Questions regarding memory in general and individual acts of remembering have gained considerable attention over the last 20 years both in the area of Fragmented Visuals and in the natural act of making/creating. This is particularly true for the current interest in autobiographical memory, which guarantees the ability, essential at least to highly individualized societies, of maintaining both a coherent awareness of one’s self over time as well as a consistent feeling of identity. This ability in turn makes it possible to develop a personal orientation towards future events on the basis of past and present experiences, and then to relate them to and synchronize them with visual and conceptual expression.
It is however apparent that the different approaches to the topic of autobiographical memory from various fields of research, such as the social, visual culture and biological, have been evolving fairly independently of one another. Despite this, their theoretical models and concepts are interrelated to such a high degree, so as to make mutual references to other work a matter of course, especially in what concerns the fact that memory is intrinsically such an encompassing, global behavior.
When we look at the classification of different memory systems and the concept of “emotional memory”, the traditional approach has to consider the social malleability of individual memories and their associated emotions. The concept of an autobiographical memory system is still rather undifferentiated.
Thus, conceivably, any attempt to explicitly confront these different disciplines and their various methodologies and results with each other would most probably improve their mutual understanding of the fundamental prerequisites, the modalities and the functions of autobiographical memory, as well as support the development of innovative methods for studying autobiographical memory.
The aim of the this work on the autobiographical memory, is to integrate findings on self development, understanding, age and time-specific memory competences and social interaction. It is based on a Fragmented research, leading to a profound concept of autobiographical memory, which could be helpful for the next step of an artistic journey.