Fields Harrington

Mnemophagy: The Devouring of Memory by Ruby Thelot

Mnemophagy: The Devouring of Memory by Ruby Thelot

Abstract

Mnenophagy is an exploration of the impact of technology on memory. Meaning literally, “the devouring of memory”, this project uses the case of the Checkpoints community, a digital community whose point of congregation was deleted by YouTube, as an example of the dangers of relying on technology as a repository for memory. This project and research provide novel contributions to the field of cyberethnography, the study of digital communities, and digital ontology, the study of the nature of being in the digital age. It seeks to hypothesize current and future impacts to memory by technology. Additionally, it clarifies the phenomena surrounding the erosion of memory in the technological age. By way of Frederich Kittler, Martin Heidegger, and Frances Yates, it traces the interplay as one where technology eats away at memory through a process called “mnemophagy”.

This dissertation explores precedents of memory substrates, their impact on remembering and posits that the terminal goal of technology is the abolition of memory. Specifically, it explores digital-prime memories or memories engendered in digital environments and speculates on means of preservation and transmission.