Mia • Rough Thesis Bits

THESIS OUTLINE

December 2013

Abstract

June 12, 2007. The day is perfect: it's 75 degrees, sunny. There's a slight breeze off the lake and I am eighteen. Eighteen! I'm sitting carefree on the stoop of Matt's mother's house. It's a large, rocky stoop, the stones in the concrete are noticeable, but not uncomfortable, as I sit, one leg straight out on the ledge, the other perched on the steps to my left. Matti is sitting on the steps next to Ross, who takes out birthday cards for both of us. I take a deep drag of a cigar—a peach white owl—and inhale too much. I cough, which I try to cover with a laugh. The cigar is too big and papery in my hands. I try again. I don't understand the concept of puffing, and I've never smoked before, so I'm trying to do what I've seen in movies and outside of restaurants. I inhale again, slower this time, and successfully produce a stream of sickeningly-sweet scented smoke. I am resilient. I am cool. I am an adult.

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I am creating designed objects as narrative sculpture to explore the perception of memory. In a longing for clarity of my past, I will examine what I remember (and what I do not) to construct tangible representations of my imperfect recollections. The final form this project will be sculptures of houses, or parts of houses: the architecture of spaces where particular events took place. Depending on the specificity of the recollection, the scale of the objects will range from large to miniature. Creating this work is a catharsis for me; I have assumed my memories are clear and unabridged—but through this process I am able to see that the clarity in my mind's eye is more clouded in reality. My desired outcomes are to understand the validity/accuracy of my memories, and to create a framework in which others may reconsider the definition of their own recollections.  

Key words: Memory, Recollection, (re-collection. That's an interesting phrase. Am I re-collecting my memories and sharing them? Am I making a point about the fact the clarity of memories is devised from the meaning of the memory itself?) Perception, longing, the intangible/ethereal

Body of Thesis

The body of the thesis will contain the following material:

Introduction

The introduction presents the questions and issues that will be addressed in the thesis and briefly suggests their relevance or importance.

Issues: the perception of memory: accuracy vs. inaccuracy, clarity vs. ambiguity, real vs. imagined

Questions: What do I recall? What can't I remember?

What is clear and what is vague?

What's the correlation between distance and memory?

(Why is this important? What does the perception of memory say socially? Emotionally? Does this change our present, where the past exists?)

Can our recollections be more accurate or reliable?

The hierarchy of memory is a 52-card pile up.

My memories lack hierarchy; I can close my eyes and recall things most vividly that seem to have no consequence at all. The sensation of green shag carpet under my body, the architecture of a concrete stoop, the feeling of a Victorian doorknob in my hand, the specificity of my parents couch, a the height of the cabinets in my old house. I think I recall things that I know I do not; the house my parents lived in when I was an infant—a house I have only seen in home movies and baby pictures.

My visualization of memory is clear, almost tangible—but only almost. As soon as I try to take it out of my mind it disintegrates, like some pristine deep-sea artifact recovered from the depths only to crumble when it's brought to the surface.

Experimenting with the notions of clarity/ambiguity, distortion/accuracy, and deterioration, I want to know: What I do I remember clearly and what is inconclusive? Why can I remember the color of the color of the kitchen, but not the placement of the windows? What does the Victorian doorknob of my best friend's house look like when I can imagine feeling it so vividly in my hand? I would like to explore the consequences of these inquiries, and would like the artifacts of these explorations to spark a curiosity in the viewer—what do their own memories divulge or exclude? Intellectually, I hope to counter the assumption that our memories are always correct. Research shows that memories are not stored and retrieved with perfect accuracy. Instead, they are constructed and re-constructed differently each time we remember. Memories can be imagined or implanted (Loftus/Pickrell, 1995), yet we rely on them to be an accurate prologue for our future actions. This work is pertinent in today's society because the emphasis we place on the veracity of memory—from the consequences of unreliable eyewitness accounts (the incarceration of innocent individuals, the case of Trayvon Martin) to the justification of legislature based on the collective memory of traumatic events (Sept. 11). With these things in mind, I hope the civil impact of this work will be challenging its audience to ask: Can our recollections be more accurate or reliable? How can we think critically about our own memories, or act accordingly to counter their inaccuracy?

  

Contextual Information and Literature Review

This section provides historical and theoretical background and puts this work in

context with other work that has been done in the area of this thesis. Use prose,

figures, illustrations, tables, poetry, animations, and other representations to

thoroughly present the creative work and research.

The physical context of my work will be sculpture in a gallery setting. Conceptually, it is in conversation with the work of other artists/designers dealing with architecture/perception of memory, such as Do-Ho Suh's Staircase III or Spencer Finch's Trying To Remember the Color of Jackie Kennedy's Pillbox Hat. In my previous work, I was interested in how individuals remember the past, and created "memory vehicles" (objects using smell to trigger memories) to "transport" myself (and others) to a specific time and place. Next, I experimented with what I was capable of remembering: I drew out, from memory, a house I used to inhabit. I then 3D modeled and printed the house; it was wonky and unrealistic, highlighting the inaccuracy and holes in my perception of a place I thought I knew so well. I have since continued to experiment with material and scale to articulate my remembrance of events/spaces. 

  

ART/DESIGN:

Rachel Whiteread: Ghosts, casts of houses then torn down

Do-Ho Suh;  Koren artist, issues of home, replicating home/parts of apartments

Gregor Schneider; Home, empty, belongings outside of it – large scale

Takashi Horisaki; Latex casts of doors, handles, parts of places

Spencer Finch: Trying to recall the exact shade of Jackie O's pink pillbox hat

Mike Kelly- recollecting school

LAST PARAGRAPH PAGE 15 INTRODUCTION JAMES YOUNG TEXTURE OF MEMORY

LITERATURE/Other

Susan Stuart; On Longing

Proust; Swan's Way- the Madeline

Orhan Pamuk; the museum of innocence

James Young; The texture of Memory

Simonides; Philosopher-- the Memory Palace

An Anthropologist on Mars -- Oliver Sacks

CLASSES:

History, memory, culture,

German Museums

The wizard of oz—wanting to get home.

Connection to the past

Tactile memory into a tactile substance

Shaping it

Re-construction

Giving access to the audience what my memories are

Public presentation – take note

Translation—imperfections

Discussion

Interpret the work, reflect on the work, and/or explain the work. Suggest how and

why this work is compelling or important.

• Photos go here? Explanation of the tactile/visceral qualities, the display, etc..

• I'm hoping this makes more sense as the work gets made.

• What are the questions I tried to answer? Were they answered? What did I learn?

What does my audience learn? What do I want to accomplish by doing this? Is this

design or not? (I mean, it is, but it may be discussion worthy. What am I designing?

The interaction, the objects, or both? Which takes precedence? Does one?)

Conclusion

Briefly restate the questions and issues addressed in the thesis, why they are

important and what has been learned from this work. Identify new questions that

arise from this thesis work and suggest areas for future work.