Please note that this project is not part of the actual programme for PSi #17. It is given as an artistic example of recent '2.0' interpretations of the Camillo theme.
We tend to conceive of memory as physical function of the brain: perceiving, and our memory of that perception, are governed by the central nervous system. Bill Viola’s video art plays with such perceptions, both technically, as he often manipulates time and space with digital images and sound, and also in how he approaches his artistically-created 'realities' as experiences involving multiple layers of consciousness. To quote Barbara London: "Viola’s primary subject is the physical and mental landscape, and the connections and interplay between the outer world and the inner realm. He is concerned with exploring the interaction of his images with the viewer’s memory, as well as with the subconscious and its dreams and imagination." (London, 1987)
Theatre of Memory is a video and sound installation. Centered around the upended roots of a dead tree, the dreamlike qualities of the video images and sounds combine in a poetic metaphor; the subconscious as the unseen root of consciousness.
References
Barbara London, Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes The Poetics of Light and Time. 1987.
