Oculus

 


 

Part 3 Mnemosyne
On the nature of images and memory.

The pre-literate Greeks held a belief in the Titan goddess Mnemosyne. Created in a union between Uranus, god of the sky and Gaia, goddess of the earth, she emerges out of the dark recesses of pre-history to illuminate an all but forgotten oral tradition dating back perhaps as far as the late Neolithic. Few details have survived, but commentary from the early historical era described her as the goddess of memory; inventor of reason and language. The ability to reason, to recite words and speak well, were commonly attributed to her. Today, she remains emblematic of the way early Greeks conceptualized their world. That memory, reason and language might exist as a force outside ourselves, beyond our control may seem strange; yet the notion that ideas and concepts can have a life outside the mind is a powerful one–for it allows culture itself to exist. As the inventor of language and rationality, and the giver of memory, she was the apparition that set the ancient Aegean on a dimly lit path toward civilization. In the Bronze Age, she was embraced when a new pantheon of gods arose. Ancient Greek myths tell us that she slept with the Olympian god Zeus on nine consecutive nights and gave birth to the nine Muses. Today, we can say with certainty: Human creativity is born out of our use of memory, language and reason–and we can remember that it was to Mnemosyne that these attributes were first ascribed.

Oculus, a photographic book about images, memory, and the metaphor of light.

96 pages; 35 plates.
Published by Noorderlicht.

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