THREE PHASE
CENTER FOR COLLABORATIVE ART RESEARCH AND BUILDING IN STONE RIDGE, NY
THE MALLEABILITY OF MEMORY
ERNEST GOODMAW
OCTOBER 2018
Durning the month of October, Ernest Goodmaw experimented with a method of storytelling and documentation. Through engaging in a process similar to playing a game of telephone with oneself, and with the aim of inspecting the roles that personal memory and narrative play in the development of identity perception, the project aimed to inspect the fluidity of memory and how it might be utilized as a tool for integration and discovery.
The process began with the video documentation of an individual who volunteers to recount a significant personal experience within the context of their own approach and memory. A second documentation was planned where the individual recounts the same narrative following sets of directives as a way to shift language. Finally, the side-by-side comparison of the retellings revealed the hows, wheres and whys of memory's vulnerabilities.
How will the story change? Will new features be highlighted or ignored? Will the storyteller find something new in their story? Will they learn something about themselves? Will the listener's presence and reception alter the story or the teller's relationship to it? The different modes of storytelling will be documented and arranged together to perhaps: build upon, complement, contrast, explain, and or translate one another.
ERNEST GOODMAW is an experimental instrument, exploring the six senses through actions based on instinct, curiosity, and thirst. They perform these actions in textural, communal, educational, and healing contexts.