On the Precipice of Forgetting

On the Precipice of Forgetting brings together two bodies of work. First is my long-term research project into acoustic architecture, specifically whispering architecture, alongside a concern for why we forget and how the balance between episodic and procedural memory teeters on the edge. Navigating the instability, distortion, and gaps in our recollections and memory structures challenges understanding memory and cognition. This artwork delves into the intricacies of human thought processes and broken communications. It is located at the top of the Whispering Wall, Reservoir Dam, SA, and within the small hut at the base of the giant concrete parabola, which holds back the voluminous water. Within the hut is a discrete video work with the voices of three women in conversation. One gently directs, offering a pathway for the fading episodic memories of the other two, who drift in and out of broken, fanciful remembering. On the top edge of the wall, another conversation occurs between two females on the precipice. The conversation has been interpreted by an AI generator, creating a new language that is at once foreign and then surprisingly perceptible. In the state of forgetting, broken fragments subside into a new zone of understanding. Thank you to Ian Hobbs and John Tonkin for their support while learning about creating and inhabiting a Virtual space.