After doing the research on this module I have come accross quite a few different pieces of work that I liked a lot all for different reasons. The ideas below are very rough outlines of what I want to look into over christmas to develop next term.
Idea 1
A Radio show – I believe that my strenghs lie in radio production so to get into the studio again would be great for me.
Idea 2
A Documentry – I really enjoyed making the documentry in the 2nd year and over christmas i am working with Pizza Hut UK on a documentry for them so it would be interesting to see how that turns out and if i can develop it.
Idea 3
Photography – I’ve never done photography before and I think it would be a good new experience for me, also as i have never experiemented with photographs it would be like starting new and the research would have to be through.
I will continue this blog over christmas and see what inspiration i can acheive.
Ive been thinking about memory and how when I remember things I remember them in chunks rather that as a whole flowing piece. I have also noticed that I dont remember sound, I just remember images. This is something that I want to take into consideration when i’m making my memory piece. I have a good idea thats been brewing in my head and I think I’ll give it a go for my final artifact.
Steve said that it would be a good idea to look up on installation art so thats what I’m going to do.
This one is a good idea to explore, you’re first memory. What it is and why you remember it, I think I might ask some people about their first memories and see if that gets me anywhere.
The Artist said of it:
”
First TV Memory is a kinetic sculpture and video installation that was the precursor work to East of Fallon, Highway 50, Nevada. The work recreates my earliest recollection of television. In 1968, I remember getting up in the morning, I was 4 years of age. I wanted to watch “Captain Kangaroo” on CBS. I was very frustrated as all television progamming had been pre-empted by the image taken from a camera mounted on the back of the funeral train of Robert Kennedy. His body was being taken from Los Angeles to the East coast for burial after he was assassinated after a campaign speech in California.
In this work I created a realistic HO scale train track inside the surface of a small, kinetic Ferris wheel type structure. The small, black and white video camera, records and transmits in real-time the image that simulates the TV memory that is in my mind’s eye. This work has been displayed using a video projector or a small black and white TV.”
This piece was awarded the “Wand 5 Award” at the 2003 Stuttgart Filmwinter Festival of Expanded Media, Germany.
I Like this video because it has the perfect blend of narrative, process, art, philosophy, humanity, life, loss, re-finding, love …. The way she tells the story over Roz’s shoulder, combining her images as they come to life on the canvas in front of her (and us) with the sound of her voice as she ponders her mother’s past through a single photograph of the little brother is incredibly powerful.
Roz Jacobs is a New York City artist who has been exhibiting her paintings and drawings in galleries and museums in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Israel, and Japan since 1987. She is represented by Synchronicity Fine Arts in Greenwich Village.
Her interests extend to writing and video production. Her screenplay, Emily and Gitta was produced by the American Film Institute. She was script and story consultant for Andrej Wajda’s film, Korczak, screenplay by Agniezska Holland (Europa, Europa). Jacobs’ books and screen adaptations for children have been published by Macmillan and McGraw-Hill and Time for Kids. She is working on a documentary about her parents who are survivors of the Holocaust. The Memory Project is the integration of themes that have been of vital interest throughout her life.
Laurie Weisman, Editor/Producer
Laurie Weisman’s career has focused on using media and new technologies to touch and educate wide audiences. As Vice President of School Products at Sesame Workshop, she working on programs including Ghostwriter and Math Talk and developed award-winning curricular programs integrating video, audio and books. At Scholastic, she was Editorial Director for Readabout, a computer-based project to help students understand and enjoy non-fiction. At Time, Inc., she was editorial director for a series of Time For Kids Readers, content-rich social studies supplements published by Harcourt. She produced teacher guides and multimedia components for The Voyages of the Mimi, PBS series that integrated computer software, books, and television to make math and science learning compelling for students. Before obtaining a Masters degree in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education, she was a park ranger and a horticulturist in Central Park, and the princess of Belvedere Castle.
“I created Memory with one basic idea. The thought of a dieing memory and how would it play in my mind. I want the viewer to feel what i feel the sadness of what could never be lived twice. It is very sad yet romantic in the sense of how precious our special memories are…they are forbidden and were meant to be lived once in order to live in our hearts forever.”
I thought that this piece was very thought-provoking, even though you can experience things twice memories are different and singular which is an interesting concept.
Todays seminar really helped me as I generated some good ideas about memory during the process. My first thought was about Photos and Videos, do they help us to remember events or construct them? Do we remember watching things that we’ve done on video or remember doing them? Is technology replacing memory? It’s the whole ideas of I know vs I remember, can we ever be 100% trust worthy of our recollections?
This site was asking the same questions as me which really helped put my idea into perspective
My Second idea was about memory construction, it stemmed from a personal experience about something that happened to me in a certain way, then it was revealed that something else actually happened. I could swear that I remember the way it happened but it turns out that I just constructed those memories.
