This project is called Mer-Mer.
The name comes from a bit in the book “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto”, by David Shields.
Mer-Mer for a few reasons:
1. “That which we think about but cannot grasp”
The more I learn the larger the unknown appears. It's alright not to know and ignorance shouldn't be debilitating. Just recognize it and keep searching.
2. Semantics and cymatics
Leonard Bernstein gave a televised lecture series called “The Unanswered Question” on musical phonology—the systematic organization of sound in music. He uses the structure of linguistics as a metaphor for the structure of music. Notes as morphemes, chords as phonemes, etc… I like the repition of Mer-Mer as a sound and ambiguity as a word.
3. Memory
Similar to knowing, it's ok to forget. The things which matter stick with you, but memory isn't a harddrive. It's messy and scattered and not 1:1. Because I can't remember the name of this or the form of that doesn't mean it isn't being recalled in other ways.
4. Memoir
Rather than this being an audio project, or visual project, or technology project, I'd like this to be a collection of thoughts or intentions manifested as sound, or motion, or light, or words. What I'm going for is the part that you carry after listening or watching, or something.
Oh, and I have a hyphenated first name, so that's a fun consistency, too. Also, definitely watch those Bernstein lectures.
That's me when I was smaller. Also, instead of a project, let's frame this as practice. It alleviates some of the unnecessary weight associated with “project”.
The name comes from a bit in the book “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto”, by David Shields.
In English, the term memoir comes direcly from the French for memory, mémoire, a word that is derived from the Latin for the same, memoria. And yet more deeply rooted in the word memoir is a far less confident one. Embedded in Latin's memoria is the ancient Greek mermara, itself a derivative of the Indo-European for that which we think about but cannot grasp: mer-mer, “to vividly wonder,” “to be anxious,” “to exhaustingly ponder.”
Mer-Mer for a few reasons:
1. “That which we think about but cannot grasp”
The more I learn the larger the unknown appears. It's alright not to know and ignorance shouldn't be debilitating. Just recognize it and keep searching.
2. Semantics and cymatics
Leonard Bernstein gave a televised lecture series called “The Unanswered Question” on musical phonology—the systematic organization of sound in music. He uses the structure of linguistics as a metaphor for the structure of music. Notes as morphemes, chords as phonemes, etc… I like the repition of Mer-Mer as a sound and ambiguity as a word.
3. Memory
Similar to knowing, it's ok to forget. The things which matter stick with you, but memory isn't a harddrive. It's messy and scattered and not 1:1. Because I can't remember the name of this or the form of that doesn't mean it isn't being recalled in other ways.
4. Memoir
Rather than this being an audio project, or visual project, or technology project, I'd like this to be a collection of thoughts or intentions manifested as sound, or motion, or light, or words. What I'm going for is the part that you carry after listening or watching, or something.
Oh, and I have a hyphenated first name, so that's a fun consistency, too. Also, definitely watch those Bernstein lectures.
That's me when I was smaller. Also, instead of a project, let's frame this as practice. It alleviates some of the unnecessary weight associated with “project”.