The Decay of Digital Collective Memories
/ðə diˈkeɪ ʌv ˈdɪd͡ʒɪtl̩ kəˈlɛktɪv ˈmɛm.(ə.)ɹiz/
The Decay of Digital Collective Memories
Computer video game (2025)
Exhibit:
/2026/
Octobre Numérique (France)
The Decay of Digital Collective Memories explores the fragile life inside images — not as static artifacts,
but as unstable territories shaped by memory, nostalgia, and technological erosion. Set in a 1-bit desktop landscape,
players follow a firefox and a mouse navigating a world that loops endlessly while quietly disintegrating.
The 1-bit duotone aesthetic, with dithering at the threshold of recognition, transforms familiar images into abstractions, reframing icons of collective digital memory.
Environments are drawn from a decade-long personal archive of liminal, dreamlike images, forming a maze governed by dream logic.
Human interaction accelerates decay: playing destabilizes the world and awakens its antivirus.
Through iteration and ghost replay, traces of past runs guide navigation, turning each pop-up into a portal through a shifting archive.
By inhabiting corrupted images and confronting the consequences of presence, the game reflects on impermanence — human, technological, and dreamlike.
Designed & developed by Tatiana Vilela dos Santos & Olivier Drouet
Music made by sampling Pix and rodz! productions.
This game was originally developed during the 36hrs Octobre Numérique Game Jam.
