Amnesia Lab - symposium

The Amnesia Lab, was an experimental symposium in an exhibition setting, co-designed by Shona Illingworth and Jill Bennett (UNSW). It took place at the UNSW Galleries and NIEA iCinema Lab 23 – 25 September 2014 as part of the Signs of Life; Brain and Amnesia Week and brought together memory experts, artists and writers to explore how photographic images, sound and immersive media can advance our understanding of memory and forgetting. The Lab is part of an ongoing research collaboration led by artist Shona Illingworth with cognitive neuropsychologist Martin A. Conway (City University, London) and neuropsychologist Catherine Loveday (Westminster) in the UK, and by Jill Bennett (UNSW) in Australia. Ilingworth, Conway, Loveday, Bennett and colleagues staged a series of discussions in specially designed environments, utilising techniques such as EEG sonification, drawing, and immersive interaction. The Lab presented research-in-progress for Lesions in the Landscape: Claire and the Island of Hirta, a project led by Shona Illingworth and funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK, and focused in particular on the use of imagery from Sense Cam (a wearable sensory operated camera) as memory cue in the context of amnesia. Sessions included a focus on the workings of episodic memory and memory cues, and their relationship to photographic imagery; the issues of perspective and viewpoint in memory, and visual-kinaesthetic perception. Presentations were given by the research team and by cognitive scientist and philosopher John Sutton (Macquarie), psychologists Amanda Barnier and Celia Harris (Macquarie University) and Elise van den Hoven (UTS). Public lectures included Digital Amnesia: Design for Forgetting, Corina Sas (Lancaster) and iMemory: Why the past is all over, Andrew Hoskins (Glasgow).