For this project, I’ve taken inspiration from the Oliver Sacks essay I’m reading called
“The Abyss,” where he writes about a man suffering the most drastic case of amnesia ever
recorded. His memory only spans a few seconds, and he often repeats conversations that he has
had before. However, he is described to have implicit memories that come to him without the
need for him to actively recall them. One specific way this manifests is through his ability to play
music.
Inspired by this essay, I’d like to portray the relationship between the mind and music.
While the essay specifically focuses on the differing perceptions that come with amnesia, I
would like to explore how music might impact perceptions that come with mental health. Music
impacts all kinds of different perceptions, so I’d like to portray this through taking three sets of
two photographs that can be compared as a kind of before and after relationship when considered
along with music. With anxiety, for example, the first photograph might be chaotic and blurry,
but the second will be clear, calm, and perhaps give off a dreamy feeling, accompanied by a
musical excerpt that conveys the same journey (dissonant at the start, harmonic at the end). I
might consider putting them all together in a video so that it is easier to view once it’s all
finished as well.