Exploring Futures of Infinite Data Storage through Speculative Design

Forgetting is often described as an undesirable sin of our memory, depicted as a completely uncontrollable action. If one desires to forget, it is to erase unimportant or unpleasant information. Moreover, the general mental model of memory suggests that we first remember and lastly forget. Thus, the linear memory model suggests a one-way dynamic from remembering to forgetting. This mental model of memory has been projected into the digital space design, where one remembers by acquiring data and forgets by deleting it. However, the advent of infinite data storage scenarios provides new opportunities to re-establish how we forget and remember using data repositories. I discuss a possible paradigm shift: how forgetting a memory can help remembering in longer terms by presenting a speculative design artefact, the Horcrux Ear. It was created using Research through Design approach that develops a new understanding of these processes’ temporality and spatial dimension of memory. This paper aims to contribute to the debate over the relationship between forgetting and remembering, its role in the infinite data scenario, and the relationship between human and computer memory. Further, it illustrates the circumstances in which: 1. Forgetting important memories is a desirable action; 2. Forgetting is a controllable action; 3. Forgetting is data creation rather than data deletion; 4. Forgetting is a means to remembering rather than the last step in the linear memory model.