Artificial Memory

The basic idea for Artificial Memory is straightforward: a word is spoken and then the instrumental ensemble "translates" it from linguistic utterance into musical sound. As we know, words are, for the most part, arbitrary sounds or "signs" that by convention come to represent a multitude of objects, ideas, and actions. In Artificial Memory this process is continued: a sound evokes a meaning, and then in turn the meaning evokes another sound. The words never form sentences or phrases, but are organized taxonomically.

This organizing principle is loosely based on a 16th century memory treatise, "On the Composition of Images, Signs, and Ideas," by Giordano Bruno. In this work, words representing objects and ideas are found in detailed lists that are to be placed in imaginary spatial configurations created in one's mind. They are numerous and vast, as it was Bruno's objective to, in a sense, have a model of the world in one's head. My aims are far more modest, and though I do want to give the impression of a wide scope, the words I choose are but a very small selection from the treatise.

Sometime the word groups I choose resemble sections form The Composition of Images:

From Bruno:

Water/ Snow/ Spring/ River/ Geyser/ Cloud

From Artificial Memory:

Fog /Cloud /Rain /Wind /Dew /Mist

Other times I create modern parallels that have no direct equivalent:

Neuron /Amygdala /Synapse /Hippocampus /Cortex/ Axon

The relation between music and meaning is intriguing. Clearly the relation between a word like "cortex" and a musical sound will be arbitrary. But what of a word like "rage?" Since around the time of Bruno, if not before, the relation between music and the emotions, or the affections as they were called then, has been discussed widely. Throughout Artificial Memory words associated with emotional states interrupt the otherwise objective stream of words.