This body of work is a reaction to the natural urge to preserve and archive as change is being experienced. As my grandfather ages and his home changes it threatens my childhood memories of this familiar location. Creating an archive of his home is an attempt to protect against the natural degradation of memory. This attempt, however, is a futile one—an impossible project. For every memory or object recorded in this archive there are hundreds that will be over looked and forgotten. (Just as a photograph may become a substitute for an actual memory this archive may turn out to overpower natural memory.)

Through this documentation I endeavor to create an external memory to be used to recall the objects that have become inextricable from the memory of the house as a whole, as in Master Bath Shelving Unit Inventory. I have also incorporated the memories of others who have experienced the same environment. These various memories provide a basis for comparison and depict the discrepancies or similarities in how groups remember, as in Memory Fan Deck and Coded Word Distribution Narrative. By utilizing these memories I can address the different ways memory can be experienced, whether it be through recalling autobiographic episodic memories or memories triggered through physical movement.

The objective form the pieces take in this body of work create distance between my private memories and the information provided to viewers. In this way I aim to underline the effort of archiving and the attempt to control memory rather than my personal experience of my grandfather’s house. Through their interaction with these pieces, it is my hope that viewers will recall private memories of their own.