Output details

Anamnesis practice-as-research screendance work

Anamnesis is a practice-as-research screendance work about the volatility of memory. It considers ageing and loss, and the ways in which embodiment is remembered and forgotten.

Research aims:

1. Use broken narrative forms as a means to examine the nuances of human memory and remembering

2. Explore collaborative processes that test the conventional delineation of artistic roles

3. Develop strategies for rehearsal and production that mirror the form-content of the final product

Anamnesis is framed philosophically by Henri Bergson's thinking about duration and memory in which the human body affords the recollection of pure memories. The film invites questions about the ownership and experience of remembering, the dissolution of memory, and the key role of the imagination in making sense of experience.

The artistic team pursued a deliberately coherent choreographic-directorial approach to memory, presence, loss and narrative. For example, in rehearsal and performance we included memory and presence disruption techniques for the two performers that were designed to build internal logic throughout the process and final cut of the film. This process-oriented coherence is at odds with the film's depiction of the elderly woman's biographical confusion and uncertainty.

These ideas – Bergson's thinking about the body and memory and process-based links to memory and remembering, as well as the artistic team's interests in examining the potential for testing the limits of collaborative practices in film-making – are discussed in detail in the Journal of Media Practice article Anamnesis (remembered) which is included in the Portfolio.