Brain Science Podcsats

Brain Science Podcasts http://www.brainsciencepodcast.com/
The Beautiful Brain http://thebeautifulbrain.com/
Neuroscene http://neuroscene.com/
Brain Matters http://www.brainsmatter.com/
M-IA Memory in Art http://www.m-ia.net/index.html
The Frontal Cortex http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/frontal-cortex/
Neuronarrative http://neuronarrative.wordpress.com/
Brain Blogger http://brainblogger.com/
All in the Mind Blog http://blogs.abc.net.au/allinthemind/
Mind Hacks http://mindhacks.com/
Brainethics http://brainethics.org/

MA Supervisor - Dr Emile Devereaux

One of my MA supervisors is Dr Emile Devereaux BA, MFA, PhD.

To quote from his Bio, Emile is an internationally exhibiting media artist who works at the intersection of electronic arts production and theory. His artistic practice includes interactive electronics installation, 3D animation, and digital media. You can find examples of his work here: www.radiofilm.com/index.htm

MA Supervisor - Dr Andrew Quick

Andrew Quick is Director of LICA. Andrew studied English and Philosophy at Newcastle University and trained as a theatre director at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff in 1984. Having worked professionally in making and touring experimental performance, he returned to academic study in 1989, completing a PhD investigating the histories and languages of contemporary British experimental performance at Bristol University. He has been teaching at Lancaster since 1991, where he runs undergraduate courses on Avant-Garde Theatre and Contemporary Experimental Performance as well as teaching on practical units.

Andrew is also a founder member of imitating the dog, an Arts Council funded performance company that tours nationally and internationally. His academic work is closely bound up with contemporary art practices and much of his writing on performance, photography and installation investigates concepts of space, play, documentation, scenography and performance ethics.

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.

Fading Memory - Rejected Version

This is  an earlier version of the animation in the previous post showing a fragmentation rather than decay effect. Also the photograph disintegrates in such a way that the facial features are lost first, I felt that this was in appropriate for the effect I was looking for.

Fading Memory - Final Version

With sound

In the lead up to my final graduation show piece I produced a number of variations of this work. My objective was to take a well worn, cherished photograph, in this case one of my mother aged 18, and to create an animation which simulated the photograph decaying.

I experimented with a variety of ways of doing this but ended up using Photoshop, the software I am most familiar with, to create the images and produce the animation.

The rational behind the animation was to simulate on the one hand the fading of a memory and on the other the physical disintegration/decay of the photograph. The original photograph was given a crumpled look and then the animation disintegrated the image in such a way that the vestiges of the image were still recognisable as a face.

Fragments of Memory

Fragments of Memory - Appropriated film and photographs

Discovering the haunting work of Bill Morrison was a major influence. Using decaying nitrate film stock from the US national film archive Morrison reconstructed footage to create short and feature length films. To create this work I appropriated frames from Morrison's film "Light Calling" and reworked them to include my own images. The objectives were to create a visual complexity as in the previous works, an aesthetic experience from the nostalgic response to cherished photographs and finally to invoke the notion memory that was decaying and fragmenting. The organic fluidity of the images induced an unexpected melancholic dimension to this work.  Working on this piece prompted me to consider the imagery used as a metaphor for the frailty of memory as may be experienced by a dementia sufferer.

The video was shown on a small monitor.