National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA)
Amnesia Lab
23–25 September 2014
National Institute for Experimental Arts
UNSW Australia Art & Design
Cnr Oxford St & Greens Rd
Paddington Sydney
New South Wales
Australia 2021
Amnesia Lab is an experimental forum in an exhibition setting, bringing together memory experts, artists and writers to explore how photographic images, sound and immersive media can advance our understanding of memory and forgetting. The Lab is part of an ongoing research collaboration led by artist Shona Illingworth (University of Kent) with cognitive neuropsychologist Martin A. Conway (City University, London) and neuropsychologist Catherine Loveday (Westminster) in the UK, and by Jill Bennett (UNSW) in Australia.
Amnesia Lab Forum
Wednesday 24 September
UNSW Galleries and NIEA iCinema Lab
Shona Ilingworth, Martin A. Conway, Catherine Loveday, Jill Bennett and colleagues stage a series of discussions in specially designed environments, utilising techniques such as EEG sonification, drawing, and immersive interaction. The Lab will focus in particular on the use of imagery from Sense Cam (a wearable automatic camera) as memory cue in the context of amnesia.
Morning: Memory psychologist Martin A. Conway uses a drawing wall to envisage the workings of episodic memory and its relationship to photographic imagery.
Artist Shona Ilingworth presents her sonification based on an EEG study run by Catherine Loveday on an amnesic patient (a project supported by the Wellcome Trust, in partnership with FACT, UK).
Afternoon: Using the Amnesia Atlas prototype—a 3D immersive environment—the afternoon sessions will focus on the issues of perspective and viewpoint in memory, and visual-kinaesthetic perception. Jill Bennett and Volker Kuchelmeister will introduce the Atlas project. Cognitive scientist and philosopher John Sutton (Macquarie) will discuss perspective/viewpoint and embodied experience in memory. Discussants include psychologists Amanda Barnier and Celia Harris (Macquarie University), Corina Sas (Lancaster), and Elise van den Hoven (UTS).
5pm: Amnesia Lab public panel
Lecture Theatre
Martin A. Conway, Shona Illingworth and Catherine Loveday in conversation with Jill Bennett and Lab participants.
Amnesia Lab public lectures
Thursday 25 September, 5pm
Lecture Theatre
“Digital Amnesia: Design for Forgetting,” Corina Sas (Lancaster)
“iMemory: Why the past is all over,” Andrew Hoskins (Glasgow)
Part of Signs of Life a three-part exhibition season, comprising Body Image, exploring the aesthetics of 3D medical imaging and a fantastic voyage around the vascular system; Amnesia Lab investigating memory loss through drawing, sound, photographic and 3D imaging technology; and Quo Vadis: The Last Drawing Show.
Event reception: Tuesday 23 September, 5–8pm
Associated event
“Brain Imaging”
23 September, 3–5pm
John McGhee and Steven Faux present Fantastic Voyage, discussing Virtual Reality and 3D computer visualisation of vascular MRI and CT stroke data and the potential for enhancing patient to doctor communication and stroke rehabilitation.
