{{Short description|1997 video game}} {{Infobox video game | title = ''Immemory'' | image = Immemory Cover.JPG | caption = | developer = Chris Marker | publisher = Exact Change | producer = Centre Pompidou | released = 1997 | genre = Art game | modes = Single-player | platforms = Windows, Macintosh }}
'''''Immemory''''' is a 1997 CD-ROM by French multimedia artist Chris Marker and published by Exact Change. An art game published in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, the game is an interactive vignette of multimedia and writing around themes relating to art and history. Following the death of Marker in 2012, the game was republished in paperback print form as ''Immemory: Gutenberg Version'' in 2025. Upon re-release, retrospective reception of the game was positive, with critics praising its breadth of subject matter, open-ended nature and evocation of memories, whilst also expressing mixed views on whether it was better suited to a print or digital medium.
== Gameplay ==
Players explore eight interactive areas named 'zones' based on various themes, including 'Cinema', 'War', 'Photography', 'Poetry', 'Travel', 'Museum', and 'Xplugs', with the last being a fusion of art with images from popular culture.<ref name=AM/><ref name=BR/> Each zone in the game provides players with exposure to photographs, illustrations, paintings, video clips, letters, prose and poetry from eclectic sources across the world.<ref name=AF/><ref name=FC/> Navigation consists of using the mouse to click hyperlinks to progress; when the cursor changes color or shape, it signals a new page the player can progress to.<ref name=FC>{{cite web|website=Film Comment|date=July 2003|title=Time Immemorial: Chris Marker's Maiden Voyage into the Uncharted Waters of CD-ROM|last=Jones|first=Kent|accessdate=19 March 2026|url=https://www.filmcomment.com/article/time-immemorial-chris-markers-maiden-voyage-into-the-uncharted-waters-of-cd/}}</ref> Hovering the cursor across elements on the screen can also reveal additional text or links.<ref name=FC/> An index provides a list of names of public figures, such as celebrities, artists and writers featured throughout the software.<ref name=AF/>
== Development ==
''Immemory'' was created by Chris Marker, a French filmmaker, writer and multimedia artist, in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou.<ref name=AM/> Marker coded ''Immemory'' in 1997 on an Apple IIGS using the software HyperStudio.<ref name=CO/><ref name=FM/><ref name=BR>{{Cite web |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2025/09/art_books/chris-marker-immemory-gutenberg-version/ |title=Chris Marker's Immemory: Gutenberg Version |last=Kelly |first=Nolan |date=September 2025 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |access-date=13 March 2026 |archive-date=24 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250924174042/https://brooklynrail.org/2025/09/art_books/chris-marker-immemory-gutenberg-version/ |url-status=live }}</ref> An English version of the game was published by Exact Change, the company of publishers and artists Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang,<ref name=CO>{{Cite web |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7188-the-deaths-and-rebirths-of-chris-marker-s-cd-rom-immemory |title=The Deaths and Rebirths of Chris Marker's CD-ROM Immemory |last=Ochoa Gold |first=Isabel |date=18 November 2020 |website=The Criterion Collection |access-date=13 March 2026}}</ref> who Marker approached in 1999.<ref name=FM>{{cite website|website=Filmmaker Magazine|last=McNeil|first=Joanne|date=14 July 2022|title=Read Only Memory: Joanne McNeil on Chris Marker's Immemory Project|accessdate=19 March 2026|url=https://filmmakermagazine.com/115316-joanne-mcneil-chris-marker-immemory/}}</ref> It was the first software release by the publisher.<ref name=FM/>
The English-language version of the disc was distributed in 2002,<ref name=FM/><ref name=AF/> and a remastered version was republished by Exact Change in 2008.<ref name=CO/> From 2011 to the discontinuation of Flash in 2020, the game was playable on Marker's website ''Gorgomancy''.<ref name=BR/><ref name=CO/> In 2022, the Centre Pompidou also recreated a version of Marker's website and the game in HTML.<ref name=BR/><ref name=CP>{{cite web|website=Gorgomancy|title=Gorgomancy|author=Chris Marker|publisher=Centre Pompidou|date=2022|url=http://gorgomancy.net/}}</ref>
In 2005, Marker envisioned a print version of ''Immemory'' named the ''Gutenberg Version'', and began a manuscript that was put on hold following his death in 2012.<ref name=CO/><ref name=FM/> The manuscript was published in paperback under the title ''Immemory: Gutenberg Version'' by Exact Change in 2025.<ref name=BR/> The print version of ''Immemory'' reproduces screenshots of the software and accompany text, with sections featuring numbers highlighted in blue to suggest destinations like a hyperlink.<ref name=AM/>
== Reception ==
Several critics praised ''Immemory'' for its breadth of content,<ref name=CO/> with Nolan Kelly of the ''The Brooklyn Rail'' praising its exploratory nature as a "captivating submersion into memory's chasms",<ref name=BR/> and Michael Wood of ''Artforum'' writing "it's absurd to try to list, or even summarize, the profusion on this disc".<ref name=AF>{{cite magazine|magazine=Artforum|date=February 2003|last=Wood|first=Michael|title=On Disk: Chris Marker's 'Immemory'|volume=41|issue=6|url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/chris-markers-immemory-165578/|accessdate=19 March 2026}}</ref> Isabel Ochoa Gold of ''Criterion.com'' found the experience of navigating to be both disorienting and exhilirating, stating that the "associations from zone to zone only unfurls more branches and surprises for the intrepid explorer to follow".<ref name=CO/> Kent Jones of ''Film Comment'' wrote that ''Immemory'' transcended the banal aspects of the medium through an inviting design and a non-linear structure that was evocative of consciousness and memory.<ref name=FC/>
Reviewing the ''Gutenberg'' version, Emile Bickerton of ''Apollo'' commended the attempts to recreate the organisation and exploration of the software version, but found "flicking back and forth between pages becomes tiresome in a way clicking on an icon is not".<ref name=AM>{{Cite web |url=https://apollo-magazine.com/chris-marker-immemory-cd-rom-book-version-exact-change-review/ |title=Chris Marker's memories come out of cold storage |last=Bickerton |first=Emilie |date=23 January 2026 |website=Apollo Magazine |access-date=13 March 2026}}</ref> Feeling that ''Immemory'' "probably should've been a book to begin with", Mike Mosher of ''Leonardo'' highlighted its "arresting images" and "interesting collages", but stated some inclusions of media could at times "lose the thread of coherent narrative" posed by individual sections.<ref name=LE>{{cite web|website=Leonardo|last=Mosher|first=Mike|date=March 2026|title=Immemory: Gutenberg Version|accessdate=19 March 2026|url=https://leonardo.info/review/2026/03/immemory-gutenberg-version}}</ref>
== External links ==
* {{official website|http://gorgomancy.net/|2022 recreation of ''Immemory'' by the Centre Pompidou}}
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:1997 video games Category:2025 books Category:Art games Category:Chris Marker Category:Classic Mac OS games Category:Single-player video games Category:Video games developed in France Category:Windows games