H.A.R.P.

Haptic-Adaptive Remembrance Processor, or HARP, is a work of fiction centered around a touch-based interface capable of synthesizing memories in real time. The machine interprets the operator’s live input, translating data into remembrances that are seamlessly integrated into the operator’s own memory. While HARP is strictly intended for recreational use, its operator, Parker, ventures on a more perilous introspective journey, delving into his past memories in pursuit of reconciliation and forgiveness.

H.A.R.P. (Haptic-Adaptive Remembrance Processor)

I first encountered Artun’s music when I was researching a piece for Early Music America about the use of period instruments in contemporary composition. I became fascinated with a work which involved 3D printed larynxes through which bows and scratched from several violas da gamba were processed – a fresh take, if you will, on Marin Marais’ famous La Voix Humaine.

While I could sense that Artun’s work would likely involve an exploration on the role of technologies in our lives, I was stunned by the work – or rather, the machine – he produced. The Haptic-Adaptive Remembrance Processor, or HARP, is a fictional touch-based interface, supposedly capable of synthesizing memories in real time. This machine interprets operator’s (that is, my) live input, translating data into remembrances that are seamlessly integrated into the operator’s own memory. While HARP is strictly intended for recreational use, its operator, Parker, ventures on a more perilous introspective journey, delving into his past memories in pursuit of reconciliation and forgiveness.

That a holistic or mediated memory is something that is constructed after the point of recollection after the fact troubles me. How do our memories change? Is it in substance or interpretation? Which comes first? And under what conditions?

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