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Artistic research The integration of detached and fragmented memory

.bites – dance exploration platform'21

Photography Paulina Stasiunaite

The Greek origin term "trauma", as a physical injury caused by external actions, was first mentioned in the 17th century. However, it took another two hundred years to identify the trauma from a psychological point of view. Despite the scientific interest in psychological trauma that has grown steadily over the past 150 years, properly unintegrated traumatic experiences still have a profound impact on the lives of many people.

By researching his patients, Pierre Janet, a pioneer of neurology and psychiatry, started using the term “dissociation” to describe the splitting off and isolation of memory imprints. Dissociation prevents the trauma from becoming integrated within the conglomerated, ever-shifting stores of autobiographical memory, in essence creating a dual memory system. According to Janet, normal memory integrates the elements of each experience by a complex process of association; think of a dense but flexible network where each element exerts a subtle influence on many others. But in other cases when people could not integrate traumatic experiences, the sensations, thoughts, and emotions of trauma were stored separately as frozen, barely comprehensible fragments.

Unable to integrate the cut-off elements of the trauma into the ongoing narrative of life people suffer from memories, lose self-awareness, and experience depersonalization. In exploring the role of art in the context of traumatic experiences, performative arts are of particular importance, in which the body is a memory keeper and a mechanism of self-regulation, as well as a powerful artistic tool. By traveling through different points of the research and movement qualities influenced by them, I will seek to connect the split-off elements of the past into an unbroken network of self-experience. 

Review by performing art critique Ausra Kaminskaite >>>

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