Mnemosyne:
- Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. "Mnemosyne" is derived from the same source as the word mnemonic, that being the Greek word mnēmē, which means "remembrance, memory".
- Mnemosyne was the mother of the nine muses that conceived after nine consecutive nights with Zeus.
- Mnemosyne also presided over a pool in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe. Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. In Orphism, the initiated were taught to instead drink from the Mnemosyne, the river of memory, which would stop the transmigration of the soul.
- Mnemosyne (minor planet designation: 57 Mnemosyne) is a large main beltasteroid.
Beginning of October-November trajectory. First big political trial happening in Greece. Golden dawn nazi party convicted as a terrorist organization.
Task 1: How do we recall a memory footprint?
Please while moving, video record yourself. The Phases can take days or you take some time between them.
Phase 1
1) Recall a memory.
2) Is the memory a movement?
a) If yes: try to reproduce it
b) If no: try to depict it with movement.
3) Keep repeating the movement in one place. Take 10-15 minutes. Record yourself.
Phase 2
4) After reflecting about the previous steps, reproduce the same movement. Take your time. Can you take it into space? If yes, how are you doing that?
5) Does the movement become a memory?
6) Where does it end? Does it end?
Phase 3
7) Does the movement become a memory?
8) Do you remember what you did?
9) Think about the possibilities of this movement. How would you make this movement an imprint? Try to reproduce it and develop an imprint of the movement while repeating it.
10) What is the imprint of this movement?
Phase 4
11) Think about the experience you had and write your comments and reflections.
Despina Responses:
Phase 2:
4) I took the memory/movement into space. Actually, the movement took me to space. My memory/movement created oppositions in the body, so I followed the different directions that the movement created one by one. I followed the imaginary extension of each body part that participated in the movement.
5) The Movement becomes a memory first of all by repetition. A movement that has a functional use has to be repeated because it is often needed. In choreography it goes the other way round; one has to repeat a movement in order for it to be written in memory, to become memory.
6) I think the movement/memory ends where the body is in pain because of this repetition which can really be endless. The movement ends when something external from the movement experience “intervenes” or “commands” the end of it either form inside or outside the body.
Phase 3:
7) The movement is now a memory.
8) I don't remember everything I did. I mostly remember the phases where the movement was changing states.
9) I would make an imprint of the movement by repeating it and at the same time observing every detail of it, from which point it starts, what is the structure of its articulation.
10)The imprint of the movement is when it has passed to the body subconscious. When the body starts exploring other things, but this certain movement still emerges from time to time. It is also when no conscious thought about the structure of the movement is involved.
Phase 4:
11) It was a very interesting experience. I chose a movement that may have an everyday function, but I took it forward until it no longer resmbled to something usual or pedestrian. I didn't have much space to move and that made me enclose myself even more inside this very specific movement. At some points I felt that the things that could happen have ended but then the memory/movement started again taking hold.
I feel that if I had more space to move, the research would last longer, especially if I was outdoors, because the body would blend the external information with the memory/movement.
Despina's K. responses:
The body remembers movement that has done repetitively over a period of time with precision and study on the movement.
It is difficult for a movement to become automatic even
with so much time of practice. The body needs time to find again a certain movement.
The repetitiveness of a movement brings back memories and brings the body and the mind to a meditative state where they remember flashes of experiences regarding the movement they repeated.
Repetition of a recovered movement memory leads to transformation of the movement.
Eleonora's responses:
Task 1:
Phase 2
2)I took the movement into space. I thought that the body parts were participating in my movement. I tried to isolate them and see where they could guide me (Upper-Lower level, Close-far from the first spot). I also observed that I insisted in my last movement-the one started from my left hand that was guiding me automatically somewhere else through repetition.
3) It started becoming a memory after some time. As long as I repeated it, the more it became a memory through embodiment.
4) I guess I could go on to infinity in my practice, till I feel exhausted. No, from my experience, I think that it could continue without an end.
Phase 3
5) Recalling it right now (that it’s been at least one week from my first experiment, the memory of the movement exists in my body. I think it is an embodied memory.
6) Yes, I recall the 3 basic movements (more or less) : 1.My ear was approaching my shoulder 2. My right arm was bending to reach ‘something’ in my right diagonal 3. My left art came opposite to the right one, trying to embrace something.
7) I reproduced it by playing with timing and pauses (rhythmicality) and by ‘opening’ it (bigger movement) or ‘closing it (smaller movement). I also played with legato –staccato dynamics.
8) If I conceptualize it, the imprint is a ‘missing embrace’. If I draw it, the movement involves circles around my torso and lines in regards to my head and arms.
Phase 4
9) The experience that I have had was enjoyable, especially after researching my movement for a while and insisting on repeating the 3 basic movements. I thought (from a moment on) that my kinesthetic responses happened automatically without thinking of them. I would like to try this experiment again, as I felt that it had a therapeutic impact on my body/mind state: the movement was coming organically, no worries or judgements.
I am wondering if the memory of movement can create a ‘trans’ condition for the performer in a way that the repetition of it can last forever… and it can lead her/him/me to an ecstatic condition.
I would be glad to try it out again.
Katerina's responses:
Task 1
Phase 2
4) I can transfer it in space by making it bigger and maybe by changing planes and levels of motion. I am transferring it away in different points in the space.
5)Yes! It becomes a memory. After repeating it multiple times it becomes already a bodily memory. When I think about it, I can automatically recall it.
6) I don't know if it always ends...In this particular moment, it did end, when it was completed for me and when the stimuli around me and the movement has become one with the movement.
7) Yes.
8)Yes.
9) The imprint for me is the strongest image of a movement (the peak of the movement).It is that thing that stays in somebody's mind while watching it or executing it.
Task 2: Where does a thought go when it is forgotten? Does it end in the subconscious?
After finishing Task 1, proceed to this task. Please while moving, video record yourself.
Phase 1
1) Think about task 1 and the movement you produced there.
2)While thinking the movement from task 1, start producing a new movement that reminds you the task 1 movement but it is not the same. Stay for a while to this step and elaborate with movement. How long can you keep that going?
Phase 2
3) Let the point of mixing task 1 movement with the new movement come to your body and sink in.
4) Is it a new movement or does it fall again to the older one?
5) Do you have a stronger memory of the old movement?
Phase 3
6) When you stop the movement, which movement do you have instantly in mind?
7) Have you forgotten the older movement or not?
8) Please write your comments and reflections.
Katerina's responses:
Task 2
Phase 3
6) When I stop the movement, I have the initial movement in mind.Maybe because the initial movement was stronger, came first, and then "sat" in my body while the second one is a variation of the initial movement.
7) No.
8) Definitely the second movement is a variation and a creation derived from the first one, but the first movement is stronger.
According to scientific studies, the same regions of the brain are activated when watching a movement and doing the movement. The brain it does it for you.
There are 6 reasons that somebody can go out.You have to send a message to a governmental platform 13033 from 1 to 6. Could we have restrictions of our memory from 1 to 6?
After-task thinking.
How do I create the nuance of the memory in performance?
How can I create the imprint of a movement?
How can it become a tool of tricking the audience's mind?
La Jetée(1962)-Chris Marker
A film that depicts memory shots and intrudes the viewer's mind with flashes of images while they can assume about what's happening in between.
Mari Fogner-Choreographer:
My choreography stems from asking myself a question about something – I wonder what…? why is it that..?
Then by starting to look for the answers different solutions and ideas present themselves. I am inspired by people, watching people and moving with other people, which is why so much of my work is collaborative.
improvisation: 1) allow to suggest the next movement
2)becoming very personal
3)the next step multiplies into a group idea