The Archive
type: CreativeWork
description: The Archive is an installation that considers the human brain’s potential to distort memory over time. Memories from our past can be changed by our current atmosphere, manipulated by our emotions towards the experience, or can altogether be forgotten. Humans explore the world through their eyes, making mental photographs to help them navigate the future through the experiences of their past. However, the human memory is faulty at best. We all have memories stored, false memories that we believe, and we continue to create new memories every moment. This body of work is exploring how the passage of time and the present moment influences our recollection and process of remembering and creating memories. Although distortion of memory is often considered as a negative view, I find the changes and twists in our memory to be beautiful. The Archive is a series of prints that has allome to explore my fears of loss of memory, especially those associated with my childhood. By seeking my past, I am reconnecting and re-remembering, which allows me to create new memories based on the old. I have destroyed photographs and videos of nostalgic moments in my life. I twisted the data to alter the image so that it reflects a fantastical reality, a distorted version of the memory. These images, a far cry from the original memory, are a visual representation of how I imagine my past and, in some works, how I want to remember. They are a beautiful distortion.
abstract: The Archive is an installation that considers the human brain’s potential to distort memory over time. Memories from our past can be changed by our current atmosphere, manipulated by our emotions towards the experience, or can altogether be forgotten. Humans explore the world through their eyes, making mental photographs to help them navigate the future through the experiences of their past. However, the human memory is faulty at best. We all have memories stored, false memories that we believe, and we continue to create new memories every moment. This body of work is exploring how the passage of time and the present moment influences our recollection and process of remembering and creating memories. Although distortion of memory is often considered as a negative view, I find the changes and twists in our memory to be beautiful. The Archive is a series of prints that has allome to explore my fears of loss of memory, especially those associated with my childhood. By seeking my past, I am reconnecting and re-remembering, which allows me to create new memories based on the old. I have destroyed photographs and videos of nostalgic moments in my life. I twisted the data to alter the image so that it reflects a fantastical reality, a distorted version of the memory. These images, a far cry from the original memory, are a visual representation of how I imagine my past and, in some works, how I want to remember. They are a beautiful distortion.
author: Hodge, Hailey Cecilia Christian
keywords: Beauty, Distortion, Fiberglass, Memory, Printmaking, Screenprinting
date published: 2017-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:05:43Z
provider: University of Mississippi
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Mississippi