Experimental set-up:
I am in my studio in Kreuzberg: I leave the building and walk up the hill, Kreuzberg, which is nearby. Having reached the top I look towards my studio and take the same route back. Having returned to the studio I sit at my drawing table and implement my memory of the walk I have just experienced in a blind drawing using both hands at the same time.
It is my aim to express the memory as exactly as possible in the drawing. In order to allow the greatest possible freedom for this process of translation, I draw with my eyes closed. I draw my movements in space, the walking, but also acoustic experiences like traffic noise and aeroplanes, my direction of viewing, leaves in the wind. Visual impressions play a subordinate part.
In the first drawings I cannot remember much of what I experienced or perceived on the walk. This changes, the more frequently I set out. Doing the same thing repeatedly over a longer period of time shows me how my attention is honed and I now perceive things that I did not notice before.
I make a unique observation about the nature of memory: when I try to recall the walk that I have just ended, the first thing that comes to mind is my last translation into drawing, and I can only remember with difficulty what I have just experienced. It is as if my brain were too lazy to remember the impressions of the walk and so it reverts to the last memory instead.
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