Sat at work before lunch, doodling ideas for the ongoing autobiographical comic strip project - this time based around my time as a student as Worcester, as opposed to previous attempts concentrating on childhood memories of ghost hunting. What has been interesting is the amount of coincidences that seem to be happening based around the idea. No coincidence particularly striking, and don't get me wrong - they ARE just coincidences. The other day I was thinking about a specific concept - of how memory doesn't just re-create something, but forms something entirely new - some things intensified, others glossed over, a sense of intensity given to events that were at the time very mundane. I get home from school (uh... I mean work...) and Andy has bought a book by Oliver Sachs (I can't remember the title). I open the book and the page falls open at a quote by some philosopher I can't now remember explaining (in a far more eloquent way than I have done above) of how memory just doesn't recreate something, but... etc etc. Yesterday I was again pondering over memory, and of how the 'past' seems a constant 'presence' in the present - certain shafts of light, or sounds, or smells will trigger off an almost total immersion in a past event, a kind of 'virtual reality memory'. It sometimes seems as if life is kind of split between the present and the whatever part of the past is currently occupying my imagination - and then, in a magazine in a breakroom, I come across a condition called Hyperthymesia, and, according to the ever reliable source of Wikipedia...
'...the two defining characteristics of hyperthymesia are 1) the person spends an abnormally large amount of time thinking about his or her personal past, and 2) the person has an extraordinary capacity to recall specific events from his or her personal past...'
...which, as a description of myself seems alarmingly accurate. Further internet searches reveal people who see life on two different levels, the present and the past, so days pass by on some kind of split screen. Obviously these are only coincidences, and nothing particularly special, but when I 'started' this autobiographical project, I decided that I wanted an 'occult' side to the project. By this I mean that, as an imaginative exercise, I would try to fool myself into believing that there was a 'paranormal' side to the project, that some kind of 'other' energy was present and being focussed in the work. Lets be clear though. I, in no way believe that there is any 'other' energy present or 'paranormal side' to these cartoons of myself at various stages in my life, but I wanted to see what would happen if I believed there was - or if I pretended there was some 'other' dimension to the project. The idea being that the end result of the project / comic would be far more 'effective' than if I just treated it as just another way to pass the time.
Wednesday 26 October 2011
A Placebo of Hyperthymesic Occultist Comic Strip Autobiography
This isn't a particularly original idea - it's not an original idea at all in fact - both Alan Moore (writer of The Watchmen and V for Vendetta) and Grant Morrison (whose book 'Super Gods' kickstarted this all whole idea) have both had experiences / experiments with comic book occultism. From what I've read of such things, quite often one of the first signs that it is working is a gathering of coincidences.
I'm really getting off the point now aren't I? Anyhow, there I was before lunch doing a cartoon of a specific incident back in my first year of Worcester, when Jim and Dave visited me in my room and were particularly fascinated by a washing line of clothes lain across my floor (don't ask). I stopped in the middle of this cartoon for lunch. As I drew I wondered where Dave was and what he was doing now. Thinking it would be nice to get in contact with him again.
At the cash machine at the miniature Sainsburys near Brighton station I heard someone call my name. I looked up. It was Dave.
I hadn't seen him in years.
Of course all these coincidences should point toward me actually blazing on with renewed enthusiasm for the project, as it seems to be working, but I think I might just, well, have a look at Youtube instead, maybe have a cup of tea, have a lie down, maybe a snooze till that programme I want to watch is on TV later on...
