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THE SPOTLESS MIND

The wish to forget about things is very common in all of us. How memory and the loss of it works is not that well researched yet. In Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) two former lovers undergo a procedure that erases the memory of their relationship. French artist Sophie Calle regularly deals with the subject of pain and the memory of it, such as in her project Douleur Exquise (1984-2003). An article published in Wired (UK edition / April 2012) gives very interesting insights on how science has been trying to find solutions to deal with trauma and it reveals some astonishing facts about what’s going on in your brain when you remember something. For example, every time you access a memory it is rewritten in your brain. The result is a dynamic one: every time you relive or retell the memory it changes – but you don’t realise it. A pill that lets you forget bad memories is being developed right now – until it’s available you’ll have to stick to smoking weed to get the effect.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michel Gondry 2004
Sophie Calle: Douleur Exquise, 1984-2003