Memory and Miniaturization

Miniaturization forces us to consider the essence of an object; as Alton Delong suggests, miniaturization is a means of accessing alternative worlds. In a sense, this is explained physically by what is preserved, exaggerated, or eliminated in the object's construction to create a simplified, generalized, exaggerated, or distorted figure. According to Douglass Bailey, these objects do not record reality, but generate records of constructed perceptions within existing relations of power and of order.

Memory presents a similar condition because it is not only something that is stored within us, but something that is only possible through our own materiality (when it is acted out or performed we can learn and remember through a complexity of senses). Memory, like miniaturization, is also constructed in essences. As we remember we re-call the same neural paths that were originally used to sense the experience, extracting the essence of the experience to recreate a generalized performance. We hold short term data, whether we need it immediately or because we find it particularly interesting at any given moment in time, for close to 30 seconds. This type of processing can only hold up to approximately seven different memories at a time before something is forgotten. However, long term data can be maintained throughout a person's life.

So there is a correlation between short term memory and the miniaturization seen in the figurines at Çatalhöyük. The figurines themselves were tiny, only capturing the essential details (the most interesting elements in the memory of a person or experience) and therefore suggest the replication of short term data. The figurines were also discarded after use in a similar way that our brains discard short term data after there is no longer a need. These figurines were not direct representations of actual realities but were abstracted and abbreviated representations. They were the essentializing structures of societies short-term documentation (memory). The people of Çatalhöyük achieved through making with their bodies what was being formulated in their minds.

Another idea to consider concerning memory is that short term data can be consolidated and integrated into long term data through an area of the brain called the hippocampus (as it works with the limbic system and various regions of the cortex in what is known as the Papez circuit). This creates links between data in the brain, allowing us to associate and consider multiple ideas when we experience new things. In the same way the people of Çatalhöyük may have been creating a map with which to associate different experiences and memories through the creation and association of different figurines.

Attached is a video from the TED Conference 2010 that discusses the experiencing self and the remembering self in respect to behavioral psychology. http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html