How to make a Memory Palace
Simonides was stiffed. Castor and Pollux were affronted. They brought the banquet hall to the ground. From the rubbish a memory palace was born.
The origin story of the memory palace, likely apocryphal, resides in the biography of Simonides, Greece's first for profit poet. At a banquet for Scopas, Simonides recites a poem filled with praise for the twin gods, Castor and Pollux. Scopas refuses to pay in full, demanding Simonides collect the other part of his payment from the infernal twins. Shortly after, a messenger hails Simonides. He leaves the building, but no messenger is to be found. Upon his exit, the banquet hall collapses and those inside are disfigured beyond recognition. Simonides, the only surviving member of the party, is tasked with identifying the disfigured bodies. He imagines the table and the positions of each reveller, and in this way attaches names to those beyond recognition. From the death of Scopas and his partygoers, the memory palace is born.
Memory palaces use the strength of human spatial memory to record and retrieve memories. A specific space is chosen, and vivid symbols are placed throughout it. Each symbol is linked to a specific memory; the more absurd the image, the easier it is to remember. To retrieve the memories, one simply imagines walking through the space.
The process of building a memory palace is relatively simple: after your walk decide what you want to remember and translate it into an image. Imagine that image within a specific landscape (the location of your memory palace). The more absurd, vibrant or ridiculous the image is, the easier it is to remember.
For a further discussion of walking art and memory palaces see Walking Networks: The Development of an Artistic Medium.The origin story of the memory palace, likely apocryphal, resides in the biography of Simonides, Greece's first for profit poet. At a banquet for Scopas, Simonides recites a poem filled with praise for the twin gods, Castor and Pollux. Scopas refuses to pay in full, demanding Simonides collect the other part of his payment from the infernal twins. Shortly after, a messenger hails Simonides. He leaves the building, but no messenger is to be found. Upon his exit, the banquet hall collapses and those inside are disfigured beyond recognition. Simonides, the only surviving member of the party, is tasked with identifying the disfigured bodies. He imagines the table and the positions of each reveller, and in this way attaches names to those beyond recognition. From the death of Scopas and his partygoers, the memory palace is born.
Memory palaces use the strength of human spatial memory to record and retrieve memories. A specific space is chosen, and vivid symbols are placed throughout it. Each symbol is linked to a specific memory; the more absurd the image, the easier it is to remember. To retrieve the memories, one simply imagines walking through the space.
The process of building a memory palace is relatively simple: after your walk decide what you want to remember and translate it into an image. Imagine that image within a specific landscape (the location of your memory palace). The more absurd, vibrant or ridiculous the image is, the easier it is to remember.