Mnemonic Ballet

A memory dollhouse: play with personifications of memory as building blocks of the psyche and time relative to constructivist identity. Memories, the scene itself, the senses and emotions of that moment in time personified as dolls and staging themselves in an abstract dance inside a child’s heart. A classically inspired design piece subject to both open and structured play, a storybook takes the child through this journey as they draw, build and stage their mnemonic dolls using the pieces and props as freely as they dream. The aim is not to remember every detail of memory but to engage with memory critically and time meaningfully. Memories and the times we live (and how we interpret and assign meaning to them) make us who we are and our psyche is a stage for these core memories. From identifying / understanding memory to conceptualising / abstracting interpretations to the amalgamation and internalisation of the personal significance of that memory, how we interact with our memories (metacognitively) further shapes them after their initial formation: memory constructs us as much as we construct it.