{"id":1030,"date":"2015-09-03T16:49:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T16:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/?p=1030"},"modified":"2015-09-03T16:49:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T16:49:41","slug":"linking-memory-with-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/linking-memory-with-creativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Linking Memory with Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am feeling the growing pains of exploration in the studio lately, which has led me to wonder: what steers the work we make in specific directions, and in turn puts our individual stamp on it?<\/p>\n

Last week I read Moonwalking With Einstein ~ The Art and Science of Remembering Everything<\/a> by Joshua Foer. I picked it up off the library shelf because I was curious about how the author trained his mind to ultimately win the US Memory Championship, developing the ability to accomplish such feats as memorizing the order of an entire deck of cards in a record 1 minute and forty seconds. I figured I ought to be able to pick up at least a few helpful tips to get me through the day more efficiently.<\/p>\n

\"PorchChairs\"<\/a>

Porch Chairs<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a92015 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

But, beyond disclosing the intricate techniques of the world\u2019s top \u201cmental athletes\u201d, the meat of this fascinating book is Foer\u2019s narrative regarding memory itself, including both cutting-edge research and, as stated on the book flap, \u201ca surprising cultural history of memory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Concerning creativity, he drills home the point that everything we see and do is viewed through the lens of memory, which ultimately shapes our perspective of the world around us. Of course that means it also flavors the art that we make. \u00a0We may believe that a wonderful new line of thinking in approaching our work just \u201cpopped into our heads”, but it isn\u2019t truly materializing from thin air. We have a lifetime of experiences to thank for any new path.<\/p>\n

\"BowlsonCounter1\"<\/a>

Bowls on Counter<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a92015 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

Think about what Foer writes: “The Latin root\u00a0 inventio<\/em> is the basis of two words in our modern English vocabulary: inventory and invention. And to a mind trained in the art of memory, those two ideas were closely linked. Invention was a product of inventorying. Where do new ideas come from if not some alchemical blending of old ideas? In order to invent, one first needed a proper inventory, a bank of existing ideas to draw on”.\u00a0 In other words, consciously or unconsciously, we pull from our memories in order to fuse new connections between old ideas, solidifying those new concepts in the work we make.<\/p>\n

Foer further states, “How we perceive the world and how we act in it are products of how and what we remember. We’re all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories. And to the extent that we control our lives, we do so by gradually altering those habits, which is to say the networks of our memory.”<\/p>\n

\"Lola\"<\/a>

Lola<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a92015 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

It adds a whole new depth to any piece of art you make or view, don’t you think?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am feeling the growing pains of exploration in the studio lately, which has led me to wonder: what steers the work we make in specific directions, and in turn puts our individual stamp on it? Last week I read Moonwalking With Einstein ~ The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[90,89,88],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion","tag-creativity","tag-joshua-foer","tag-memory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kO5z-gC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}