THE FALSE MEMORY ARCHIVE - A PROPOSAL TO WELLCOME LIBRARY

 

The False Memory Archive is a successful, high profile art/science project. The UK national tour attracted an audience of 18191, while grabbing the attention of arts and mainstream media outlets from across the world. It is a project that will continue to evolve through the Wellcome Collection's States of Mind exhibition and through future international tours. The False Memory Archive Anthology publication was launched in 2016 and the musician Evelien Van Den Broek is writing a new album and performance that uses a selection of submissions to the archive - the project will tour Holland in 2016/17 and hopefully the UK in 2017/18.

 

The Wellcome Trust co-funded the research and production of the project with a small arts award. Arts Council England and Creative Scotland funded costs of the national tour. A.R. Hopwood has since become a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow and he would like to offer Wellcome Library / Special Collections an opportunity to acquire the existing works from the project for a substantial discount. A breakdown of the acquisition cost is provided on the downloadable PDF below.

 

A.R. Hopwood would be interested in working with the library and the special collections team to produce a series of public projects that highlight the acquisition. There would be a number of opportunities to exhibit individual works from in the library and reading room and to instigate new collaborations. Future displays of the project would also serve as a valuable public engagement exercise for the library and Hopwood is interested in working with the library team to create new projects from the library archives that explore the nature of memory and forgetting; in particular an exploration of 'unknown' art works currently in the collection, would be a fascinating starting point to this process.

 

As well as acquiring the art works and original public submissions, the collection would also include copies of press and media coverage, full documentation of the tour and events series and digital versions of unseen ideas and artworks developed by Hopwood during the project. He would work with the library to provide an accessible digital archive for the public to view and use. This acquisition would give the library an exciting opportunity to play a key role in memorialising a fascinating collection of 'non-memories' for the public.