Visual Memory

Everyone has a set of memory of his/her own times. People living in the same age possess similar memories—collective memory as we call it. And yet, even in the same age, different people have very dissimilar memories—that is what we call individual memory. The environment we live, society and our lifestyles have been undergoing vast transformation. Many memory-related events have profound influences on our life, and the events themselves are the vessels of memories. As for the events in the memory, or the memory in the events, some choose to forget; some choose to remember. What would be readily forgotten and what would be deliberately kept alive in memory? Can this unintentional or deliberate process of memory filtration be visually recreated? If so, can this presentation show a certain implication of emotional concern for the internal world? These are the issues that this dissertation intends to discuss.In an attempt to grasp the rules of human memories, this dissertation has applied design research methodologies such as literature, induction, deduction and indexation and has drawn heavily from the rules of the keeping and loss of memory. In combining some visual symbols in art and design history with the research on graphic language, it aims to conduct a preliminary investigation of the visual presentation of individual and collective memory, to evoke emotional resonance by visually recapturing the forgotten and the memorized, and finally to communicate with viewers through graphic design terms. On top of this it will further discuss the issue of how to awaken the buried memories in both individual and social events, to render these memories more visually arresting, so that viewers can scrutinize their own emotions as they witness this memory-awakening process.This dissertation places an emphasis on design's infiltration into people's everyday lives and emotions and is committed to the view that design is not merely for the hand, but for the heart.