Documenting
OBJECTIVES:
- Define what a primary source is and how archives are conserved
- Evaluate photographs and their connection to memory
- Learn about the history of photography and the many examples that are stored here in the archives
- Use studio lighting to document primary sources to be combined and re-presented to the school
- Learn about the people, buildings, and events that were experienced in the earliest years at Foxcroft
SCHEDULE:
Monday, Feb 5 Day 1
7:00-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-3:30 Memoryscapes Class Meets @ Currier Library
9:45-10:00 Snack- Schoolhouse first floor student lounges
11:30-11:45 Morning Meeting
11:45-12:30 Lunch
3:30-4:30 Free time / club meetings
4:30-6:00 Varsity Basketball vs Highland - Engelhard Gym
6:00-7:00 Dinner
7:00-8:30 Niblack artist, Jessica Cantor - exploration of 3D and VR movie making - Required
ARCHIVES CONSERVATION
PHOTOGRAPHY AND MEMORIES
Memories of our experiences connect with one another and they are the basis of who we are as individuals. Memories rely on a brain region called the hippocampus. If the hippocampus were to be taken out of your brain right now, you would be stuck in time and memories of new experiences would rapidly fade away. The hippocampus functions to create a seamless story of the self. There is a clear connection between human memory and the photographs we take. The photos we take can store information of what, where and when. In this regard, a photograph is very much like a memory of a life event. A photograph is simply information about past light that we can perceive in present time. Photographs serve as memory storage and, when viewed, can activate memory recall. Source: http://petapixel.com/2013/07/20/memories-photographs-and-the-human-brain/
VIEWING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
To say that what we see in photographs is gone is to state the obvious. At the very least that particular moment is gone, never to come back, just like any other moment (whether we photograph or not). The fact that something is gone makes photographs so poignant, and it is what makes photographs memories. This, again, is obvious, because memories concern the past. Photography is not THE past, but more accurately it is A past. A photographer maintains the power over the process of retaining and forgetting. This process involves the decision to take a photo or not, and then later what will be involved in editing and re-presenting the image. Seen in this light, photographs are more perfect memories, because we can take control of our past. Conveniently, we tend to ignore the fact that photographs are manufactured memories. Photographs are also expressions of our desire to hold on to something. As such expressions, they can take on their own life, essentially becoming something completely different. Source: http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/photography_and_memory/
There will inevitably be tension between an object invented by a subjective mind and the objective fact or event it is meant to depict. Many artists use art to tell stories about personal and cultural memory that are open to interpretation, that reframe the past not as a fixed narrative but as a multiplicity of voices from diverse points of view. This allows us to think twice about our history and how it has been shaped, and how we might best document things to come. Source:https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/tate/archives-memory/art-and-memory/a/what-role-does-memory-play-in-art