"Realizing Femininity"
Unlike many previous art projects, this one has really meant a lot to me. Because I put so much personal meaning into it, I was able to spend a great deal of time on it and it did not strain me at all. These projects were once cardboard boxes, which we then filled with plaster and destroyed.
When I was creating the cardboard boxes, I had a very vague idea of my topic and my boxes had absolutely no relation to it. Through the development of this project, I actively explored my original broad topic of the construction and deconstruction of memory. I was able to get at the ideas most meaningful to me at this moment. At the same time I was doing this project, I was reading the book, "Beyond God the Father--Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberaion" in my theology class. I've been also studying the feminist documentary for my final research paper in my documentary seminar. In a very intense way, I was thrusted into perspective of feminism. Taking this perspective and exploring my family history through it in a hands-on way was really a great thing.
My favorite is the landscape with some women in my family laid across it. The landscape was originally three boxes, but when I filled the two small ones with plaster they exploded all over the floor, so I stuck them my cardboard trough of plaster, which is the base. Then the trough fell apart and plaster was seeping out all around me. So frustrated, I was shoveling the plaster off the ground and chucking it back in, which accounts for the lumpy surface...and why it ended up looking like a barren disaster area. It symbolizes the struggle of women. I had this sketch that I did before I even knew about this project of a picture from my family at my graduation party. I drew all the women and realized they were standing in order of age. I also saw as you moved from me (on the front-right) to my grandmother (on the back-left), the women were interacting less and observing more with my grandmother leaning against our broken dishwasher with a subtle smile on her face. I didn't even notice that the first time I drew her. So, as the women move across the landscape they go from standing back having experienced the journey and knowing so much of what the women on the right are experiencing to the experience itself, gathering knowledge and building ideas and fighting and changing. On the right is a structure. On the inside are pictures of the potential of women that is not as appreciated as it is for men. On the outside are worn out pictures of the popular image of women. There is a person covering these outdated pictures with more appropriate pictures--women as strong achievers and mothers. There was not enough room for my picture on the left of this structure with the rest of my family. I find myself in the midst of this reconstruction.
Annotated Bibliography
Construction and Deconstruction of Memory: An Annotated Bibliography
Each of these sources, while varied, contributed in helping me to hone in deeply on my topic in the field of memory. Through this compilation, I will explore how memories are formed, suppressed, and recovered. I will also be able to investigate the ways that memories are tied to history and the sentimentality of objects, and how all of this is embodied within cultures. All of these resources will collectively assist me in discovering and understanding the memories hidden within my ancestry, and how it all ties together.
Doane, Janice. Telling Incest: Narratives of Dangerous Remembering from Stein to Sapphire. The University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Doane asserts that confessional narratives such as those concerning belated memories of incest reveal not authentic testimonials but distorted memories. In researching the deconstruction of memory, the chapter on false memory is particularly relevant. A significant amount of the book was not helpful to me since it concerned the issues of feminism and incest. It will not be the basis of my research, yet it will certainly be an influence.
Dilworth, Leah. Acts of Possession: Collecting in America. Rutgers University Press, 2003.A variety of topics relating to my research are discussed in this book, such as tradition and memory, photo albums and collecting. It explores the meaningfulness of possessions through narratives, photographs and an interview. The statement that, “history and identity remain tenuously attached to the products of a capitalist culture” will most likely be one of the main themes of my research.
Hill, Charles and Helmers, Marguerite. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Several chapters were useful in furthering my research. Those which related psychology, history and identity to images were of special interest. Depending on which direction my project takes off in, the information presented in this book may or may not have a significant role in my research.
Levine, Barbara and Snyder, Stephanie. Inventing the American Photo Album. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.
Since photography and photo albums will probably be a main focus in my research, this book provides some great material to bounce ideas off of. The book is very specific since it focuses on one particular exhibition, yet it serves to immerse me deeply into the art of photo albums and snapshots.
Mack, John. The Museum of the Mind: Art and Memory in World Cultures. British Museum Press, 2003.This book will probably help me less in my research in more in my actual projects. I will most likely not explore art within memory and my family history, yet it will give me a better understanding of how to express my findings about memory and my family history through art. Its exploration of world cultures is the most helpful section of the book as far as my research goes.
Fong, Mary and Chuang, Rueyling. Communicating Ethnic and Cultural Identity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004.
Identity plays a huge role throughout the contents of this book. Identity as it relates to culture is what makes this book significant to my research in relation to my genealogy. Memory and identity is also discussed, as well as symbolic representations of identity. Almost every chapter is in some way relevant to my research.
Lubar, Steven and Kingery, David. History from Things: Essays on Material Culture. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.The authors explore whether there is any substance behind our material possessions. Much of the book explores topics completely irrelevant to my research. However, one chapter will play a great role in my project: “Artifacts as Expressions of Society and Culture: Subversive Genealogy and the Value of History.”
