gallery - the art of memory
throughout history, the minds of great thinkers have been occupied by empty rooms. rooms play a major part in the ancient art of mnemonic systems recorded as early as the first millenium bc. aristotle wrote extensively on the subject, and the anonymous latin text ad herennium (dating from 64ad) outlines many examples of memory systems for practical use.
architectural mnemonics are methods which use empty spaces to organise and aid the recall of knowledge and ideas. memory theatres were one example in which rooms played a central role. a rooms can be used a locus for memory and students of mnemonics were taught to memorize empty rooms. they would memorize the colour, doorways, windows and halls; the landscape of a building. whole buildings could be memorized in this way. once committed to memory students could walk through these buildings in their minds. in the rooms imagines agentes would be placed. these were imagined tableux scenes in which the things to be remembered were visualized inside the empty rooms. an image is easier to remember than plain facts. by using rooms from a familiar building as a framework to store the images in their minds, the students of mnemoics could remember many things which may have easily been forgotten.
this work, a contemplation of the spaces in manchester art gallery, is a tribute to these ancient arts of memory.
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