All My favorite memories have been of movies; for instance my first job, summer of ‘88 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
How we trigger memories through ritual and play to create the starting points for future action…
Research in Hunts Point, the Bronx New York. How can we use memory to construct a shared future view, leading to action?
Pleasure, empathy, bias: creating actionable empathy
My inquiry began with: ‘How can empathy be used to trigger action?”. As a part of my initial research I created a systems diagram of how empathy works based on my understanding of current neuroscience. By doing this I began to understand the key role memory plays in our ability to feel empathy. In parallel with this I began to suspect the limitations of empathy as a catalyst for action.
I started to look not just at empathy but also: bias, happiness and future visioning - each of which relies on memory as a necessary component. This lead me to wonder: “How can memory be triggered to define and create a desirable future state?”. As I researched further I found that a memory is changed each time we access it, so in triggering memories we are in fact manipulating them. This lead me to consider: Do we need to access memories in new ways to envision our collective future?
This blog will follow my explorations in the link between our socially constructed past and a shared design of the future. I hope to better understand how shared memory may be triggered (and manipulated) to help create a common future view.