Hofmann, William. Life Writing, a Guide to Family Journals and Personal Memoirs. St. Martin's Press, 1982.
As opposed to the books that seem to be written exactly with my research topic in mind, such as Fong and Chuang's book, this one is very specific and will only play a small role in my project if anything at all. If I do include it in my research, Hofmann's insights will serve to provide enough knowledge in the area of journals and memoirs to make it a meaningful addition to my project.
Bjorklund, David. False-Memory Creation in Children and Adults: Theory, Research and Implications. 2000.This book explores more in depth what was mentioned in Doane's “Telling Incest.” It explains in detail the science behind false memory, including specific accounts and studies. The chapter titled “The Changing Face of Memory of Self” will be quite relevant to my project.
Prager, Jeffrey. Presenting the Past: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Misremembering. Harvard University Press, 1998.This book also contains specific case studies of false memory. Prager presents issues that are of high interest to me, including memory, psychoanalysis and culture. False memory will likely only be a light topic in my research, yet it is important for me to be well read about it and thus this book will be quite helpful to me.
Schwartz, Vanessa and Przyblyski Jeannene. The Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture Reader. 2004.This book merely brushes upon what I plan to research and carry out in my project, and most of Schwartz's and Przyblyski's material is of no use to me at all. The topic, “Visual Culture: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis?” relates highly to my research. I find some of the other less relative contents interesting, and they may even sway me to pursue different directions in my research.
Smith, Richard. Art and the Performance of Memory: Sounds and Gestures of Recollection. 2002.
Through photographs, collages, testimonies and even freestyle hip hop, this book covers the concept of memory in a variety of ways. These creative methods serve as an inspiration on how to interpret my findings in the form of a project. This book has more to do with art than is does with memory, but nevertheless it is a helpful resource.
Pezdek, Kathy and Banks, William. The Recovered Memory/ False Memory Debate. Academic Press, 1996.
This is the best resource in relation to false memory. It covers the topic in a scientific way, yet also relates real-life cases of false memory. The psychology of memory is covered very well in this book, and could potentially be a key point of interest as I continue narrowing my research.
Neisser, Ulric. Memory Observed: Remembering In Natural Contexts. 1982.
This book is slightly more scientific than I plan to be in my research. The author seems highly qualified, and his research and field work on memory will aide me in gaining an in-depth understanding of the inner workings of memory.
Safran-Foer, Jonathan. Everything Is Illuminated. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
Although it is a fictional novel, I am anticipating that a great deal of my project may be modeled after its content. The main character, in tracing his genealogy, collects data even remotely relating to his ancestry in the form of note-taking, photographs, and storing items in plastic baggies tacked on his wall. It is through this process and much reflecting and interacting with his grandfather's past that he reaches the point where “everything is illuminated.” This story relates to the concept of memories and sentimentality tied to objects.
Project Preposal
9/11/06
I have chosen memory as the topic of my research. More specifically, I would like to focus on how memories are built. I want to explore that scientifically in relation to how people come to remember the things they do and how they remember things that really never happened. That concept has always been of interest to me, especially in arguments where both contenders are positive that their memory of the situation is the correct one.
Another spin I might take on the concept of memory is memory through my personal genealogy. My inspiration is the recently popular book and movie
Everything is Illuminated. The main character, in a quest to explore the history of his grandfather, who experienced WWII as a Jew, collects items (items seemingly irrelevant an extrememly peculiar ones) and takes notes of anything relating to his genealogy. It is only through exploring every minute detail that he finally uncovers meaningful knowledge, and illumination occurs. In a small scale way, this is what I wish to do for my project. I would like to deconstruct my past through historical items, memoirs, journals and photos.
Laurie Anderson, what I thought
Some of the projects that Anderson presented seemed to relate very much to illusions. I particularly was interested in the rock garden, which was composed of a mixture of real and fake rocks. They look like rocks, but behave differently since they are made out of inorganic materials. I love the concept of creating the illusion of harmony within nature. From one vies, strings that are tied between trees align to create the illusion of a lion walking through the trees.
Those were my favorite projects featured by Laurie Anderson. I feel her presentation wasn't very visually gratifying, and was disappointed about that—I wish I would have gotten to experience what she is famous for, but she's in a different stage in her life, I suppose. I was quite impressed by her creativity. I also have gained a raised interest in Japanese art by listening to her.
Unlike many previous art projects, this one has really meant a lot to me. Because I put so much personal meaning into it, I was able to spend a great deal of time on it and it did not strain me at all. These projects were once cardboard boxes, which we then filled with plaster and destroyed.