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2. Memory Fills In The Gaps
Memory is a reconstruction, not a record. As noted, memory traces are, at best, highly impoverished versions of the original percept. The eyewitness will often have insufficient information in the memory itself, so the reconstruction must invoke pieces of information from other sources. There are two main sources of additional information: 1) pre-existing schemas and 2) other memories. People understand the world through “schemas” and “scripts,” stereotyped mental models of objects and events. When they recognize a situation, either in perception or in memory, they invoke the most applicable schema or script and may unconsciously fill in missing information in order to complete the reconstruction.
Further, people confuse information sources. The example at the top of this page provides a classic case of the fact that people often confuse the source of their memories. In this case, the eyewitness confused to actual events. In other cases, people confuse actual events with either imagined memories. For many years, for example, I believed my earliest childhood memory to be of myself on the sand in Miami Beach. My parents had moved there when I was very young, but returned to Pittsburgh after only a year when my father’s business failed.
In talking to my brother recently, I realized that would have to have been one year old at the time. This is far too young to have formed such a clear memory. In thinking about it, I realized that there was an event when I was about 7 that our family was discussing the time in Florida. I had imagined what it would have been like on the beach, possibly adding some imagery from our then annual summer trips to the beach at Atlantic City. For all this time, I was carrying around the memory of an imagined event rather than of an actual event.
This is a classic case of a common phenomenon – memory source confusion. An event memory may incorporate information subsequently gained from other witnesses or read in the newspaper, information drawn from general knowledge, information of another event or even information of an imagined event. People may inadvertently combine memory of two different events or confuse mental images with real events. This “misinformation effect” occurs because people are often poor at determining the source of information – another example of semantic memory intruding into biographical memory.Â
I think that the second idea is one that I want to develop. I like the idea that memories can be created from just information and a willingness to accept information.
Cinema as Memory, You will never forget a great film
 Cinema is the ideal medium to get people to listen to your messages and not forget them. Although a lot of modern films are all about special effects and Hollywood stars a few seep out of the cracks that really stick you to your seat and implant in your mind. A few films come to mind when I think about this subject, for instance Schindler’s list. Never have I left a film feeling so unearthed about my lifestyle and it is these films that truly have the power to change people. However even in Hollywood these sorts of films can emerge from unexpected places. My main example of this is Seven Pounds by Gabriele Muccino. After watching this film I couldn’t forget about it, even though it doesn’t have a huge political message it still had the power to move me. It helped to remind me that even in this corrupt world where everyone is out for themselves a few individuals still have humanity and compassion. All this entwined with the beautiful score made me tell all my friends about it and pass the film on. Now I know that its not as epic as some such films like ‘The Pianist’ but it just goes to show that film, however it is distributed, has the power to make you remember about the plight, message or just heartache that some people endure and that’s enough for me.
Radio as Memory
Radio has the disadvantage of only being audio, however when it comes to getting you to remember things, I believe that radio has the upper hand. It seems that I can remember a lot of radio frequencies by singing their station ID jingle; 95.8…capital FM! I find myself walking around singing little songs that they have made up during the broadcast and I haven’t ever done that with a TV show, not even the title music really. Chris Moyles is the pioneer in this field, he frequently parodies songs that are in the chart and even creates his own songs and realises them in the chart. The most notable one these past few months is ‘Nana Window’ I couldn’t get that song out of my head for days, its on YouTube and listeners remixed it and they broadcast them on air. They were inundated with texts about how they couldn’t stop singing this song. It shows how powerful a radio show can be with a large enough audience.
The retrival of memory is something that interests me so the thought of not being able too is something of even more intrest
Amnesia (from Greek Ἀμνησία) is a memory condition in which memory is disturbed. In simple terms it is the loss of memory. The causes of amnesia are organic or functional. Organic causes include damage to the brain, through trauma or disease, or use of certain (generally sedative) drugs. Functional causes are psychological factors, such as defense mechanisms. Hysterical post-traumatic amnesia is an example of this. Amnesia may also be spontaneous, in the case of transient global amnesia. This global type of amnesia is more common in middle-aged to elderly people, particularly males, and usually lasts less than 24 hours.
Another effect of amnesia is the inability to imagine the future. A recent study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that amnesiacs with damaged hippocampus cannot imagine the future. This is because a normal human being, imagining the future, uses past experiences to construct a possible scenario. For example, a person trying to imagine what would happen at a party set to occur in the near future would use past experience at parties to help construct the event.
Types of amnesia
Post-traumatic amnesia is generally due to a head injury (e.g. a fall, a knock on the head). Traumatic amnesia is often transient, but may be permanent of either anterograde, retrograde, or mixed type. The extent of the period covered by the amnesia is related to the degree of injury and may give an indication of the prognosis for recovery of other functions. Dissociative amnesia results from a psychological cause as opposed to direct damage to the brain caused by head injury, physical trauma or disease, which is known as organic amnesia. Dissociative amnesia can include:
Repressed memory refers to the inability to recall information, usually about stressful or traumatic events in persons’ lives, such as a violent attack or rape. The memory is stored in long term memory, but access to it is impaired because of psychological defense mechanisms. Persons retain the capacity to learn new information and there may be some later partial or complete recovery of memory.
