Memory, Perception & the Art of Seeing Double

Abstract

This project seeks to examine the role of memory in the viewing of art, in a thesis, ‘Memory, Perception & the Art of Seeing Double’, and an exhibition, ‘the return room’. Drawing on the writings of Henri Bergson and Marcel Proust, the discussion argues for the interrelationship of perception and memory. In contending that perception is inherently bound up with memory, it argues that all artworks have the potential to elicit acts of recollection in the viewer. These acts of recollection should not be understood as an individual reverie detached from the world, but rather as a sort of introspective engagement, an act of viewing that encompasses both the present moment and a past one, in which individual recollection is brought to bear upon the artwork. It is therefore a process of seeing double. Subsequent chapters investigate the use of forms of memory technology in art, looking firstly at the privileged though problematic forms of the photograph and the public memorial. This is followed by an examination of text, maps, and books.

The exhibition ‘the return room’ consists of an installation of artists’ books in a specially constructed room reminiscent of both a domestic and a gallery space. It draws on the idea of the palimpsest as a site in which other traces are visible, while also having the potential to be read as a form of memory theatre. The exhibition employs the forms of memory technology discussed in the thesis, with text, maps, and photographs, used within the books.

This project, then, claims to be original in the following ways. It claims that Proust and Bergson’s demonstration of the interrelation of memory and perception has important implications for the role of memory in the viewing of all artworks. Secondly, this project draws attention to the possibilities of other forms of memory technology (text and maps) which have not been previously discussed in an art context with regard to their mnemonic potential in relation to the viewer. Thirdly, emphasising that memory is about the juxtaposition of past and present moments, the discussion here offers the models of the palimpsest and the stereoscope as useful conceptual models to describe the ‘art of seeing double.’ Finally, in taking a broad approach to the concept of the artist’s book, the project suggests that the idea of the book may move beyond its boundaries, and that the idea of the palimpsest can be applied in an extended sense to installation space.