Freya Powell

Omniscience and Oblivion explores the way individual memories can speak to shared experience. For the project, Powell created an audio archive where participants were invited to anonymously share, via an online form, one memory they would like to keep forever and one they would like to let go. A range of individuals were recorded each reading a stranger’s memories. In the audio installation, each memory is therefore mediated: by the writer, by the reader, and by the artist’s presentation. 


Excerpt from Powell’s open call for participants:

The river Lethe in Greek mythology is the river of un-mindfulness. It was one of five rivers in the underworld of Hades. Known for giving the gift of oblivion, all of those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness. After drinking they were not to remember their past lives when reincarnated, they would be born anew. The river Mnemosyne was the counterpart to Lethe. Mnemosyne offered to those who drank from it the ability to remember their past lives, forever; infinite memory.

Initiates were offered the choice after death to drink from Lethe or Mnemosyne. Their choice was between omniscience and oblivion; to forever remember or to forever forget.


Performance:
Reading Frequencies: Omniscience
June 12th, 4pm

A hearing-accessible reading performance that draws connections between individual and collective memory through the frequency of word repetition. The performance involves 22 performers who read through a list of words derived from the transcript of Omniscience and Oblivion. The words of the text have been ordered in terms of frequency of occurrence. Starting with the words just used once to the word used most often (22 times). As the word use increases so do the number of readers, resulting in 22 readers speaking the final word in unison.