The Memory Network

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From Plato's wax tablet and Freud's exploration of the 'mystic writing pad' to contemporary metaphors of digital archives, our understanding of memory has often been shaped by technological models. But in recent years, this understanding has been significantly enhanced through exciting scientific breakthroughs. Writers, critics and academics working in the arts and humanities are now turning to new ways of thinking within biosciences, psychology, mathematics, and computer science to reconsider individual and collective memory in literary narratives. At the same time, many scientists acknowledge the benefits of engaging with creative ideas and the ethical and hermeneutic perspectives offered through fiction and humanities methodologies. The Memory Network (MN) brings together researchers, authors and organisations to provoke and fuel original ways of thinking about memory. Many important contemporary writers are already in a vibrant dialogue with science and offer crucial starting points for the MN's activity: for example, Ian McEwan's and Will Self's research into neuroscience for Saturday (2005) and The Book of Dave (2006); Margaret Atwood's and Kazuo Ishiguro's thinking about the impact of 'the posthuman' upon human memory; Terry Pratchett's quest to understand the effect on his writing of progressive Alzheimer's; and Hanif Kureishi's interest in understanding how matter and mind are related. One of the Network's ambitions is to grow and nurture a community of thinkers interested in cross-disciplinary approaches to memory studies, open to communicating with each other and with the general public. It will also stimulate new creative work and we are particularly keen to actively involve living writers in this community and its various debates. We will encourage a dialogue to develop between the academic community, creative writers and artists, and the general public. Interaction will be encouraged in a number of ways. Firstly, and following an initial symposium called 'The Future of Memory' (funded by the Wellcome Trust), the MN will run a series of free lectures, memory experiments, panel discussions and interactive workshops throughout the first year of the scheme. These events will tackle topics including science and psychogeography, memory, food and phenomenology, memory and new media, memory and prediction, human and artificial intelligence memory, and writing, aging and forgetting. A website called the 'Memory Repository' will support discussion and correspondence between Core Members and the general public in response to these events. Finally, the MN will publish two collaborative works: a 'manifesto' called The Future of Memory: Notes for the New Millennium and an edited collection of essays provisionally titled Memory, Literature and Science.The Memory Network has literary studies at its core, and most of its initial members are based in English departments with an established or emerging research interest in memory and narrative. In addition, key researchers from other disciplines will join as active members or in an advisory capacity. At present the Network is primarily based in contributors from the UK and North America, but an additional aim for its final phase is to critically situate these interdisciplinary investigations in wider contexts with a European and global emphasis, culminating in a major international conference.