Memory association machine: an account of the realization and interpretation of an autonomous responsive site-specific artwork.

This thesis is an account of the realization and interpretation of the autonomous responsive electronic media artwork "Memory Association Machine" (MAM). Realization and interpretation are components of the creative process that braids conceptual, site-specific, electronic media art and artificial intelligence practises. The meaning of MAM is dependent on its unique location in space and time. MAM relates itself to its context using three primary processes: perception, the integration of sense data into a field of experience, and the free-association through that field. MAM perceives through a video camera, integrates using a Kohonen Self-Organizing Map, and free-associates through an implementation of Liane M. Gabora's model of memory and creativity. These processes are as important as MAM's physical appearance, are composed of computational elements, and allow the system to respond to context autonomously.