Memory

What are the aspects that are connected to MEMORY in a performance setting of improvisation?

Let’s gather and make sub-pages if needed.

Maybe there are two big categories here that we could discern:

1. Memory as a tool or structure inside the performance moment
(all things connected to remembering and bringing back things that happened before – inside the piece that is unfolding)

e.g.:

  • instant composing (with memory of what happened before) versus improvising without memory
  • memory filters: insignificant/ waste/ fragment/ forgetting/
    Is fragmented/faulty memory a problem or a chance for improvisation?
  • digital memory vs. analogue memory and their usage in performance
  • ultrashort and short-time memory as a tool for performance that you can train

2. Memory as material for the improvisation
(all things connected to memory as material (collective memory, personal memory, body-memory, etc.) that you bring into the improvisation to work with)

e.g.:

  • traces of the past (personal / collective memory)
    for example the idea that all people and objects present in the room – and their memories, their past – are what the improvisation will be about)
  • embodied memory
  • memory and (personal/cultural) identity
    Memory as a narrative that constantly (re-)constructs your identity (you might for example remember things that have not happened. You might tell a different story about yourself today than you do tomorrow)