Dissociative Fugue (formerly Psychogenic Fugue) is also known as fugue state. It is caused by psychological trauma and is usually temporary, unresolved and therefore may return. The Merck Manual defines it as “one or more episodes of amnesia in which the inability to recall some or all of one’s past and either the loss of one’s identity or the formation of a new identity occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home.” [3] While popular in fiction, it is extremely rare.
Posthypnotic amnesia is where events during hypnosis are forgotten, or where past memories are unable to be recalled.
Lacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about one specific event.
Childhood amnesia (also known as infantile amnesia) is the common inability to remember events from one’s own childhood. Sigmund Freud attributed this to sexual repression, while others have theorised that this may be due to language development or immature parts of the brain.
Transient global amnesia is a well-described medical and clinical phenomenon. This form of amnesia is distinct in that abnormalities in the hippocampus can sometimes be visualized using a special form of magnetic resonance imaging of the brain known as diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Symptoms typically last for less than a day and there is often no clear precipitating factor nor any other neurological deficits. The cause of this syndrome is not clear, hypotheses include transient reduced blood flow, possible seizure or an atypical type of migraine. Patients are typically amnestic of events more than a few minutes in the past, though immediate recall is usually preserved.
Source amnesia is a memory disorder in which someone can recall certain information, but they do not know where or how they obtained the information.
Blackout phenomenon can be caused by excessive short-term alcohol consumption, with the amnesia being of the anterograde type.
Korsakoff’s syndrome can result from long-term alcoholism or malnutrition. It is caused by brain damage due to a Vitamin B1 deficiency and will be progressive if alcohol intake and nutrition pattern are not modified. Other neurological problems are likely to be present in combination with this type of Amnesia. Korsakoff’s syndrome is also known to be connected with confabulation.
These are going to be in no particular order as each one is a different experience.
1) Passing my driving test – This gave me so much freedom it was amazing to be able to go anywhere whenever I wanted and didnt have to rely on anyone.
2) Moving into my uni house – At first this experience was a very difficult one for me for many reasons but now I feel so independent and free its great
3) Performing at the National Theatre & The Queen Elizabeth Theatre – This was during my A Level Drama course, it was such a thrill to be on stage with everyone watching and engaged in your performance, I really do miss the stage.
4) Secondary school – I loved every moment of secondary school, I had the best group of friends and couldnt have asked for a better experience
5) School Trips- France, Bude, Germany I went to them all. These holidays where so character developing it was amazing to experience everyone outside of the school setting whilst challenging myself physically and mentally.
6) My first Heartbreak – The most unique pain I have ever felt, it was unforgettable, it feels like you’ll never be the same again but of course with time it heals and you look back and laugh, at the time though it’s so hard to just categorise the emotion if you’ve never felt it before.
7) Taking my Mum on holiday – This was last year, it was the first time that my sister and I had enough money to treat my mum for all the hard work she put in to send us on all these school trips. It rally felt like I could finally give her something she deserved and it felt great
8 ) Losing my virginity – This has got to be a big one for everyone, feeling so mature yet vulnerable at the same time, it’s the one thing you’ll never forget and I bet almost everyone wishes they could change!
9) Getting sent to hospital after an accident at my house – I was in the porch and my eldest sister kicked the glass in and I was covered in it cutting my hand and wrist, it was quite possibly the most scared I have ever been, I remember running around the garden screaming ‘im going to die!’ Of course I wasnt but I was only young at the time
10) My little brother being born – I was 14 when he was born, which meant I was automatic babysitter. I remember resenting him a lot because I had to stay in and babysit instead of going out with my friends. I felt like I was forced to mature a lot faster having the responsiblity of looking after him all the time which I hated. But now I’m older I can appreciate him for who he is.
 This was the best I could produce within the time frame, I think that had I been given more time to develop the script and open up the idea it would have been better, the time limit really hurt this piece as it was a lot of information to get across in a short amount of time. My point of the piece is trying to bring issue to the inability or just lack of willingness of the public to question those on charge about what goes on, it seems that we are ok with everything that we have been lied to about and refuse to question power. This was intended as an example of what the futrue could be like if no one stands up to corrupt power….
 This was the best I could produce within the time frame, I think that had I been given more time to develop the script and open up the idea it would have been better, the time limit really hurt this piece as it was a lot of information to get across in a short amount of time. My point of the piece is trying to bring issue to the inability or just lack of willingness of the public to question those on charge about what goes on, it seems that we are ok with everything that we have been lied to about and refuse to question power. This was intended as an example of what the futrue could be like if no one stands up to corrupt power….
Sonia Davidson's Research and Development 