Introduction

Enter the word “memory” into any internet search engine. The majority of results will include information on purchasing memory cards, flash drives, random access memory upgrades, and all manner of hardware and software for personal computing. Memory is increasingly synonymous in popular usage with processes of information storage and retrieval through visually-based technologies. The profound influence of such media on basic definitions of memory is evident in the rapidly expanding list of English terms that associate the work of remembering with the workings of computer technology: memory mapping, memory chip, memory cycle, memory cell, memory card, memory caching, memory disk, memory bank, memory store, and others. ¹ Already plentiful associations between memory and visual media will be even more axiomatic in the future. In January of 2010, the Apple corporation released its eagerly anticipated tablet computer, the “iPad,” which technology analysts have described as a possible “fifth” or “final” screen, meaning that it would seamlessly integrate all previous media screens—film, television, personal computers, and portable communications devices—into one portal. To remember in late modernity is to store, send, or retrieve content through a digital constellation of increasingly integrated visual channels.