Arts of Memory: Public Recollection & Memory
Introduction
Introduction
Before the printing press, the internet, and Siri, people stored large amounts of information in their minds. Lucius Scipio, for example, reportedly remembered the name of every Roman citizen. How could he have done that--if he did do it? One possible technique is called the memory palace. It relies on the mind’s capacities to visualize spaces and create images. People visualize either a building filled with rooms or a pathway with landmarks. Then they create images that they associate with information, and then place those images in the rooms or along the pathway. When they need to recall something, they mentally move through the building or along the road in order to remember the necessary information. In this way, memory becomes deeply intertwined with places and spaces.
This class investigates this connection between place and memory from two different directions. First, we will learn to create memory palaces and use them to recall more information than we could before. You will not only learn the theory, you will learn the technique. Then you will compete in a memory championship that tests your memory. You will memorize shuffled decks of cards, poems, names and numbers. Second, this mnemonic method was linked to specific ways of making arguments. We will also study this method of making arguments and use it to analyze Singaporean public spaces.
Schedule and Structure
Schedule and Structure
The course meets Monday and Thursday from 2-4 p.m.
Monday:
Mondays are dedicated to theory and analysis. We will read theories about argumentative topoi and about the theories that develop the mental topoi in the form of the memory palace. Students will read academic articles or book chapters prior to class. Class time will be dedicated to discussion and case studies.
Thursday:
Thursdays are dedicated to putting the theory into practice. We will develop memory palaces—that is, we will build mental architectures and create images that represent information. Then we will practice these techniques by completing memory tasks such as memorizing cards, poems, names, dates, random numbers, etc.
The last two weeks of the module will be given over to running the memory championship. Each class will be dedicated to a single memory task.
Assessment
Assessment
Two rhetorical analyses of the ways in which a location in Singapore (a memorial, a trail, a museum, etc.) remembers an aspect of Singapore’s history. That is, what argumentative topoi does the location use to persuade its viewer, and what are the effects of these topoi? Each analysis will be 4-6 pages and worth 25% each (totaling 50% of the final grade).
An exam that will require students to use the memory palace in order to complete several memory tasks within an allotted timeframe. Some tasks might, for example, ask students to memorize an unpublished poem, the order of one or more shuffled decks of cards, match a list of names with faces, or memorize a list of random numbers. This exam will take place during the last two weeks of the module (30% of the final grade).
A weekly response journal that chronicles and reflects on the development of your specific memory palace and your training. It also should begin to reflect on the ways that mental places (loci) are related to physical places in Singapore. In other words, how do the theories of mental and physical loci overlap, interact, or engage with each other? The journal will require one entry (300-500 words) per week and will be due each Thursday (20% of final grade).