Reading on memories and trauma
Ideas about representing fragments of unintegrated (or integrated) experiences
Source: VAN DER KOLK, B. A., and ONNO VAN DER HART. “The Intrusive Past: The Flexibility of Memory and the Engraving of Trauma.” American Imago, vol. 48, no. 4, 1991, pp. 425–54. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26303922. Accessed 13 Oct. 2023.
"Who can find a proper grave for the damaged mosaics of the mind, where they may rest in pieces" - Lawrence Danger
Source: The Body Keeps the Score
I've been reading the book 'The Body Keeps the Score' by Neuroscientist Bessel Van de Kolk.
"Maybe the issue is not desensitisation but integration: putting the traumatic event into its proper place in the overall arc of one's life".
I'm interested in the idea of fragments of memories that can flash back into consciousness and what triggers this. When we consider events, and how they fit within the over 'arc of one's life' we could see, in visual terms, opposing memories creating different marks, colours and forms on paper.
I thought back to my conversations with an art therapist when she mentioned how fragmented memories often create fragmented marks.
Some memories holds more painful weight and perhaps this is why the image of them reoccur, but that image isn't necessarily whole or formed. It's interesting to consider how this could translate to paper.
Source: Somatic Art Therapy : Alleviating Pain and Trauma Through Art by Johanne Hamel PUBLISHER Taylor & Francis Group
I've been reading more about somatic art making for the dual purpose of supporting my own practice but also for following a line of enquiry for my research paper.
"A person freezes when trapped in a traumatic situation from which it's impossible to escape. Van de Kolk (1996) has demonstrated that it s the left side of the brain responsible for speed and language, and especially the Broca's area, which freezes, while the right side of the brain shows more activity, especially in the limbic area and the amygdala (the major processing centre for emotions)". (the left/right side of the brain theory is as I underhand it, undergoing questioning and research).
I've been working in a process led way for some time and have become intrigued with the impact of drawing on the body - and the connection between body and mind through art making.
I've noticed symptoms arising during and after I've been drawing and was curious to find out why I was experiencing these. I started reading a few books on the subject of memory storage and how the 'the body keeps the score' of certain events that, at the time of being experienced, caused the body to enter an intense state of 'fight or flight'.
I've learnt some really interesting and useful info about the neurological mechanisms that process our memories and experiences and this helps me understand my work more, but also help me to find ways of communicating something in my work that touches of aspects of my lived experience in a way that feels protected and not exposing.
Source: Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing
Cornelia Elbrecht
Publisher - North Atlantic Books
Implicit memory is a vast hidden landscape that influences our core emotions.
Hidden landscapes are strong theme in my work, and my paintings are often a combination of real and imagined places that could be both physical and psychological at the same time. People and figures interact with the landscapes and I've been really enjoying continuing my experiments working in this way.
How to portray memory integration through painting and drawing?
I began thinking about the nervous system and how certain actions or activities affect it. I've learnt that the whole body can be impacted by experiences and that these experiences can be held in the body's systems, manifesting in a multitude of physiological ways. It made me think about what actions/activities we steer towards and away from to protect ourselves and balance or counter our experiences. I recognise that this is something I've always done but not always been aware of at the time. I can see that I have repeated certain actions almost as rituals and also that I have strong avoidance to the memories of other repeated actions that were painful or not welcome when I experienced them.
I also contemplate the repeated actions of people around me that followed the same pattern and as I think of these, I picture these all visually - like a set of frames that move around one another, collide and shift. I can see how this would work on paper, with layers and overlaps - with drawings over drawings on different textured paper.
With this idea of repetition, visits, ritualistic actions - I want to find a way to render repeated images on paper, and with layering or materials and forms (and possibly paper) to illustrate the idea of memories embedding, crossing over and over lapping etc. I've decided to try a couple of techniques: carbon paper mono printing and different ways of masking. I'm also planning in trying some transferring of photos using a transfer solution (for January now) I've not done either of these before so I'm intrigued by what effects can be created.
Book: In THE RHYME AND REASON OF RITUAL MAKING by Jeltje Gordon-Lennox
Ref to Peter A. Levine.
Levine developed Somatic Experiencing (SE), a naturalistic approach to the treatment of trauma based on the observation that wild prey animals, in spite of being repeatedly threatened, are rarely traumatized. According to Levine, the symptoms of trauma are not caused by the dangerous event itself, but by our reaction to it. The reaction may be a debilitating ‘large-T’ trauma or a seemingly inconsequential ‘small-t’ trauma. The symptoms of trauma may arise soon after the event or even much later. They are caused by the residual energy of the reaction when it is not discharged from the body. Levine describes traumatic memories as being implicit and stored in the body and the brain as automatic or ‘procedural’ sensations, emotions and behaviours. Trauma cannot be cured by advice, drugs or understanding, observes Levine, but it can be ‘renegotiated’ – rather than relived – by accessing procedural memories. ‘Pendulation’ is a fundamental SE concept used in resolving implicit traumatic memories. It involves touching on the inner sensations and then learning how to carefully access this ‘felt sense’ and to tolerate the feelings by noticing that one can survive them (Levine 2015, pp.xv, xvi, 38, 55).
Emerging Ritual in Secular Societies : A Transdisciplinary Conversation, edited by Jeltje Gordon-Lennox, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=4773942.
Created from ual on 2023-08-30 13:32:09.
Source: Schlichting ML, Preston AR. Memory integration: neural mechanisms and implications for behavior. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2015 Feb;1:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.07.005. PMID: 25750931; PMCID: PMC4346341.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4346341/#:~:text=Memory%20integration%20refers%20to%20the,novel%20information%20(Figure%201a).