Encoding

Mixed Media: Acrylic on Canvas, with beads, staples and strips of film negative.

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Encoding is a loosely based conceptual representation on Tulving & Thomas’s Encoding Specificity Principle (1973) about the connections of the emotional and external contexts in how memory is encoded. Music is known as a powerful encoding and retrieval medium for memory.

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The violin's bow also represents the keys of a piano. The film negative strips represent the salient impact of strong emotions, especially negative emotions for memory retrieval. The beads represent the top down and bottom up- processing of perception. Staples represent our unfortunate ability to hold on to the most salient negative memories.