Smartphones make it really easy to hold onto our memories. Built-in 4K video cameras, photo editing apps, and social media time-hop notifications all seem to work together to preserve our memories for us in designated digital spaces. Of course, keeping all of our memories and pictures in one digitized space comes with some risk. I need two hands to count the number of times I’ve lost my phone, along with more than 50,000 pictures, and backing up our devices is convenient until storage space dwindles and an upgrade must be made before backing up can resume. One’s, a safe for memories that also implements timekeeping visuals with a digital interface, was designed by Ji Ye Hong in order to merge our digital storage with our memory.
One’s, named in honor of someone’s memory, has a recognizable, circular shape reminiscent of a grandfather’s clock and swinging pendulum, further enhancing the design’s tribute to memory. By way of Bluetooth connectivity, the product’s 20-inch round display panel ticks through photographs according to your digital library’s memory of each given day, echoing the iPhone’s “On this day” feature found in your photo library. The slideshow essentially grabs photographs based on special days – photos from a past birthday celebration will be displayed on future birthdays and as your memories are presented, the pendulum swings. Then, on the days your mom sticks around for lunch, you can filter out the memories from college for PG ones from childhood by selecting and curating photo albums from your smartphone to be displayed on One’s.
Largely in response to the memory reels that we digitize every day, the popularity in maintaining and seeking out our more physical memories like childhood photographs, iPod Nanos from 2005, or heirloom jewelry, has risen. Near the power, brightness, and sleep-mode control panel, notches etched along One’s perimeter introduce the product’s safe function, which opens up by turning the display panel. Tucked behind the main display panel, you can find One’s physical-memory storage area. Similar to shelving units found in medicine cabinets, the inside of One’s features narrow shelves that can hold onto smaller items like stationery or textiles – whatever small memory might fit, One’s can carry.
Designer: Ji Ye Hong
