The first name I had was my father’s,
given to me by my mother.
In this I had no choice.The second name was yours,
and I made it my own.
The Sherman Thomas archive was a participatory cross-media installation and performance that took place as part of Experimentica 06, a festival of live art at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. Sherman Thomas is a character unable to separate between his own or another person’s memories. His story was told employing performance, audio and video within an organically growing installation to replicate the mechanics of how memories are formed. We asked people to contribute to the archive before and during the event via audio clips and memories on postcards – this content was then mixed into the live installation built over three hours. I co-created the narrative framework for the performance and made physical props, artwork and promotional materials for the project.
This project was a collaboration between Steepways Productions (filmmakers Anne Siegel and Jon Ruddick) and myself.
Interested in memories? Then have a look at my sketch notes of False Memories, a talk by an artist and a psychologist.
