“Memories are never exact replicas of external reality, incoming sensory information is not received passively. In this sense all memories are “created” rather than simply “received”. So its not “all about me”, its all about nerve impulses.




[] view the video (duration 3:19 / 1.6MB) []

Delivering an illustrated talk around the distortion of our experiences, Rutherford questions the opinion that we all hold unique memories. Looking at the value people place on the authority of personal experience she examines artists use of personal testimony and autobiography.


Edited elements of the delivered text below:


Mem'ries light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were

Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another for the way we were.

Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we, could we

Mem'ries may be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember we simply choose to forget
So it's the laughter we will remember
Whenever we remember the way we were.

The way we were.

(Sung by Barbara Streisand and by my mum)


The present tense of the verb ‘to be’ refers only to the present: but nevertheless with the first person singular in front of it, it absorbs the past which is inseparable from it. By standing on stage, speaking in the first person, saying ‘I am’ I include all that has made me so: it is more than a statement of immediate fact it is already autobiographical.
JOHN BERGER


Emotions connected with first memories
Elation
Distress
Pain
Surprise
Fear of being left alone
Shame, regret, curiosity, outrage

Birth of sibling
Deaths
Visits
Sickness
Fire
Brightly lit festive celebrations

Almost invariably described as pictures, not as smells or sounds
The lights at parties, not the music
The panic after an accident, not the screams

Through my earlier work with community based groups, (where I would create short video films in a matter of 2 days), I started to notice similar examples appearing in group recollections. Memories mostly from age 7/ 8 were already stored as very strong visual shorthand – all connected to change, loss and danger.

• Own tenement collapses while playing in nearby school playground
• One little white shoe floats off down stream, dreading Mother’s reaction to loss of newly bought Easter clothes
• Balaclava bricked up in classroom, as renovation work goes on.  The boy oblivious to this now explains to irrate mother about the loss

[Often these small stories pointed towards the bigger picture of social context and the reality of a working class upbringing]

“Memories are never exact replicas of external reality. Psychophysical studies and electrical recordings from the brain have shown that incoming sensory information is not received passively. Survival depends on rapid transformation and interpretation of sensory stimuli based on expectations about how the world works. We interpret patterns of light that fall on two-dimensional array of receptors in the retina as three-dimensional, richly textured scenes. In this sense all memories are “created” rather than simply “received”. No memory or mental image exactly replicates the constellation of nerve impulses associated with the initial sensation. Past experience, encoded in the strength of the synaptic connections throughout the activated neural networks, modifies incoming information.” D.L. SCHACTER

By studying the performance of a damaged brain, one endeavours to draw conclusions about the functioning of the intact brain. The obvious assumption is that if one identifies a particular brain structure, and notes a particular memory deficit in the person with that damaged brain, then the damaged region is the one which, in the normal person, is responsible for carrying out the missing or deficient function.
Analogy:
When one removes the Transistor element from a Radio to discover that the unit will now only make a howling sound, one is not entitled to conclude that the function of the Transistor in an intact Radio is a ‘howl suppressor’

Descartes 17th Century
Thus when the soul wants to remember something … volition makes the gland lean first to one side and then to another, thus driving the spirits towards different regions of the brain until they come upon the one containing traces left by the object that we want to remember. These traces consist simply of the fact that the pores of the brain through which the spirits previously made their way, owing to the presence of this object, have thereby become more apt than others to be opened in the same way when the spirits again flow towards them. And so the spirits enter into these pores more easily when they come upon them, thereby producing in the gland that special movement which represents the same object to the soul and makes it recognise the object as the one it wishes to remember.

1920’s children’s encyclopaedia
Imagine your brain as the executive branch of a big business … Seated at the big desk in the headquarters office is the General Manager – your conscious self – with telephone lines running to all departments …
Suppose you are walking absentmindedly in the street and meet your friend Johnny Jones. He calls your name, you stop, say “Hello!” and shake hands.
It all seems very simple, but let’s see what happened during that time in your brain. The instant Johnny Jones called your name, your Hearing Manager reported the sound, and your Camera Man flashed a picture of him to the camera room. ‘Watch Out!’ came the signal to your desk, and at the same instant both messages were laid in front of you. As quick as lightning your little office boy, Memory, ran to his filing case and pulled out a card. The card told you that that voice belonged to a person named Johnny Jones and that he was your friend. Instantly you began issuing orders …

Recounting in reverse what someone says is like a compass needle you have turned the other way – but as soon as you let go it leaps back to the old position. Every sentence no matter how you twist and turn it , experiences the imperceptible but ubiquitous force of standard time, and every sentence automatically takes the direction of a story unfolding in time.


REMEMBRANCE SERVES EXPECTATION

The forward course of recollection in the biological function of the brain
Life being a process of decay and continual repair and a struggle throughout against dangers, our thoughts, if we are to live, must mainly go the way of anticipation.
We register our perceptions and experiences with an eye to our future actions; what happened in the past only matters inasmuch as it enables us to anticipate what lies in store for us. Seen in that light, the memory is focused not on the past but on what is yet to come, and that is why our recollections face the future. This explanation strikes me as convincing and natural; our memory is apparently designed so that it is focused towards future changes.


[in western society] We see the future as before us, the past behind. Other cultures, following the logic of the body, see the future as behind where the eyes cannot see, and the past before them since it has already happened and therefore can still be seen.