Shree: Memory

 

Shree: Memory

Memory is about existence. I think the place of memory is to generate a sense of belongingness. It may include any imagination (or reality) of myth, ancestors, environment, actions, self and so on. It remains connected with many other dimensions and many other forms, so connections are searched. Whatever is ‘seen’ is through the aspect of memory, so space and time is also memory. Does space and time “change”? it depends on memory of Being.

At a more daily level, I may see geography as behavioural, experiential, intuitive level. I may also see self and environment as feelings, intellect, emotions, or any of the constructs that get generated. So how does that shape our environment? If all things that I see are roads, motions, sophisticated caves, glass, steel, grey, straight lines, silence, order, control, systems – what sort of influence it has on memory?! Do we get silenced? Do we feel apathy? Are we numbed? And to counter it, do we shout and cause panic to galvanise a mob? In the same way, if I see/ feel trees, meandering things, up and down, roughness, odour, sound, breeze, sun, clouds, sky, slowness, touch – what sort of influence does it have on memory? If I extend this observation to built environment, how does a settlement indicate such behavioral attributes of people?

In planning theories, I think historical analysis will show the idea of movement as a line – on terrain, width, height, proportions, slowness and fastness and the spaces which get organised along this movement. All planning ideas, it seems, may get conceptualized through the idea of movement – be those of people or animals or carts or cars or ships or railways etc. In a nutshell, experience can be spoken through movement.

Hari Om.