Jessica Saab

Retraced
7 September 2021

tweet-length update
13 October 2021

For my thesis, I’ve been focusing on location memory. I take walks, remap them, index my thought processes, and gather raw materials, like photos and litter. The walks and exploration of raw materials are a catalyst for memories, which I develop into 2-dimensional work.

For my thesis, I am continuing my exploration of the topic of memory.

I started my summer research by reading the book ‘The Memory Police,’ by Yoko Ogawa. While reading, I took notes on how the author tackled the topic of memory loss through the vivid descriptions throughout the book, as well as other quotes and pieces of information that struck me. Aside from this, I found myself reading up on the psychological and neurological aspects of memory. The books I read regarding this were ‘A Sense of Self,’ by Veronica O'Keane, and ‘Unthinkable,’ by Helen Thomson. Each of these gave me an insight into the scientific side of memory through their various stories of people with vastly different brains and other accounts of relevant research and experiments. I will continue with this research over the course of the semester by continuing to read and take notes, while branching out more with some visual exploration.

In terms of visual exploration, I intend to stick to what I had originally stated, using collage and other two dimensional work to express the topic. Because memory is such a broad subject, I’d like to narrow it down by focusing on the concept of location memory to start. The parts of the brain that make remembering location possible are interesting to me, especially in how the books described their function and structures, and in where they may fail or succeed for certain individuals.

As someone who gets lost frequently and who likes to explore, I think it would be entertaining to track my own routes and attempt to remap them out following my adventures. This was part of an experiment I read up on in ‘Unthinkable,’ but I think it would be a good way to play with the topic of memory while simultaneously gathering research and making memories of my own. Creating some form of categorization based on how location cells and neurons work would be something to consider while experimenting with location based memory. The visual language of branching neurons and dendrites is fascinating, especially considering the importance of communication between parts of the brain, so this is also a point I would like to consider. I think that it is important to maintain some human aspect in all of this with the emotional connection to places, as human experience is ultimately the catalyst for memory. This would be especially pertinent with landmarks, which are significant in how the brain navigates the outside world.