# Excavating the Memory Palace: Arts of Visualization from the Agora to the Computer **URL:** \ **Category:** General Memory Chat\ **Created:** [March 9, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729 "2021-03-09T23:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Josh](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/josh/32/21_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Josh)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/1 "2021-03-09T23:37:44Z")
Has anyone here read the book _Excavating the Memory Palace: Arts of Visualization from the Agora to the Computer_ by Seth Long? It looks interesting. > **[Excavating the Memory Palace](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo49299173.html)** > > With the prevalence of smartphones, massive data storage, and search engines, we might think of today as the height of the information age. In reality, every era has faced its own challenges of storing, organizing, and accessing information. While... > With the prevalence of smartphones, massive data storage, and search engines, we might think of today as the height of the information age. In reality, every era has faced its own challenges of storing, organizing, and accessing information. While they lacked digital devices, our ancestors, when faced with information overload, utilized some of the same techniques that underlie our modern interfaces: they visualized and spatialized data, tying it to the emotional and sensory spaces of memory, thereby turning their minds into a visual interface for accessing information. > > In _Excavating the Memory Palace_, Seth David Long mines the history of Europe’s arts of memory to find the origins of today’s data visualizations, unearthing how ancient constructions of cognitive pathways paved the way for modern technological interfaces. Looking to techniques like the memory palace, he finds the ways that information has been tied to sensory and visual experience, turning raw data into lucid knowledge. From the icons of smart phone screens to massive network graphs, Long shows us the ancestry of the cyberscape and unveils the history of memory as a creative act. > > Chapter 1. Arts of Memory in the Agora > Chapter 2. Arts of Memory in the Monastery > Chapter 3. The Memory Palace in Ruins > Chapter 4. The Memory Palace Modernized > Chapter 5. Theory and Practice of a Digital Ars Memoria > Chapter 6. The Social Memory Palace ---
**Author:** ![michael2](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/michael2/32/32890_2.png) [@michael2](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/michael2)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/2 "2021-03-09T23:49:11Z")
I haven’t yet, but it’s now on my list of books to read. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/thinkaboutthebible/32/12986_2.png) [@thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/thinkaboutthebible)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/3 "2021-05-20T17:29:49Z")
_Excavating the Memory Palace_ looks like a very fascinating book with some great historical techniques to uncover, @Josh. Thanks for the notice, I’ve ordered it and plan to read it soon! ---
**Author:** ![chrisaldrich](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/chrisaldrich/32/104_2.png) [@chrisaldrich](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/chrisaldrich)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/4 "2021-07-09T17:33:06Z")
I picked up a copy of it in April and have made it through the introduction and first chapter. He’s a professor writing from the perspective of a rhetorician and is generally extending some of the academic research started by Frances Yates. I’ll write more as I have time, but I’m in the midst of a few dozen books at the moment. I wish I could focus on this and one or two others. I’ll note that for those interested, it’s likely based on a shorter journal article that the same author wrote in 2017 with a similar title: [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07350198.2017.1281691](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07350198.2017.1281691) A little digging around should uncover a free copy of it. If you’re desperate, I have a digital copy he emailed me a while back. ---
**Author:** ![thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/thinkaboutthebible/32/12986_2.png) [@thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/thinkaboutthebible)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/5 "2021-07-09T21:46:08Z")
I finished _Excavating the Memory Palace_ but didn’t think it worth talking about on the forum since it was terribly academic. Throughout the historical journey Long took me on, he seemed focused on the motivations for why the memory palace was picked up or discarded based on the worldview of the time. So, it turned out to be more philosophical than the practical evolution of the memory palace that I was looking for. I can say for sure that he has dug deeper than anyone else I’ve read concerning the influences of _Ad Herennium_ and Quintillian. And I can also say, he added more to the reputation of mnemonics in academia than anyone else that I’ve read. A brilliant writer. ---
**Author:** ![Liam](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/liam/32/5903_2.png) [@Liam](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Liam)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2022, 1:00am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/6 "2022-01-21T01:00:10Z")
> [@chrisaldrich](#): > > If you’re desperate, I have a digital copy he emailed me a while back. May I ask, is this digital copy still available? ---
