The short documentary film I’m in, made by my friend for her journalism BA(hons)

Anchoring Emotions

-         An exploration of how music triggers memories.

By Helena Collins

3D Installation/Print/Sound/Audience Participation

With this piece I have tried to communicate how pieces of music can trigger our memories, by creating a space where I am displaying music which triggers my own memories. I chose make an installation where the viewer could be part of the work because I wanted to create a physical experience for my audience, so that when they next hear the song they listened to in my space, they will have a memory anchored of their experience. My main inspiration for my final piece came from Fiona Banner’s piece “Colour Blind” and how it was exhibited and David Carson’s low tech printing style which felt really personal. I also read Daniel Levitin’s book “This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession”, where he looks at the connection we have with music, giving me a much better understanding of the subject I was exploring. My piece is very personal, by hand printing every letter it was like I was imprinting the memory behind that lyric physically onto the piece; it’s almost a portrait of myself with words.

“But as soon as we hear a song that we haven’t heard since a particular time in our lives, the floodgates of memory open and we’re immersed in memories. The song has acted as a unique cue, a key unlocking all the experiences associated with the memory for the song, its time and place.” – Daniel Levitin

final design for “Anchoring Emotions“ my installation about music and memoires.

a piece of book art I did in response to looking at The One Weekend Bok Series by Martin Lorenz, looking at my memories of going to the BBC Proms with my Dad for the past 4 years

This is a quote from Daniel Levitin’s book, This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession, which I have based my current project on.

some of the edited images I have used in the book I have made to explain the memories connected to each song in my installation, for my project Anchoring Emotions.

typography of lyrics 2

Defining a Space and Sharing Myself through Music - Experiment 5

“Enclosed in a space makes me feel like this music is emerging from me as a person sreaming from my heart and soul” - feedback from Daisy about listening to music behind the curtain.

“I kind of run away with my thoughts and forget about where I am as I cant hear anything else, its a comfortable place to be” - feedback from Teryn about listening to music behind the curtain.

“despite the noise it actually made it easier to forget people were there. That I was just stood by myself listening to music. It also got me thinking of the other aspects of how it said other things about Helena’s personailty or interests. Both were powerful experiences” - feedback from Amber about being blindfolded in the square space.