To hear on the Sundays 17 and 24 November, and 1 December 2013, 2pm - 9pm

Echoic Memory

Sound installation
(2013, German Premiere)
by Martyna Pozna?ska

Martyna Pozna?ska on 'Echoic Memory':
Our mind is not capable of exactly remembering and recalling sounds; it could even be argued that we do not possess sound memory. Our echoic memory is a component of sensory memory (SM), and it is responsible for retaining auditory information. The sensory memory for sounds that people have just perceived is the form of echoic memory. Unlike visual memory, in which our eyes can scan the stimuli over and over, the auditory stimuli is by its nature ephemeral. According to echoic memory, auditory stimuli are received by the ear one at a time before they can be processed and understood.

For instance, listening to the radio difers from reading a magazine in a temporal way. A person can only hear the radio once at a given time, while the magazine can be read over and over again. A sound is unprocessed (or held back) until the following sound is heard, and only then can it be made meaningful. Tis particular sensory store is capable of storing large amounts of auditory information that is only retained for a short period of time (3–4 seconds). Tis echoic sound resonates in the mind (like an internalised echo within our brains) and is replayed for this brief amount of time shortly after the presentation of auditory stimuli.[source: wikipedia]

The sound installation 'Echoic Memory' is an attempt to work with memory and capability/incapability of recalling sounds.Usually when we think of memory we refere to visual memory. Through a sound, video and light installation, I want the audience to experience the imperfection of our memory in its sonic aspects, and become aware of correlations and disconnects between our senses. I want to show the 'superiority of the sonic memory in its absence' (superiore in absentia) and in its subtleness, the sonic aspect of the reality is so complex that we – human's are not equiped well enough to store it. We can imprison sound through recording it, storing it, and listening to it, but we are not able to perform the same action without an external tool. In this installation I am collaging a series of family ephemera collected 1984-2012 which is notable for featuring because they manifest the relativity and subjectivity of the time and life embraced within one's memory. These are in different media, often with a low-technology source material. The installation runs in a loop, with a set time-based structure, to allow compositional elements to draw a direct parallel between memory and our phenomenological perception. It looks at the relationship we have between other people and time, and how sound, record making and memory combine.