Amnesia Forum, Prosthetic Memory: Prosthetic Interference

The Amnesia Forums are conceived and organised by Shona Illingworth. They are a series of cross-discipline academic roundtable discussions for artists, scientists, geographers, historians, writers and researchers to explore key directions and debates surrounding current scientific insight into memory and amnesia, and contemporary discourse around the themes of individual and cultural amnesia and evolving constructions of place, location and identity. Each forum centres on a set of research questions. The Amnesia Forums are research-in-progress for Lesions in the Landscape: Claire and the Island of Hirta, a project led by Illingworth and funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK. Ongoing research for Lesions in the Landscape is presented by Illingworth at each forum and research presentations are given by all invited participants. The Amnesia Forum, Prosthetic Memory: Prosthetic Interference was organised with Roger McKinley in partnership with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool and centred on questions such as: How is embodied memory/perception integral to the functioning of a memory prosthesis? These questions related to four broad areas of focus: memory; technological interfaces; archive and prosthetic memory. Participants included: Shona Illingworth, University of Kent; Stephen Fairclough, Professor of Psychophysiology at Liverpool John Moores University; Michael Mulqueen, Professor of Media and Security Innovation at Liverpool John Moores University; Jill Bennett, Professor and Director of the National Institute for Experimental Arts, UNSW Australia; David Clegg, artist and creator of the Trebus Projects; Mike Stubbs, Director of FACT; Dr Caterina Albano, Reader and curator at Central Saint Martin’s College, University of the Arts London; Steven Bode, Director Film and Video Umbrella; Roger McKinley, Research and innovation Manager, FACT; Dr Sas, School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University; Helen Pynor, artist; Laura Yates, Community Programmer, FACT; Dr Mark Wright, Director of the Research Centre for Creativity and Digital Embodiment, LJMU School of Art and Design, and Andrew Hoskins, Interdisciplinary Research Professor, University of Glasgow