Memory Pen

Memory Pen

Montegrappa’s most cerebral creation, The Brain Pen, challenged the company’s designers in a way that no other had before: How to embody the intricacy of the most complex organ in the body in a hand-held writing device.
So successful was resultant pen that its sister was conceived to complement the vessel of the mind and the personality. Montegrappa is proud to announce The Memory Pen.

Montegrappa’s main collaborator and inspirer is, once more, Dr. Richard Restak, who has provided the book which will accompany each Memory Pen.
Visualising the concepts embodied in his work resulted in a device of which every element – from surface texture to the choice of material, from the chosen colour to the engravings – has special significance.

Produced in pearlised yellow celluloid, with either sterling silver or solid 18k gold parts, the Memory Pen is as fascinating as the topic that stimulated its creation.
Yellow was chosen because it is the colour most associated throughout the ages with memory, while the upper part of the Memory Pen’s barrel depicts the different types of long-term memory. These include:

Episodic: The memory of events that occurred at a specific time or place, such as a birth or a wedding
Semantic: That part of the memory which stores general knowledge, e.g. “Where is Rome?”
Procedural: Where the memory maintains skills that don't involve speech or words, such as dancing

Gracefully embedded within these three divisions on the pen’s barrel are three seals of memory created by Giordano Bruno, a 16th century memory master.
Triangular shapes are etched upon the circular metal parts, representing the writing of new memories, with the apex pointing downward, or the experiencing old memories, with the apex pointing upward.   
On the side of the barrel are three compartments representing the past, the present and the future.

The second, or middle compartment represents the present from which we look backward into the past: the first compartment proceeding upward, from the nib, by means of memory.
After incorporating the past into the present through memory, we then project into the future, shown as the third compartment farthest up from the nib, via our imagination, which is closely allied with memory as first noted by Aristotle.
Only humans can integrate these three dimensions of time to process the long-term future.

Complementing this visual representation of memory is the pen’s cap, its seven lower rings representing the average maximum number of items that can be stored in memory at one time.
Above that are five thinner rings to denote the five basic senses upon which all memories are created.

The brushed steel columns, running vertically within the seven lower rings, are arranged to symbolise the bidirectional flow of information for memory creation or recall, while the neural network – the basis of memory creation and storage – is illustrated by an engraved metal pattern on both barrel and cap.