“For those of us who cherish our memories and like to think they are an accurate record of our history, the idea that memory is fundamentally malleable is more than a little disturbing.” Karim Nader

If one stands on a certain present that is formed in its relation to the past, and if memories are intangible traces of that past, it becomes a bit more obvious why the malleability of memory has to be essentially disturbing. Such malleability points to that the past, which has undeniably been experienced, becomes constantly reshaped and recollected, and through such recollection the present reshapes itself.

Nader further states, “the very act of remembering can change our memories.” The very act of remembering, if it changes our memories, it also shifts the past I stood on, the present that I stand on, and lastly, the future that I will stand on.

“Remember to Forget” is an ongoing project by Faris Kassim, archiving film slides taken in the course of the past 10 years (2010-). As demonstrated, the images are blurred to the point where objects scattered in the frame are completely indistinguishable. This indistinguishability comes from the process of drastic dimensional downsizing. During this process, the image sheds everything to fit the new small canvas, except for the data perceived essential by the algorithm. Once the image is blown back up into its original size, the algorithm, working with the very small amount of data left, fills in the blanks of this larger canvas by creating new and imaginary data, based on its own assumptions regarding what should fill the void.

This process is not different to our process of remembering. Trying your best to recall a faint but a significant memory, it becomes frustrating because you have to work with information barely left in your mind. The harder you try to fill in the details of the memory, the more zoomed in you try to get into the image, you realize you are imagining and painting between the gaps. This resizing process is a self reflection in a certain sense: on the encounters that took place, the relationships that were built. The things that remain in the realm of the past but always permeating into my present. Past senses scattered in my mind, leaving only a slight impression. Memories always fluctuating –

Pasts passed, pasts reimagined. For the things I wish to forget, and things I wish I remembered.
Remember to Forget.