Memory, Time, Reality

The second reading from Time and Ourselves by G.J. Whitrow explored how memory and time are connected. While the printing is old, and some of the ideas are outdated, I did find some of it interesting. 

The reliability of memories:
This was explored in various points of the reading. It seems fair to say that memories, or at most memories including mine, are not all that reliable. The older the memory is, the more the details become fuzzy. Some "memories" from my early childhood are so vague that I'm not entirely sure if it's a dream that I recall or a real moment from my past. If my memory is that distorted, even real events that I recall may have invented details and almost certainly missing details. So, what affect does this have on my reality? On pages 20-21, it is noted that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the act of memory recall and an act of imagination. An example was given of a man who imagined an event so often that he later believed it to be a real memory. Is this possibly insanity, or an illness from old age? Is it truly possible to invent a memory? Perhaps I already have. I tried to investigate what areas of the brain handle dreams and which areas handle imagination and I haven't found a straightforward answer. I assume the two actions (dreaming and imagining) are closely related, and I take it for granted that some of my memories have a fictional component to them.

Time and memories:
According to the reading, we perceive time through memory and our awareness of past/present/future. Like many others, my earliest memories are the hardest to order by a timeline. It could be a possibility that our sense of time is strengthened as we collect memories with which we can define time; or, that the concept of time is learned and memories before that concept is established are naturally without order.
If we do perceive time through our memories, what is the cause of deja vu? This mysterious sensation that a moment in the present has occurred in the past which, we can almost recall from our memory... Maybe this is an act from our imagination. Maybe we have momentarily lost our grasp on the concept of time, causing us to confuse the past and the present. Does my sense of time affect my reality?

The sense of self:
"The concept of self is based on our recollection of experiences..." (P. 28) What defines my identity is the starting point of my reality. I learn from my experiences, and create my sense of self from the accumulation of my knowledge. What I deem important, how I prioritize, how I respond to various situations, how I view the world... these are the results of my experiences in life. What if I didn't remember my life? Would that change my choices? If I had learned to voice my opinions, would I become reserved? Would I even have an opinion?

I feel as though I might have a tenuous grasp on my reality. If my identity comes from my experiences in life, and my experiences are memories that are unreliable (or even fictional), then my identity may be uncertain. If my reality is tied to my identity, is my reality fictional? Or, if my dreams and imagination manipulate or create the memories that define my identity, do I invent reality?

TIME and ART

Time is a difficult concept to define, and the perception of time is more varied than I was previously aware of.  The music videos shown in class by Kylie Minogue (Come Into My World) and Cibo Matto (Sugar Water) both present the concept of time in interesting ways. After the reading assignment, I was able to make a few connections. 

The Kylie Minogue video gave me the sense that time was passing in a cyclical manner with time and dimensional space both overlapping. As the singer walked around and around, we could easily see the events of the past repeating in the present, in generally the same place. I quickly made a connection from this video to the cyclical concept of time from past civilizations described by G.J. Whitrow. For example, the Mayans perceived time as a cycle with recurring events every 260 years. This idea that events repeat themselves as time moves in a circular pattern offers predictability to the world that must have given a sense of security to people in the past. Even though I’ve heard the expressions “history repeats itself” & “if you don’t know/learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it”, I’ve never had the sense that the world is that predictable. My sense of time has always been linear, with no expectations of what the future holds beyond personal planning. 

The Cibo Matto video is a little harder to grasp. I imagine it best as time expressed in the shape of a V. From a single point (the car accident), time moved both forward and backward. There is also a sense of “history repeating itself” as time moved in both directions, while past and present events were synchronized.  But, as you watch the video, you can also see that time was moving forward between the lives of the two women which happened to intersect at that point. From this central point, one woman’s life is the past and the other woman’s life is the present/future.  The concept in this video reminds me more of the concept of time introduced with Christianity. AD and BC mark the passage of time from a single point in history, but remains linear. 

From the reading, I am familiar with everything Whitrow discussed but I can only relate my concept of time with the current ideals in this society. I do feel a sense of urgency in day to day life because of the idea that time is passing by. Like everyone else, I often feel like there is not enough time in the day. Sometimes, I also feel that the years have passed by faster than I expected. I can’t count the number of times I have asked myself “Where did the time go?”  

Other presented topics included a good review of some of the qualities that can be evaluated in a piece of artwork. I am particularly drawn to color because it can easily offer emotional overtones to a piece of art. Implied lines are also very interesting to me, but I often overlook it in my own art work. If it is present in any of my previous work it wasn’t intentional, but I want to practice including that element more in my future works. My favorite pieces for these elements are from Baroque period paintings, like that by my favorite painter of the period: Artemisia Gentileschi.

Art is creative human expression in a wide range of mediums, which is usually (but not exclusively) man-made. Just like beauty, art is in the eye of the beholder.