Poetics of Memory: invention and discovery using metadata to create cultural memories in programmable environments Carlos Henrique Rezende Falci Abstract Does memory need a fixed place to exist? Does memory need an archive to exist? If it does, what kind of archives does it need? Although one can say memory has never been defined from a fixed location, I think that the very definition of the concept is marked by the idea of a place, a record which is capable of showing this memory. Even if it is related to the imaginary, or to unstable elements, there is tension associated with a search for a location for memory. The aim of this paper is to discuss how metadata can produce other logics to create cultural memories in programmable environments. We analyze three projects seeking to understand how such narratives appropriate metadata in a poetic way, creating imaginary places of memory. The first project is “The Whale Hunt,” an experiment using automated data collection process mixed with human perspective. The artist documents a whale hunt using photographs taken at five-minute intervals, regulated by a chronometer attached to a heartbeat counter. And the interface permits the visualizing of history from the cadence of the artist’s heart. Second project is “This is now,” a visual composition which uses real-time updates from Instagram application based on users geo-tag locations. The interface instantly streams photos as soon as they are uploaded on Instagram and captures a city’s movement, in a fluid story. And the third project is “Blackpool Manchester” in which a woman made two journeys to the same place, Blackpool: one using Google Earth or Second Life; and the real journey to Blackpool. She explores two journeys through a video documentary. These logics suggest other concepts to delimitate memories, which mixes fixed places with networked places, cultural software and metadata, politics and poetics, cultural memories and communicative memories. We consider metadata as elements capable of operating passages indicated above.