Principal speaker
Gary Carsley
Other speakers
Kylie Banyard
The Mnemonic Mirror is an artist-initiated project exploring the complex processes of memory.
Though much of the information we commit to memory is the humdrum of the everyday, many of our more meaningful recollections are collected subconsciously—stockpiled until specific stimuli bring them to the fore.
Artists, in particular, find much value in memory. In trying to gain a deeper understanding of their artistic process, they regularly delve into personal memory banks. Works of art, therefore, can often be seen as mnemonic devices.
For this project, the curators have imagined memory as a compendium of things read, felt, observed, or otherwise learnt, which creates our own personal archives.
In recent times, the recording of personal images and text on social media has changed the roles that chronology and geography play in the shaping and making of memory. Where personal memories were once stored at the edges of the mind—comprised of hazy recollection and nostalgia—they now exist as an exact record, easier to access and consider. This blurring of the line between past and present has, in turn, created a new resource for artists, as well as a space from which we might explore the past and communicate the issues of the future. The Mnemonic Mirror questions the implications of these changes and scrutinises the consequences, both good and bad.