Animating the Memory Theatre (original) (raw)
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The (un) scene of memory: energetic theory and representation in theatre and film
2011
Memory. The strangeness of this concept is our way in. But, not a concept, no, only ever notional, speculative, on the border of... "A concept" would confer a sense of unity, stability, singularity: the resistance to these qualities makes memory, and makes memory our way in. Our way into where? Let us start with a beginning. The evolution of the multifaceted, and multi-appellated, grouping of visual media that originate with, and are defined through, their application of digital, virtual and computer-based technologies challenge the practices of visual analysis, across the disciplines of "visual studies". Whilst this evolution is spoken of with much hyperbole, being heralded equally in tones of acclamation and condemnation, it remains a decidedly under-theorised phenomenon. We are certainly witnessing the emergence of a new, and composite, visual art-form, even though its shape has not yet cooled from the forge, if, indeed, it ever will. The necessary vagueness of "new visual media" is perhaps the best approximation of a referent for it at this stage: an unashamedly non-committal term that reflects the spirit of the media that it signifies well. However, it is not only the inevitable shift in methods of reception, which is always necessitated by the development of a new genre, practice, or medium, that raises questions for criticism here, but also the nature of "new visual media" themselves. Many of these media are spoken of as "ephemeral" and "transient". This is partly due to the constantly changing technologies upon which they draw, and partly due to their frequent actualisation as one-off events, often within "cyberspace", and often leaving no material record or detritus. However, they are also well deserved epithets owing to the challenges posed by these media for "representation". The representative function is complicated in new visual media, not least by their, only ever tangential, relationship with authenticity: the images that they create are, or at least can be, entirely fabricated. This is not an unheard of condition in visual studies. However, the degree to which this fabrication can be made indistinguishable from "real world" perceptions is unprecedented, and becoming increasingly emphatic. Whilst the image is "representative" on one level, this is only ever secondary in new visual media. There are no spectators in these media forms, only participants. Or so it is claimed. As Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, new media artists and directors of 65 Green, The Fabric of Affect, p.226. 66 Green, The Fabric of Affect, p.205. 67 The highly original conception of negative hallucination, which is afforded to us by Green and the Botellas, in fact does provide us with the possibility for integrating and using the concept in visual theory. This is due to their consideration of negative hallucination as an "absence"; a "representation" of the inability to see; a "hallucination" that covers an ideational representative; a "waiting for something that was not coming", rather than as a lack of representation altogether. But this is explored in greater detail in Chapter 3, Part 2.
My reflections on the theme of memory and cinema were activated during the ten years or so of ongoing debate about memory and media in Germany. These discussions are remarkable in that the concept of individual memory is expanded to the dimension of collective memory, and that media are referred to as a kind of objectified memory. Plato's old question about the use of writing formed an important impetus for this approach to the issue. He answered the question negatively: thoughts recorded in writing break away from the author and thereby lose their vitality; they wander around fatherless and do not bring the reader true knowledge; for this, a living communication is needed. Plato favoured the oral tradition over the written, but it is well known that he himself, nevertheless, made use of writing and with it helped to bring Socrates', and hence his own, thoughts to an if somewhat dubious 'eternal life'. In contrast to a vitality that at some time or other experiences a real death, he preferred the apparent death of his thoughts in this material coffin and, with it, a consequent alienation and possible distortion. The background to this approach gives rise to many questions concerning the connection between the collective, and therefore media-memory and individual memories; e.g.
Memory ( Enhancement ) and Cinema : an exploratory creative overview
2015
What is the relationship between memory and cinema? What are the links between memory enhancement and cinema? Several authors have been trying to answer the first question. Their approaches varied from the relationship between ‘memory and imagination’ (Lefebvre), to the ‘puzzled plots’ and identity construction (Buckland) and to the ‘flashback ‘technique as a visual tool of what it must be like to remember (Kilbourn). On the other hand the second question is a challenge. The discussion on memory and cognitive enhancement is a current hype under the investigation of several multidisciplinary research groups worldwide. On this paper and presentation we will depart our overview from the established understanding of the intertwined relationships between memory and cinema and the important role of the viewer towards a reflexion on the possible role of movies in the current debate on memory enhancement. We will use our artistic methodologies and projects alongside with many feature films ...
The Memory of Theatre. Theatricalization of Memory
Colocvii teatrale, 2019
Theatre as living art, the central purpose of which is life, existence, that is, that can perceive matter as a set of images, a meeting point of the spirit with matter, enters the realm of memory, when it requires precise indications necessary for the scenic representation. Memory is a living organism, it is the warm fire of preparing theatre. We perceive Hamlet acting on stage because we remember that perception. Hamlet-the one that we will see in a few years, in a completely different time, in another geography, will be perceived, criticized, understood, by evoking the memories that have survived or have been adapted, transformed, reinterpreted. The memory facilitates the meeting between the actor and the character, the memory facilitates the meeting between the director and the text, between the director and the concept, the memory brings the playwright face to face with his work. In the The Misunderstanding, Albert Camus imagines psychological dimensions where memory plays the role of central mechanism. We are face to face with the absurd man, who through the awareness of death and crime meets his truth, but at the same time we discover a dissociation of the characters that, despite their rigidity and coldness, maintain the appearance of a structural and functional fluidity. The dialogue has the resonance of a frequency that vibrates from the river of collective memory. The individual memory has split and is to be absorbed by another memory, one of the theatre, a universal memory, a memory of a theatre that was born from memory.
Building a Memory Palace through Video Installation
This paper will reflect on the Ars Memoria tradition by establishing new knowledge in the way in which mnemonic rhetoric can be integrated into video installation evidenced through the significant 'Memory Palace 2017' (Wilson, 2017) installation. It will position these traditions in relation to the different ways of thinking about memory which will begin with the Greek place and object memory system and end with Matteo Ricci's late Renaissance Chinese memory palace. One of the key values in the wider Ars Memoria tradition was to locate objects and images into specifically imagined spaces which represented a cognitive way to recall memories through a categorised, cognitive database. These databases were established through specific guidelines located in several key texts that when considered shall first, inform a method by which the video installation can be later developed and second, to attest new knowledge in the ways we might ought to come to terms with the integration of spatialising memory through studio practice.