User:Loes van Dorp/Introduction project

Presentation introduction monday 10 oktober

Description of project (Working title) 'To get, to forget...'

My graduation project will use the technique of two animations I did last year. In this project I will try to visualize the memory of a person in a space. The result will be a short stop-motion animation.

In this animation you will see how a person deals with his/her memories while walking in a space. The person will be accompanied by a Plexiglas screen. On this screen the memories and thoughts appear. The person can influence what is on the screen by pushing/dragging it around in the space or by influencing the drawing on the screen by hand. When an unwanted memory appears the person will be able to influence the image by painting over it or reshaping the paint until the memory is changed into something nice. It is possible that the unwanted memory will not be easy to adjust and will keep coming back, haunting the person. It might happen that there is only black paint on the screen, with no recognizable memory. The memory will then only become visible after wiping away the paint. It is also a possibility that another person will enter the room also accompanied by a screen. He might have a total different memory of the same event/space as the first person. How will this influence the memory of the first person? Will it enrich the memory or make it change in an unhappy way? This two people might end up fighting over the accuracy of their memory of the same event. This animation will have a narrative. It might be autobiographical, but I can also write a story based on collected memories of my own and that of others and use these as ingredients of a good and interesting story. I can also dive into a history of a building and make a story of the memories of that building. Or combine this with my personal memories. This project is about things you want to remember but forget and things you want to forget but still remember. It also doubts the reliability of memory. Memories have the unsettling ability to change shape afterwards. It shows how a brain projects memory in a space. They are projected like ghosts, ghosts of the past which can haunt you. Film and Photography are often used as metaphors in thinking about dreams and memory. We also use pictures to conserve unforgettable events, so we can use them to remember what we forget. We write diaries to conserve events, thoughts and state of minds. We never write something down we do not want to remember. We do not have a forgetbook. Why should you write down something you want to forget?

Five Questions/concerns

1) How can I keep the project close to myself, without getting lost or stuck in my own memories. How can I make it an interesting story?

2) Which building/ Space is interesting to use?

3) How do I show something I cannot remember? How can I show the inner conflicts?

4) Should I combine the history of the building with my own history and use that as the starting point of the story?

5) How can I make the interaction of the person, the screen and the building in a way that it is useful and interesting?