Porcelain Publishing / CT / Volume 9 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470203.20250902
REVIEW

Memory and Temporality in the Digital Age: A Study of Refik Anadol's Digital  Art

Chun Zhang1
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1 Program for Cultural Studies, School of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
© Invalid date by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Abstract

This paper examines how digital technologies restructure temporality and collective memory through the analysis of TurkishAmerican artist Refik Anadol's digital art series, including Melting Memories (2014-2018), Unsupervised (2021-2022), and  Machine Hallucinations (2016-present). Drawing upon theoretical frameworks from scholars such as Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Andrew Hoskins, Wolfgang Ernst, Martin Pogačar, Jussi Parikka on digital memory, as well as Timothy Barker's research on  television media temporality, this study analyzes how Anadol's works embody the conflation of memory and storage in the  digital age, the concept of "enduring ephemeral," non-linear temporality, and the digital reconstruction of collective memory. The research demonstrates that Anadol's works transcend mere artistic exploration of big data and artificial intelligence  technologies; they constitute a profound reflection on human memory, perception, and temporal experience within digital  culture, offering novel perspectives for understanding temporality and collective memory in the digital age.

Keywords
Digital Memory
Refik Anadol
Temporality
Collective Memory
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