An interactive artwork I created for class that explores memory loss — in particular, dementia — and visualizes the kind of helplessness that comes with it.

When confronted with an image that only continues to degenerate, will the participant feel that similar sort of helplessness? Will they feel more disappointed when they find that their efforts are for naught?

Here, the computer represents the brain by progressively blurring the image-memory. The participant, represented by a camera focus-cursor, can try to reverse the effects by clicking on the image. In the end, these efforts to retain the image-memory will be overwhelmed by the program’s increasingly stronger instructions.