Establishment of space in autobiographical memory and spatial situations: A research through cinematographic and literary works

How do we remember spaces? Could the way they continue to exist within us in our memory tell us something about the perception and the experience of space? The perception and the experience of space have been a frequent interest for architectural design studies; discovering the correlation of space with time and with person, laying emphasis on subjectivity, praising the 'moment', the 'movement', the 'event'. Yet, a wide range of them is in tendancy to exclude the personal memory of the person perceiving and experiencing, which plainly leaves the 'self' out of the context. Although there are abundant studies on collective and/or urban memory, it is rarely encountered that personal memory is a part of these research or it is the main research interest in architectural design studies. This thesis study aims to discover the human personal memory and its relation with space and architecture, both with the experience and the production of it. The study investigates it through the effects of some components of the physical space thought to contribute to the experience and to the establishment of space in memory, and to discuss the memory-space relation and the experience of space within the context of this relation. Memory is the whole of one's past experiences, learned knowledge, habits, past events and so on. The knowledge of this whole is stored in the form of patterns they compose with each other. It is known that as new data added with each new moment, memory uninterruptedly re-established as a whole. Not only does each new experience re-establish the memory, memory also shapes the experience at hand through perception. Consequently, to discuss the spatial experience it is explicitly crucial to have a deep understanding of human memory and its engagement with perception and experience. As carrying on with research, memory does not seem to belong to or to be about one's past anymore, but more about the whole of past, present and future, more about connecting the past and the future at 'now'. However the question may be how do we remember spaces that had been experienced in the past, it is asked for a better understanding of the present and the future –the forthcoming present. If it is known that the unique memory of a person comprised of the knowledge gained through the past experiences is carried towards present by perception; then it is possible to think that what they are living, talking, designing or producing, what they encounter and what they learn will not be independent of their representations in the memory. This argument suggests each production as autobiographical, produced as an extension of one's self. The fact that productions cannot be independent of one's unique and exclusive memory, constitutes an important context for architectural design process and architectural education. A literature review on memory in the history of psychology and philosophy showed that there are various types of memory, and autobiographical memory is the one that comprises of a person's phenomenal experiences relevant to the 'self', hence triggered the re-composing of the research question of the study. Autobiographical memory, a particular fraction of human memory of the information of phenomenal experience and the thematic knowledge surrounding it, involving the spatial information in its functioning could deliver better asked questions on the subject. However, the encoding and remembering or recollecting occure together with the spatial information not only in the functioning of autobiographical memory but of human memory in general. Space has became the focus of the mnemonic studies and everyday use techniques since the Ancient Age as the early discoveries of the encoding of an experience in memory accures in relation to time and space, moreover the spatial knowledge has positive effects on remembering. The relationship of the memory to the space is also present in the different processes of the memory, in spite of its strong establishment in experience; it is possible to see the relationship between memory and space as well in motor skills, a type of memory which enables us to find our way home without consciously endeavouring to. This thesis study will examine how the spaces are encoded and remembered in memory through selected components of the physical space called 'spatial situations', focusing specially on the functioning and features of the autobiographical memory, where knowledge of past experiences and data surrounding it related to the self are stored. Each experience of space, the encounter of a person and a space is unique; the countless elements both the space and the person holds in one single moment or a duration make the experience unrecurrent. The time layers of a person have variables such as senses, feelings and actions that are shaped by the re-established memories of the time layers of one's time, with physical elements such as visible or invisible physical elements, objects etc. Hence, the experience of space could be seen as the encounter of a time layer of a person with a time layer of a space. Space relates with time through movement; of air, light, sounds, bodies, objects and so on. This relation is possible through the openings of the physical space, connecting/opening it to outer space and other spaces. Doors, windows, corridors and stairs, the building components of the physical space are the spatial situation sources through which the effects of establishing the memory of the space will be examined in this study. The assertion is that these building components will provide data about the memory and space relations via the contributions they make to the experience of space because they relate the space to outside and to other spaces, thus create spatial situations which accommodate movement. However, the fact that the information that can be linked to the existing information in the memory is part of the permanent memory, by virtue of the frequent occurrence of the components of the spaces, indicates that the multiplicity of information available about these components increases the probability that the new information can be linked to the existing whole. On the other hand, objects, people, events, senses, actions, thoughts can be originated from person and/or space that make it possible to make the experience unique through customizing, enriching, differentiating the experience. In this thesis study, the situations where the potentials created by the elements of the physical space resulting with the customisation of experience will be searched, and their effects on the experience, hence the establishment of memory of space will be examined. It makes it possible for the experience to involve all elements related or unrelated to it in the images by linking them to the existing data in the memory, that is, to be able to remain in memory. The recalling of the data, in other words remembering it, may be voluntarily or involuntarily by reaching the links of these elements. The elements of experience therefore constitute the prerogative of remembering. In the thesis study, which is based on the argument where the mentioned spatial situations have effects of different qualities on the establishment of the memory of space, a literature review together with ideas and statements are shared on memory and spatial situations, and afterwards all these are discussed through the examinations of selected cinematographic and literary works. For being autobiographical productions and for their confrontation as strong memory representations with similar and different qualities provided by cinema and literature, these examinations will allow to overcome the difficulties of discussion grounded on a subjective and unstable natured knowledge. In the examination of selected cinematographic and literary works, it will be sought to play a role in the memory and recollection of the spatialization of space experiences through the spatial situations. Two selected works to be examined in the study are Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) movie and the autobiographical essay on writer's childhood memoirs A Sketch of the Past (1985) by Virginia Woolf. The decision of the works to be examined is made seeking for oppositions to bring varying potentials to the discussion; even though one of them being a cinematographic and the other one being a literary work provide this comprehensively, adding the difference of fiction versus autobiography has provided drastic potential as well. The two works are deconstructed in order to extract data on how the establishment of space occurs through spatial situations. The productions on works are then re-read relating the theoretical knowledge and discussions on functioning of autobiographical memory and spatial situations.