Memory Lab
Memory Lab is an interdisciplinary lab about memory, broadly conceived. Drawing on expertise from across the University, Memory Lab will explore the process of making memories, how they are stored and later retrieved by individuals, and what impact they have. One of the key drivers of Memory Lab is to understand what happens when this fluid process for the individual is brought into the context of group or social memory, and how these manifest as ‘collective’ (first-hand, generational) or ‘cultural’ (mediated, transgenerational) memories. By bringing history, literature, and education theory together with psychology and neuroscience, Memory Lab will create a unique forum for conversations about social, cultural, and individual memories.
Contact: arts-memorylab@glasgow.ac.uk
Directors:
What does memory mean to you? Let us know! (AI-generated Image).
Event 1: ‘Brainstorming’: what does memory mean to you?
13 November 2024, The ARC 237B, 1-4pm
What does memory mean to you? Is it banal and practical (‘I always forget my keys’), is it personal or family oriented (such as making a family tree), is it about heritage and identity? Something else? In this Introductory session, we will explore memory in an open and informal setting. The Directors of Memory Lab will introduce their own specialist branch of memory studies before opening up to interactive group work.
As this event has taken place, you can find our summary and reflection document here: MemoryLab Launch
Event 2: Storage and Retrieval: the Brain and the Archive
8 May 2025, Kelvin Hall, 12-2pm; 2-4pm
How do we store and retrieve memories? This question can be answered by neuroscientists and by archivists. Brains are frequently compared to more or less stable archives. Most neuroscientific research, however, indicates that memories are dynamic entities that constantly change over time and each time we recover them from the brain's "archive". In fact, even in an actual archive, in a library or in a museum, items might not be stored as statically as we tend to think. In this workshop, we want to understand how the nature of the archive inevitably alters the object, and the memories it represents. We will discuss where historical archives and brains have similar storage and retrieval processes, and how far the archive metaphor of the brain can be pushed.
This event is a collaboration between two ArtsLabs: Memory Lab and Collections Lab. It will feature two main components:
1. Lecture & Roundtable, 12-2pm: Lecture Theatre (ground floor of Kelvin Hall)
We will begin the day with a key lecture delivered by Prof. John Sutton of the University of Stirling, where he recently inaugurated the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory. A roundtable on the topic of 'the brain vs. the archive' will follow, featuring several colleagues representing different expertise in these areas.
(Tea and coffee break at 2pm)
2. Workshop, c.2.30-4pm: Hunterian Collections Study Space (first floor of Kelvin Hall)
Following a short break, there will be a workshop in the Study Space in which the co-directors of both Collections Lab and Memory Lab will work with objects and cataloguing documents to bring some of our collective ideas together in practice. Spaces for this part of the day are limited. Please see registration details.
Registration details will be posted here shortly. There will be separate sign-ups available for each part of the day.