⌈untitled (“the abyss”)⌋
Memories
and music.
This work is inspired by Oliver Sacks’ essay “The Abyss,” which details the life of a man named Clive Wearing, who had a disease called herpesviral encephalitis. It attacked his central nervous system and gave him severe amnesia, making him unable to store new memories and giving him difficulty recalling old ones. However, music has often been found to stimulate memories within us, and as a musician, Clive retained his ability to play full musical pieces on the piano, despite not specifically remembering how. Because of our connection with music and memories, I wanted to do something that pertained to it inspired by this story. I created a video where, for the first few seconds, black scratches and static cover the photographs, signifying difficulty recalling cherished memories. When the music fades in, a short tune that I composed myself, the black scratches dissipate and leave the images clear, as if the memories came flooding back.