I think...
It Was...
A Memory....
A Journal is a Text we use to preserve our memories.
When we don't record our past, we take the path of least resistance - it's like writing with invisible ink.
Before we reach our sleeping state or the unconsciousness of the dream world- our mind must cool.
The slowing of billions of neurons within the brain, emit traces of memory.
What happens to these memories?
How does our mind clear itself from the day's remnants?
Are these traces significant our dreams? Are they waking dreams?
Music, photographs, grafitti, poetry, journals, architecture, sounds, all hold stories, memories within them.
Like leaves on a plant, even the patterns of our very skin, hold the history of where we have been.
These organic narratives are the few that refuse to be untold.
Writing With Invisible Ink
A visual and audio investigation into the diffusion of memories as the grasp of waking logic loosens into a dream state.
Listen to the Sound Scape Lullaby... : about 63 MB
The audio is a soundscape of "History Repeats Itself" by A.O.S. Buhlert/L/W, "Tacoma Trailer" by Leonard Cohen, ambient sounds captured and composition mixed by Alma J. Salcedo. The Sound Scape Lullaby is six minutes and fourteen seconds long and is the soundtrack to my visual piece. All ambient sound is strictly documentary and none of it was performed for the visual piece. ProTools and the EAR recording device were used. The EAR was generously provided by Dr. James Pennebaker and Matthias Mehl who are both using this technology to conduct an exploration on everyday language and behavior.
The Visual Piece: Writing With Invisible Ink : about 449 MB - runs smoother if you save it to the hard drive first and you may want to turn the volume down a little.
The visual is a dreamscape of animated black and white photography, with a few pieces in color. "Writing With Invisible Ink" is six minutes and fourteen seconds long. Combined with the audio soundscape it forms an dream like exploration of memory into words, text, sounds, and place. It features excerpts of "The Writing", several pieces of poetry, and the travel journal. All photographs captured by Alma J. Salcedo - except two.
Inspirations:
"The Texture of Memory" by James Young. The Secrets of Sleep - a film made in the 1970s(?). The photography of Man Ray. The filmmaker Maya Deren. Leonard Cohen. The Surrealist Filmmakers. The films of David Lynch. The poetry of William Carlos Williams. Marcel Proust. The music of Irresistible Force. Insomnia, dreams, sleeping, buddhism, memory, the night, and all my odd hours in the actlab.