Open Re/Search: In Memory Of...

In Memory Of... is a study of the process of using visual systems, chance operation and writing, to create new form. This project began as a public art piece of sorts. A group collaboration in my Public Art Graduate Seminar yielded three vernacular style of the "instant memorial" which were placed throughout Providence, RI. The memorials were surrounded by candles, faux flowers and displayed boxes in which a person could leave a memory. The memorials were to nothing in particular, but memory.

Each box contained paper, pencils and a space to leave a memory to share. The act of recording the memory became the main focus of the project, and it ended up being a collective project with the citizens of Providence and the members of the group.

Please see images  HERE

I felt however there was an opportunity to study these memories and find a deeper meaning and form. The collection of the memories was a chance operation. I did not know what kind of notes I would receive but I knew there would be value in them, as a subject matter. I had found what I was looking for in a subject. It came to me by trusting that the people of Providence would contribute.

      

  

Collecting the memories was the first step. This whole endeavor was a chance operation. Who would contribute? Would people contribute? The three memorials which were created yielded a selection of memories. Notes to loved ones, recollections of times gone by and epitaphs were among what was left behind in the boxes. This made me think about what these memories were for and what they meant to people. How could such emotion be expressed by putting pencil to paper? I wondered why people felt the need to leave a memory at all. I hoped they would... but wondered why.

After collecting the memories I started to organize and archive the memories. I observed handwriting styles, placement of words on the page, color of the paper and so forth. Then I began to dissect and ask questions of these memories. I started to use a notation system to organize my thoughts and try to find some order or common ground in the collected memories. A collective memory was emerging. 

    

Then came the moment of being stuck...

I found I had the notes and then my notes about these memories. I started to organize the notation system and overlap it to find consistencies. This lead led to a moment where the form began to develop... as well as a narrative. I notice my notation system began to tell a story, so I extracted it from the notes to form new ideas. Eventually I started to form a new story about memory making.

The narrative which which emerged came from referring back and forth between the graphic forms and the written form. Questions in the in the narrative were incorporated into the graphic form and the two sys

tems began to feed off of each other to create a new form. Chance was informing the systems at work.

I am now starting to find connections in my work from years past. My ideas about opposite ways of creating work, have been incubating for almost 6 years now. I just didn't have a name for it. During the process of developing my undergraduate thesis in Architecture, if I was ever stalled or stuck during the architectural process I would turn to the graphic form for guidance. Moving back and forth between graphic expressions (in the case of my BARCH Thesis, graphic prints) and architectural drawings, led to the blossoming of a built structure and a cohesive body of printed matter, which informed one another. 

For the purposes of the In Memory Of... project I was moving back and forth between writing and the graphic form, to develop an idea. Visual systems and chance operations were at work as well. All four of these were contributing to a process which has led to a written narrative, graphic form, solid questions about memory and an organizational structure. 

See more images of the final 12 compositions which were developed for this project HERE