Pondering the Artist Book

Theming this artist book has been a very difficult task for me. As someone who likes to draw and paint, doing art with photographs is something that I feel will be challenging. As we were listening to our guests speak about the different techniques for manipulating and using photographs, as well as listening to Dawn talk about examples and what to do/what not to do, I feel a bit more confident in my idea of an artists book. I plan to somehow relate this book to what I'm studying now - biology and chemistry, mainly - and feel as if I can do this in a few ways. My general idea is to focus on how the brain categorizes and processes images and memories. To do this, I will focus on each of the themes that we cover in our class, one page or a spread devoted to each of these themes: 1. History of Theories of Memory/Studies and History of Photography, 2. 

Personal/Autobiographical Memory, Part 1 – Development of Identity and Your Story, Voluntary/Involuntary Memory, 3. Personal/Autobiographical Memory, Part 2 - Thinking Photography (Roland Barthes - Studium/Punctum, time, history, memory, 4. Socialization and the Sharing of Your Story, 5. Memorializing - Memory and Objects/Memory for Special Occasions/Flashbulb Memory, 6. Collective Memory/Archive/Hisory, Cultural Differences in Memory and Photographs, 7. Memory/Time/Perception - Amnesia and Memory Reactivated/Recovered - Cinema and Still Photography, 8. memory and Testimony - Eyewitness Memory/Typologies/Photojournalism, 9. Memory and Trauma - Recovered Memory/False Memory, and 10. Photograph and Everyday Memory in the Digital Age. The corresponding photographs will not cover every aspect of these themes, but I am going to try and include as much as I can.I also would like to incorporate how the brain processes memory and photograph at the beginning of the book.

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he general layout of my book is going to be a journey through the mind and through our class and what we've learned. The first page will have a photo of someone with an exasperated or overwhelmed facial expression tape transfered over an assortment of photographs (small and collaged in a haphazard manner) as well as with some letters, numbers, and symbols thrown in there. The next pages will be devoted to how memory flows through the mind, perhaps with a picture of someone superimposed over a picture of the brain with arrows indicating the flow of information when it comes to processing memory and processing images; possibly, these would be next to each other to show how they are different/similar. The next pages will be a progression through the class, including the theories we have learned about how we process information and how memory and photograph contribute to our development and our personalities. Throughout this book, I plan to use textures to evoke feelings. Then, the last page will be a picture of the same person looking relieved tape transfered over the same assortment of photographs, letters, symbols, and numbers - except they will all be organized, as if through viewing this artist book the person has learned how to better organize and interpret their thoughts when it comes to memory and photograph.