**Author:** ![chrisaldrich](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/chrisaldrich/32/104_2.png) [@chrisaldrich](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/chrisaldrich)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 7:59am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/7 "2022-01-23T07:59:32Z")
Send me an email and I can pass it along. ---
**Author:** ![DanteGaxiola](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/dantegaxiola/32/14716_2.png) [@DanteGaxiola](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/DanteGaxiola)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2022, 4:39am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/8 "2022-05-08T04:39:23Z")
I would add that the emphasis he makes in the relation between the art of memory (particularly the Memory Palace) and the art of _inventio_ and “creative info integration” was very suggestive (at least in the introduction and first chapter), not stressed enough in other materials. I stopped reading it because it wouldn’t seem to be any practical advice to actually use the memory palace for intellectual “invention”. Did you find anything in later chapters? I would definitely go back to it if there is anything, but don’t really seems like it. For anyone interested: ![imagen](https://forum.artofmemory.com/uploads/default/original/2X/4/4187af5f3a7a341fdc5132db6253e07eac585236.png) ![imagen](https://forum.artofmemory.com/uploads/default/original/2X/d/d62026f8ed1dc6973adcc4f07a5c0f87b1b9403b.png) ![imagen](https://forum.artofmemory.com/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c9867d6ba0eb88160f2a457b751887a5e6edab1d.png) ---
**Author:** ![thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/thinkaboutthebible/32/12986_2.png) [@thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/thinkaboutthebible)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/9 "2022-05-08T14:39:04Z")
@DanteGaxiola, it was the well-researched references that made the most impact on me and the focus on mnemonics being a rhetorical handmaiden was important to keep people from assuming otherwise. I picked up the pointer to Pierre Hérigone as the Western inventor of the Major system but wondered why he avoided any references to earlier systems in South Asia. If your interest, like mine, was practical application, you did well to stop when you got the gist of it. I started “speed reading” after the first few chapters, which for me is just skipping across the paragraphs looking for something to slow down for. ---
**Author:** ![DanteGaxiola](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/dantegaxiola/32/14716_2.png) [@DanteGaxiola](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/DanteGaxiola)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2022, 12:29am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/10 "2022-05-09T00:29:40Z")
That’s what I thought, Doug. Thanks for your answer. I’m really interested to know how others are using memory techniques as aid for thought. Of course, one can imagine, and it’s been very useful for me since it helps me to remember related information, even if it’s not coded explicitly as so in my memory palaces. Examples of how it works for other people would be very interesting. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/thinkaboutthebible/32/12986_2.png) [@thinkaboutthebible](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/thinkaboutthebible)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2022, 4:31am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/11 "2022-05-09T04:31:30Z")
@DanteGaxiola, the process and practical examples of good usage have been my passion since I joined the site. It turned into a 300+ page document that I might be ready to release in a year or so. I took a detour to release my Major system dictionary and create a teaching curriculum but nobody is knocking at my door for anything so I’m not rushing. Stay in touch. I enjoy like-minded people. Doug ---
**Author:** ![DanteGaxiola](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/dantegaxiola/32/14716_2.png) [@DanteGaxiola](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/DanteGaxiola)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2022, 4:55am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/excavating-the-memory-palace-arts-of-visualization-from-the-agora-to-the-computer/60729/12 "2022-05-09T04:55:48Z")
> [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > It turned into a 300+ page document I would be very interested in that document! > [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > Major system dictionary Would you tell me some of the uses for such a dictionary? I currently use a Dominic PAO system for number memorization, very useful for memorizing years. Are there other uses for the Major that I’m not aware of? Maybe pegs? > [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > teaching curriculum ¿Is that for a course? I recently gave my first cohort-based course online dedicated to memory techniques (mnemonics, but also spaced repetition, active recall and elaborative recall). Would love to contrast and discuss curricula, experiences and approaches! > [@thinkaboutthebible](#): > > Stay in touch. Would be a pleasure! Dante