Title:
Memory release
Artist(s):
Isabel Rocamora
Brief description of the work:
Durational live performance that visualises the psychological process of accessing and re-experiencing memories, and explores the relationship between brain and body in the process of remembering.
Materials, dimensions, duration:
Sensor based motion capture rig (at Essexdance), visual basic programming, open GL based 3D video mixing system
Location (venue & dates, public/ private):
Prototype performance and Q&A took place in April 2003 as part of the Future Physical/ Mesh 'Respond' conference in Cambridge (2-5 April 2003)
Audience information (size, mode of participation):
Modified theatre space
Other information (reviews, collaborators, funders):
Performer: Isabel Rocamora, programmer: Chris Fayers, research artist: Camila Valenzuela
Floorplan, scheme:
 
Visual/ audio-visual reference:
Key theme(s):
Intense engagement with a body; using the body as expressive surface; externalising internal processes in realtime using visual and audial means; dislocation
Further context:

http://www.isabelrocamora.org/Media/
MemoryReleasePerformance/Memory
ReleasePerformance.mov
Movie clip (streaming quicktime movie)

Suspended from the ceiling, a range of different body postures of the performer are captured. These release memories (in the form of video and sound clips) which are projected on a screen behind the performer. The performer can control the video projection in realtime and thus aim to externalise an interior process through her movements.

The piece opens up our thinking about involuntary memory, as it explores "flashes of residual memories which appear and disappear seemingly randomly, indenting themselves in our present consciousness as ghosts of our past" (Rocamora online). Through movement it aims to demonstrate how memories that are locked in our bodies can be retrieved.

Links and further references:

http://www.isabelrocamora.org/magnoliaPublic/home/mixedmedia/MemoryRelease