"My Dad feels like he remembers the great smogs in London in 52 but he wasn’t born until 1958. I feel like I remember Live Aid 85 but I wasn't born until August 1985 - one month afterwards!”
Since 2012 the artist and Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow A.R. Hopwood, has been collecting 'false' and 'non-believed' memories from the public as part of his national touring exhibition and events series, The False Memory Archive. The collection has been edited and themed by Hopwood for a new anthology publication that will feature reflections on the archive from renowned psychologists Professor Elizabeth Loftus and Professor Christopher French.
The archive submissions tend to follow a pattern: a memory is described, only to be undone by evidence that the recollection is faulty or by a suspicion that the experience never actually happened. The memories are in turn surreal, everyday, humorous and chilling – most are harmless insights into the fallibility of memory, while others resonate with real world consequences for those implicated in the false recollection.
The archive is themed in a loose chronology starting with ‘Pre-Birth’ memories
and ending in misremembered anecdotes about death. In between, we hear false memories about family members, friends, animals, ghosts, sexual encounters, world events, illnesses, fights, accidents and flying. This extraordinary, intimate and compelling archive takes the reader on an uncanny journey through the shifting sands of autobiographical memory.
"Lulu (the singer) died several years ago. I saw it on TV; she had yellow and white flowers in her hearse that spelt out her name. My mother commented on how sad it was because she was quite young. They played clips of her songs in the news story, so it was definitely her I remember. It weirds me out now whenever I see her alive and doing something new."
Since 2012 the artist and Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow A.R. Hopwood, has been collecting 'false' and 'non-believed' memories from the public as part of his national touring exhibition and events series, The False Memory Archive. The collection has been edited and themed by Hopwood for a new anthology publication that will feature reflections on the archive from renowned psychologists Professor Elizabeth Loftus and Professor Christopher French.
The archive submissions tend to follow a pattern: a memory is described, only to be undone by evidence that the recollection is faulty or by a suspicion that the experience never actually happened. The memories are in turn surreal, everyday, humorous and chilling – most are harmless insights into the fallibility of memory, while others resonate with real world consequences for those implicated in the false recollection.
The archive is themed in a loose chronology starting with ‘Pre-Birth’ memories
and ending in misremembered anecdotes about death. In between, we hear false memories about family members, friends, animals, ghosts, sexual encounters, world events, illnesses, fights, accidents and flying. This extraordinary, intimate and compelling archive takes the reader on an uncanny journey through the shifting sands of autobiographical memory.
"Lulu (the singer) died several years ago. I saw it on TV; she had yellow and white flowers in her hearse that spelt out her name. My mother commented on how sad it was because she was quite young. They played clips of her songs in the news story, so it was definitely her I remember. It weirds me out now whenever I see her alive and doing something new."
