REAL CASE · PUBLIC RECORDS

CHI Community Memory Infrastructure

A record tells us
what happened.
Memory tells us why.

A source-linked journey through Tangible Bits at CHI ’97—designed to hold public evidence, personal memory, relationships, and absence without collapsing them into one story.

Explore the evidence

Public metadata is real · personal memory remains uncollected

1997 · RECALLED · OPENA memory has not yet been contributed.The absence is part of the interface.
RELATIONAL · PROPOSEDCo-authorship is fact. Meaning still needs review.Evidence and inference remain separate.
2026 · RECORDED · VERIFIEDFrom Remote Space to Remote TimeDOI 10.1145/3772363.3790071

01 · WHAT THIS PROTOTYPE NOW PROVES

From archive browser to memory infrastructure

Not simply what CHI published,
but what CHI made possible.

CHI Memory keeps four epistemic layers visible. A publication can be verified. A recollection must be attributed. A relationship must be reviewed. An absence must never be silently filled by AI.

01RECORDED

Verified

Papers, authors, venues, awards, dates, and source links.

02RECALLED

Attributed

Oral memory, photographs, sketches, objects, and revisions.

03RELATIONAL

Confirmed

Collaboration, influence, disagreement, and shared experience.

04ABSENT

Bounded

Lost, unknown, disputed, or deliberately withheld material.

Design principleThe interface should reveal what is known, who said it, who confirmed it, who can see it, and whether it can be withdrawn.

02 · TEMPORAL LAYERS

A small, traceable seed dataset

Move through the record.
Open its provenance.

Ten source-linked public records establish the trajectory. Three concept traces show where attributed memory, relational consent, and absence would enter—without pretending those materials exist.

03 · CONCEPTUAL IMAGE STUDIES

Interaction atmosphere, clearly labeled

Memory is not only read.
It is encountered.

These images remain speculative studies. They are separated from the real-case archive and never presented as historical evidence.

Concept image of layered paper, a conference badge, a photograph edge, and a tactile token on a dark archival surface
CONCEPT DEMO · NOT A HISTORICAL CLAIM
ARCHIVE TRACES

Materials anchor a memory.

Paper, objects, photographs, and marks do not illustrate a finished story. They give a contributor something real to return to.

Concept imagery · design exploration only · not archive material

04 · FIRST EXPLORABLE JOURNEY

Hiroshi Ishii · Tangible Bits · CHI 1997

One person. One moment. Four layers.

This journey is real where the public record is real, and visibly unfinished where personal contribution and consent are still needed.

REAL CASEPUBLIC ANCHOR

A vision enters the CHI record

The CHI ’97 paper is the verified starting point: title, authorship, venue, pages, and DOI. It anchors the journey without claiming to explain what the moment meant to the people involved.

Source state
Verified
Visibility
Public
Human review
ACM record

Explore each layer · no personal memory is simulated

05 · WEAVE A MEMORY

AI inference made inspectable

AI proposes a thread. People decide if it holds.

Select two or three materials. The interface separates source-backed facts, missing recollection, and machine inference before any relation can enter the shared archive.

SELECT MATERIALS2/3 selected
AI-PROPOSED RELATIONAwaiting human review

These two materials may refer to the same CHI ’97 moment. Their temporal relation is supported; their personal meaning is not yet known.

FACT

Tangible Bits at CHI ’97 are supported by linked public records.

RECOLLECTION

No transcript or personal account has been contributed. The slot remains empty.

INFERENCE

Temporal proximity may suggest a connection. It does not establish influence, intention, or personal significance.

NON-NEGOTIABLE BOUNDARY

No invented events. No synthetic persona or cloned voice. No surrogate consent. No single algorithmic verdict on whose memory is correct.

06 · BUILD STATUS & NEXT VALIDATION

Evidence before expansion

What exists now. What must be learned next.

The prototype now makes provenance, uncertainty, and review visible. The next milestone is not more content—it is one consented contributor journey and evidence that people understand the distinctions.

COMPLETED

Frame

Defined the recorded, recalled, relational, and absent memory layers.

COMPLETED

Ground

Built a source-linked public record around Tangible Bits and its trajectory.

NEXT

Contribute

Confirm the first contributor, materials, visibility boundaries, and interview prompt.

NEXT

Validate

Test whether provenance, AI suggestions, and absence are understood without explanation.

NEXT EVIDENCE

One contributor · one 10–15 minute memory interview · 3–5 verified anchors · 1–3 personal traces · one reviewed relation · one future question

DECISIONS FOR THE NEXT MEETING

Three questions now matter.

  1. Is Tangible Bits at CHI ’97 the right first contributor journey?
  2. Which materials and relationships may be included, and under what visibility rules?
  3. What evidence would justify moving from one journey to a community-scale pilot?

A living archive should not finish the past’s story. It should let us meet it at a distance—and continue with better questions.

CHI Memory · working research prototype · September 2026