BUCURESTI

Where is evolution taking us?! What stays with us and what do we choose to forget?! What do we disseminate?! Will we become interested only in a reality that serves our own purposes?! Will we be consumed, alienated, dehumanized, slaves of our own self images?! Will we be able to find balance in a society with an increasing contrast between the possibility of personal development based on technology and science, on one side and the reality of our own frustrations, on the other side?! – that reality which makes us feel as if we’re being reduced from human beings to a mere object/tool – In 50, 100, 1000 years, what will remain of the 2016’s exographic storage?! __________________________

The exograms are defined as external symbolic devices linked to the present context of remembering, that allow us to extend and enhance our bio-memory system, (Donald, M. 1991) opposite the engrams, which are mental impressions caused by memory traces in the human mind which are the residual trace of an adaptation made by the organism in response to a stimulus (Odgen and Richards 1956) The exographic storage contains all cognitive artefacts, everything that individuals or groups have created along human development, similar to our memory, keeping objects that have evolved from totems, amulets, tablets, papyri, manuscripts to computers, robots and virtual environments. We are witnessing today, a real exographic revolution due to the evolution of technology. Electronic environments are intertwined with the human brain’s personal memory system in a large distributed network that alters the structure of the social - cognitive systems governing the cultural evolution, managing to fundamentally change the way individuals or groups of people remember, think and decide.

text: Mihaela Munteanu-Streck Group Exhibition - Painting, Object, Installation, Live Painting