Ozymandias

With Emily Orley

A Brief Encounters event

Studio T, Utrecht

May 2011

We explored the 16th Century philosopher Giulio Camillo's concept of the Theatre of Memory using seven buckets and seven pyramids of sand on seven different levels.

Camillo's idea was never realised, but he predicted that when it was finished, the user of his Theatre of Memory would have access to the knowledge of the whole universe. The visitor would be able to stand on the stage and look out into the tiered, semicircular auditorium, which could house memories in a clearly laid-out fashion in seven sections. Each section would in turn have seven arches spanning seven rising tiers. The seven sections were divided according to the seven planets known at the time and represented the divine macrocosm of alchemical astrology. The seven tiers that rose up from them, coded by motifs from classical mythology, represented the seven spheres of the sublunary down to the elementary microcosm.

​

Part of a Shift: Gaps in Memory: Pop-up Performance at PSi#17, Camillo 2.0, Utrecht, directed by P.A. Skantze and Matthew Fink of Four-Second Decay.