Trying to summarise my current thoughts and bringing together ideas I have put some notes below:
I am very visual, my mind is pictorial and in order to help me remember things I have always used different elements in a location to act as a memory jogger – something I am told that Romans used to do when giving speeches. Using more than one sense for memory and storytelling is a powerful device that can help people remember and learn, such as learning a language with music and rhythm.
I also find the concept of memory objects vital to memory. To me this is the idea that, on one end of the scale, an object can have attached importance, meaning and memories (stories), whilst at the other end an object can be purely functional, with a sliding scale between.
It turns out that this is something not new at all and Lynne Kelly has identified that there are a whole host of memory devices that have been used throughout oral history to pass on stories. The examples that Kelly cites are often in nature and she particularly references Aboriginal storylines as memory tools. These storylines, not only help create memories and stories, but also change the relationship she has with her surrounding landscape.
This ties in with my interest in nature, mapping spaces, memory objects and stories.
Keywords/Cross over:
- Storytelling + Memory
- Nature + Wellbeing
- Space + Time (& technology)
Problem
A world of approximate has given way to a world of precision.
Alexander Koyré
With the development of technology there is an increased detachment of our relationship with the world around us and care for it. (ref_ Putnam?).
Why/How
Using a physical location as a memory device changes our relationship and attachment to a space. Using Kelly’s memory code techniques as a way to explore and create this attachment I aim to change the way people use and see a space and thus have an attachment to a space.
This is underpinned by Palmer’s dwelling (anthropological approach) and baudrillard’s (philosophical approach) space and human relationship.
This is through different storytelling approaches. The aim is to share individuals experience of their journey through a space to create a collective shared experience to ?affect transformative? change in relationships to the self and wider world/space around you.
This will be using a small geographical space on the south downs, between Cold Crouch, Butts Brow, Tas Combe and Combe Hill.
This area is close to where I live, accessible and easily documented. It includes a carpark which is a starting and end point for a range of activities and thus captures the different activities in the wider area.
Whilst I will be aiming to document the current uses of the space and to use it as a memory palace (ref confirm), it is also worth noting that this area contains a Neolithic causeway enclosure and several tumuli.
It will be undertaken in a series of stages, firstly to tell peoples stories of the current users of the space and to share these. Either through geo specific experiences and/or an interactive website. Then, secondly, to share the experiences and specific objects/memories within the space with others and to construct a narrative and walks/lines within this. maps.
Initially this will be through sharing peoples experiences of space through shared walks and storytelling as individuals and as a collective to help create an awareness of a space and its importance and role in individuals memories.
For further notes and consideration have a look at:
Lynn Kelly:
Catherine Palmer: Being and Dwelling Through Tourism : An Anthropological Perspective
Tim Ingold:
Tools/Approaches
Using interactive short films and mapping to create films
- From this create a geo specific experience
- Create a shared memory device to share walks and memories (this can be quite low-fi)
Next steps to look at:
- American Native pilgrimage
- Peruvian…
- Revisit Poetics of space
- Investigate Palmer and Ingold further
- Revisit Lore of the land