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The artistic practice of Danish artist Helene Nymann addresses the notion of embodied knowledge and the ways in which associative images stimulate memory. Applying mnemonic devices and memory-systems for image-making, Nymann constructs performative environments in which the moving image, sound and sculpture make way for transformative arrays of consciousness, deepening the understanding of the fundamental aspects, by which we process information, store knowledge and create memories for more sustainable futures.
Nymann is currently an artistic research fellow at the Interacting Minds Centre, Department of Anthropology, University of Aarhus, Denmark. Her project “Memories of Sustainable Futures: Remembering in the Digital Age” is supervised by Professor Andreas Roepstorff. In 2018 Helene Nymann is the recipient of the Novo Nordisk Mads Øvlisen grant for artistic research with special mention as well as a fellowship for The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in NYC. Nymann received her MFA from Malmø Art Academy and BFA from Goldsmiths University.
More specifically about my current research. New research in human memory points to the fact that the rapid technological development and our daily use of digital devices are changing how our memory works. We also know the memory is not only stored in our brains but in our surroundings, the people and stimuli we interact with. Thus, how we process and remember information is largely affected by what we engage with and spend time on. However, it seems that the more corporate, political and economic forces disappear behind the interfaces of various technologies, the more they shape our reality and sense of history. Living in the digital age and in a climate emergency, is it not essential that we learn and practice alternative methods for what and how to remember, so as to help us navigate towards more sustainable futures?