I remember the place but not the day

Poem - I remember the place but not the day

Standing still a special day.
The place I know.
The path alongside their house.
The coal shed.
The house next door.
Me my face my hands my legs my shoes.
My book, my cap.
My Gabardine raincoat to keep me warm and dry.
Me ready for school
The path the bricks along the edge.
The shadows heavy on the wall.
Me my dad, together.
I remembered the place but not the day

The poem was written and video made for my Ph.D. Exhibition 

Rational

Celia Lury tells us that snapshots or at least photographs are prosthetic memories. The Kodak Corporation sold the idea of the snapshot as a way of preserving our memories. Maybe that is only true if it was you who took the photograph. Not only is it a popular notion that we take snapshots to help us remember there is a significant academic discourse that also tries to convince us that there is an inextricable link between photographs and memory.

I was moved to research this notion further when I was faced with the paradox of the "First day at school" snapshot, a photograph of me aged seven, which triggered vivid memories of the place, when I first saw it in a family album, not of the day, even though I was clearly present.

The Frailty of Memory

There comes a time when the function and frailty of memory becomes a preoccupation. Forgetfulness is perversely accompanied by an increased acuity of distant memories. Nostalgia becomes a way of life… a fleeting reflection… an ethereal glimpse of something familiar through the mind’s eye… fragments of memory like shards of mirror… a vision barely visible through the broken glass in the window of time.

 The digital projector is employed as a modern day Camera Obscura to explore Barthes notion of the ‘Punctum’ and the ‘Noeme’ (that-has-been). The projected image starts with a familiar image that could be carried in the wallet or reside in a well worn family album. The image is initially vivid, nostalgic – the ‘Punctum"’ – but with the passage of time, it decays, leaving an enduring memory – the ‘Noeme’ (that-has-been). This work considers one of the earliest attempts to explain visual memory, by considering the analogy of Plato's wax tablet, Freud's mystic writing pad and even the modern computer, all of which consider memory as layers.

This is a video taken of my graduation project. In a blacked out space the animation, Fading Memory as seen in my previous post, was projected on to a translucent screen made from tulle behind which was a further much darker version of the image an acrylic sheet so this was also semi translucent. When the animation starts the second image is virtually invisible (difficult to capture this in this video)  as the front image decays more light falls on the back image and as the viewers eyes adapt to the darkness the back image is slowly revealed. 

This installation which was part of my BA (Hons) Fine Art & Professional Practice final show, endeavours to portray the durability of the Photograph compared with the fragility of memory.