Selctive memory as a protective
Chubai Xu
This project starts from how my phone categorizes my memories through automated systems that group and resurface images. This process raises questions about how memory is constructed and controlled.
While digital systems preserve everything, human memory selectively filters and reshapes experiences over time. Through a series of visual works, I explore how memory is edited, retained, or ignored.
Selective memory is reframed not as a limitation, but as a form of protection.
MEMORY BLANKET
A quilt-like blanket composed of personal photographs categorized as keep, hide, and delete. Each category is visually treated through opacity, erasure, or removal. By physically assembling these images, the work explores how selective memory filters experiences and provides emotional protection.
MOMENT TICKET WEB
A generative interface that transforms personal memories into illustrated “tickets.” Users input text and images, which are processed and reinterpreted into a new visual and narrative form. The system reframes memory as something that can be edited, translated, and reshaped rather than simply preserved.
Mind over Memory
A calendar constructed from a full year of personal iPhone photos, reorganized into a continuous visual archive. By placing every captured moment side by side, the work reveals patterns of repetition, excess, and emotional distance, questioning how much of what we record is truly remembered or meaningful.