This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Blended Memory: Distributed Remembering and Forgetting through Digital Photography Tim Fawns PhD Education The University of Edinburgh 2016 ii Declaration I declare that this thesis has been composed by me and that it is my own work. The work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Publications derived from this research have been included at the end with the publishers’ permission. These publications are my own work, except where indicated. Signed: Tim Fawns iii iv Acknowledgements To my supervisors, Hamish Macleod and Ethel Quayle, thank you for creating an atmosphere of enjoyment, creativity, trust and curiosity, as well as for tolerating and guiding my many directions and slowly evolving understanding. To Fiona Hale, thank you for your generous moral and practical support. To my participants, thank you for your time and for your insights. To “JI” and “AE” in particular, thank you for allowing me to study your wedding. Thank you to the many people who took an interest and who helped me through conversations and ideas. There are too many to name, but I would like to specifically thank the following: Marshall Dozier and Denny College for the initial push. Karen McKenzie for listening and advising. Clara O’Shea for pep talks and Milo. Phil Sheail, Jeremy Knox and Pete Evans for sharing the PhD journey. Sian Bayne and Jen Ross for helpful advice. Andrew Manches for asking tough questions at the right times. Christy Parkins for helping me to scrub and polish the text. Gill Aitken, Michael Ross, Helen Cameron and Matthias Schwannauer for allowing me time to study. Jessie Paterson and Sharon Boyd for connecting me with other excellent people. Nicola Osborne for tweets and general support. Maria Campbell, Audrey Matthews, Jill and Finlay Welsh for making life easier during this period. I would also like to thank the following people for supportive yet inspiring conversations: John McCarthy, Andy Clark, Anna Reading, Elise van den Hoven, Jose van Dijck, Giuliana Mazzoni and Orestis Palmeros. In a thesis that highlights the importance of tools to thinking, it seems appropriate to acknowledge the more influential ones: Microsoft Word, Dedoose, Scrivener and iPhoto. I am also grateful to the University of Edinburgh for providing the infrastructure supporting much of my activity. Most of all, to my wonderful wife Kirsty who, during the production of this thesis, gave birth to our three sons and then started full-time doctoral training in clinical psychology: thank you for everything and let's not do that again. To our sons, thank you for putting up with my frequent studying. To their grandparents, thank you for your many different kinds of support along the way. v vi Abstract This thesis explores practices and experiences of using photography to support remembering. While the increasing use of photography is well documented, we have limited theoretical understanding of how we approach the taking, organising, and sharing of personal images in relation to memory, and of the opportunities and risks that are created through technological change. Two studies were conducted in which a total of 21 participants were interviewed in front of a sample of their photographs. Study 1 explored photography and remembering around a single, specific event: a wedding. Study 2 explored longer-term patterns of photographic and remembering activity across a range of contexts and events. The analysis showed that the ways that participants engaged with other people and technologies were significant in determining the kinds of photographs that were produced, and the engagement with those photos. Photographic practices were also heavily influenced by the situations in which they were performed and the beliefs and preferences of individuals. The existence of photographs could lead to thinking about particular aspects of the past, but the taking of photographs also altered the experience of what was being photographed. This could be seen as disruptive, depending on the participant’s beliefs about whether photography was a legitimate part of experience. When taking photos, participants pursued a mix of aesthetics, objectivity, and personal meaning, and perceptions of these qualities could influence the way that photographs were used in cueing recall. However, while most participants had produced large collections of photographs, there had been limited engagement with these and taking or having photographs could be more important than looking at them. The thesis concludes that there is value in redefining memory as a kind of activity that emerges through the performance of remembering and that is dependent on the tools used to support it and the situations in which it is performed. From this perspective, photography and autobiographical remembering are parts of the same wider activity, an inseparable blend of internal and external processes. As such, attempts to support our memories should consider both the features of technology and the experience of using it, as well as the ways that we work with tools and people when remembering. vii viii CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 THESIS ROADMAP ........................................................................................................... 4 2 TECHNOLOGIES AND PRACTICES OF PHOTOGRAPHY ....................................................... 7 2.1 A HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 8 2.2 DRIVERS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC BEHAVIOUR .......................................................................... 19 2.3 PHOTOGRAPHS AND REALITY .......................................................................................... 21 2.4 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 24 3 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND DISTRIBUTED COGNITION .................................... 27 3.1 MEMORY CONTENT ....................................................................................................... 27 3.2 MEMORY EXPERIENCE ................................................................................................... 29 3.3 MEMORY FUNCTION ..................................................................................................... 33 3.4 FORGETTING ................................................................................................................ 35 3.5 ACCURACY ................................................................................................................... 37 3.6 PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MEMORY ........................................................... 39 3.7 DISTRIBUTED, SITUATED, AND EMERGENT MEMORY ............................................................ 41 3.8 SUMMARY AND KNOWLEDGE GAP ................................................................................... 44 4 METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 47 4.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................................... 48 4.2 EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES AND THIS THESIS ....................................................................... 48 4.3 STUDYING MEMORY ...................................................................................................... 52 4.4 INTERVIEWS ................................................................................................................. 54 4.5 POPULATION AND SAMPLING .......................................................................................... 60 4.6 DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................ 64 5 STUDY 1. A COMPLICATED MARRIAGE: MEMORY & PHOTOGRAPHY OF A WEDDING . 69 5.1 METHODS ................................................................................................................... 69 5.2 RESULTS ...................................................................................................................... 72 5.3 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 98 6 STUDY 2. PATTERNS AND DISTRIBUTIONS OF REMEMBERING ..................................... 101 6.1 METHODS ................................................................................................................