Art Now: Art & Memory

Introduction:
Art is often displayed for aesthetic reasons; the visual arts however also carry the power to evoke memories.
These memories are not only evoked by viewing but also by creating. MEMORY seems to be closely connected
to the theme of TIME, but also through which PERSPECTIVE these memories are evoked and experienced. The
accords of TIME, MEMORY and PERSPECTIVE make for HISTORY to become its close companion, connecting
TIME in an expansive way from different PERSPECTIVES to our personal and collective MEMORY.

Perspective:
Perspective could be interpreted in several ways. Firstly, it could relate itself to the art of depicting solid objects
on a two-dimensional surface as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in
relation to each other.1

The way perspective is related to memory connects to a particular attitude towards something. The
perspectival aspects of our memories are not often explicit in conscious awareness but are pre-reflective
structural features of the ways we remember past events. Most people can switch between an external
perspective and an internal perspective of the same event. 2

Internal Perspective:
Also known as the ‘field perspective’ in which events from the past may be remembered from a first-person
perspective. Through the internal perspective one relives such events through their own eyes, as if looking
outward, experiencing the event like they did in real life. 3 Personal events can be perceived from a first-person
perspective, but remembered from a third-person vantage point. 4 The field perspective is predominating for
experiences that are highly emotional and/or significant, causing for a reconstruction to be resisted. 5

“The phenomenal distinction between observer and field memories is meaningfully related to characteristics of
the original experience, to the individual’s purpose in recalling that experience, and to the reported interval
between experience and recall”6

External Perspective:
Also known as the ‘observer perspective’. One would act as an actor in the memory image of this third-person
perspective.7 Compared with events of the recent past, remote memories are more likely to be reconstructed
from an observer’s perspective.8 The observer memories tend to contain few references to any feelings or
emotions.9

“The phenomenal distinction between observer and field memories is meaningfully related to characteristics of
the original experience, to the individual’s purpose in recalling that experience, and to the reported interval
between experience and recall”10

The Re-enactment:
A re-enactment of an artistic performance might be a historicist attempt to represent the “original”

1
Michael Clarke. “The concise Oxford dictionary of art terms.” (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2010), 188
2
John Sutton, “Memory Perspectives.” Sage Journals 7, No. 2 (March 13, 2014): 141. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1750698013518131
3
Eric Eich et al. “Field and observer perspectives in autobiographical memory” Social thinking and interpersonal behavior (2012), 2
4
Eich, “Field and observer perspectives in autobiographical memory”, 3
5
Eich, “Field and observer perspectives in autobiographical memory”, 5
6
Nigro, Georgia N. and Ulric Neisser. “Point of view in personal memories.” Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983), 481
7
Eich, “Field and observer perspectives in autobiographical memory”, 2
8
Eich, “Field and observer perspectives in autobiographical memory”, 5
9
Eich, “Field and observer perspectives in autobiographical memory”, 5
10
Nigro, Georgia N. and Ulric Neisser. “Point of view in personal memories.” Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983), 481
performance by repeating it as exactly as possible: often though, re-enactments involve efforts at
revision and reinterpretation.11

Performance art:
An art form in which artists become participants in their own work of art and often combine
elements of theatre, music, and the visual arts. The variety of activities is extraordinary wide, ranging
from acts of self-mutation to journeys through the landscape.

Performance art gained widespread recognition in the late 1960s and 1970s. It is closely related to
Happenings, but Performance art is usually more programmed and does not involve audience
participation.12

- Add an work of art related to memory and performance art

Memento Mori: (Maybe a nice addition)

Memento Mori is a symbol designed to remind the viewer of mortality and the transience of human
life, such as a skull, an hourglass, or extinguished candle. 13

SOURCES:
 Eich, Eric, Todd C. Handy, Emily A. Holmes, Juval Lerner, and Heather K. McIsaac. "Field and
observer perspectives in autobiographical memory." Social thinking and interpersonal
behavior (2012): 163-181.
 Clarke, Michael. “The concise Oxford dictionary of art terms.” (2010). Oxford, U.K.: Oxford
University Press.
 Nigro, Georgia N. and Ulric Neisser. “Point of view in personal memories.” Cognitive
Psychology 15 (1983): 467-482.
 Sutton, John. “Memory Perspectives.” Sage Journals 7, No. 2 (March 13, 2014): 141-145.
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1750698013518131

11
Samenvatting lisette > Miro
12
Clarke, “The concise Oxford dictionary of art terms.”, 188
13
Clarke, “The concise Oxford dictionary of art terms.”, 155