Frozen Memory

(imaginary) pitch to British Library

Frozen Memory Pitch - this was for the pitching excercise to Sybile. Not sure she entirely understood it however… she thought it was all about pavlov and mind control!

Pitchee : British Library

This is a project about two very valuable things: memory, and childhood. It is about communicating to children living now the childhood experiences of older generations who may have grown up in very different circumstances. 

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there was a way of making the making ,say, children really care about the experiences and memories of older, long dead generations. Can you imagine them enthusiastically listening to and engaging with their stories? If this happened, it would forge a link between current generations and the past, and it would widen children’s understanding of the breadth of human experience and the surprising differences and similarities between the ways people have lived in the past and the way we live now.

The British Library has a fantastic resource,  its oral history archive, which stores the memories and experiences of people whose stories might have otherwise been lost.

But how can we make this archive accessible to people who otherwise would be unlikely to engage with it. 

The entire premise of our project is based around a very simple metaphor, that instead of preserving these memories on shelves of audio-tapes, wouldn’t it be really exciting if memories could instead be captured by freezing them in ice-cream. 

As the ice-cream melts in your mouth, the memory is released and comes alive, and in a vibrant multi-sensory way the the original experience of that memory is relayed to you, so for a moment you are connecting yourself.

Unfortunately we haven’t acutally invented a new kind of ice-cream, but our project is a theatrical performance that takes place inside an ice-cream van that can visit schools all over the UK.   Inside this ice-cream van actors will give children special flavours of ice-cream that containing memories, and these memories will come alive through an interactive performance involving film, sound and puppetry.

And forevever after, whenever one of these has a chocolate ice-cream he will remember the stories of the people he encountered in the Frozen Memory Van.

Friday morning session with actors (bronia’s notes)

We used our childs eye view diary entries from Wednesday, read them to the actors and asked them to improvise around the characters of  (a) Sam’s ice cream seller and his role and (b) Bronia’s two characters, Mr Bartailed Goddwitt and Miss Meadow Pippit.

General comments:

The session felt quite awkward in some ways, though some useful things came out of it. At the route of the awkwardness/confusion was the fact that we had written the diaries almost like stories, which might work well if the ‘Ice Cream Memory project’ were to become a film/ tv series/book. But in the reality of a live performance situation, there’s a whole different level of what is ‘safe’ and what is too scarey – it’s not too scary to see kids being bundled into a a strange van if it’s on tv and it’s not real and it’s not happening to you…..But if it is happening to you, it’s a different story.

It was good to have this confusion flagged up as it’s clearly something we need to give a lot of thought to. However probably too much of the session was spent spiralling into anxiety about the scary factor …. Really it’s an elephant we need tackle in the first instance outside of a rehearsal room, when we format the live experience.

Also, Anna asked me directly what I wanted to do in the first place with this project. I answered that at the root of it for me, there was the idea of giving people a magical experience;creating awe and wonder; taking people outside the realm of the everyday in a way that was intimate, special and would make a lasting impression that they could carry and take away with them. Because the project is about the transfer of memory, it’s about making connections between people.

What Anna pointed out which I found particularly useful was that she felt that the van experience should be warm and gentle, engaging, a kind of gentle introduction which can blossom and grow into a satisfying experience.  It should offer people an overall safety and a good experience in this respect. I agree with her and was relived to hear this perspective on the project, as I had felt this idea inside me but not been able to articulate it. This doesn’t mean there can’t be a ‘scary’ element – it just has to be managed in the right way. Also I want the piece to have a warm heart, and not just to offer something which is momentarily thrilling but then fades instantly. 

 Interesting details/questions that came out in the improvisations:

-         motivation for kids to get in the van – if they’ve got ice cream on the brain, will they be able to concentrate on the amazing multi sensory experience?

Do they get the ice cream before/after/during….Ideally during, but will this be distracting?

-         Cautious father: how will we engage PARENTS at festivals? Often they will be the ones that decide whether their family will enter the experience or not.

-         Catherine as the ice cream seller:”Trust me….” – immediately, this sets up the opposite thing, a questioning of whether she is trustworthy

Idea of putting Safety goggles on…

More notes on Friday session with actors (bronia)

-         Catherine’s patter had a riddle-like quality- “never spin….”and this is something I’d be interested in exploring for the character of the ice cream seller. A style of speech which suggests, wisdom, perhaps something of the wise fool / the trickster, eg Feste in Twelth Night. Ben Kingsley is not the best Feste I could hope for but the clip below will do to show the riddles in the language…

-         How  personal is the tone of the memory seller? Should he/she refer to the child’s own memories, eg ‘did you have a favourite pet, what was it etc’. What if difficult memories come up and how do we manage this on the spot?

-         The seller’s role as a ‘reality break’ or reality check – they bring us back down to earth. Paul: idea of the seller’s role as cleaning the palette between courses of ice cream, like a sorbet….

-         The ‘outside the van’ experience seemed formatted, the ‘inside’ experience felt anarchic. Is this what we want?

-         Idea of van as a Tardis (Steve) 

-         How to get the teacher of a class on side and part of the experience. Anna suggested a Pantomime, I like the idea that it can be a quiet experience so in this way I agree, but I don’t think it should be about mocking the teacher or taking away their status – it should be about an equal partnership in which the teacher is respected and engages fully in the experience in a way which benefits them.

Bronia’s notes on Thursday morning discussion

Discussion re Rome project, Hero and antagonist, Antagonist eg Satan in paradise lost, is most interesting character. Further discussion re morality and the two routes the hero can take to get home – collaborative (harder, more rewarding) or selfish (instant gratification, easier, turns hero slowly into a robot?).

Discussion re. Frozen Time. Idea of a “currency” for memories. Is an in depth  memory about the war a different type of ice cream from a simple memory of eating homemade chocolate cake? Eg a double Cornetto versus a mini milk?

Things to look up: Monsters inc (currency idea: neat)

                               The Nation’s Memory Bank (at British library? Ask Tanya)

Bronia does brief pitch to Paul of the project (after forgetting accidentally on purpose to remind him to do it yesterday). It goes something like:

Imagine there was a way to freeze a memory  in time, store it and defrost it later to give it to someone else? What if that memory could be frozen into the form of an ice cream, and actually consumed by an audience member….As the ice cream melts in their mouth, the memory unfolds and they are transported to another place and time where they can experience another person’s memory…….

Positive feedback from this, content roughly speaking is two thirds of what is needed. The other third is about getting the recipient of the pitch to actually care about memories – why should they care? They need to be convinced. 

Read diary entries from previous session and get feedback from Tanya and Paul.

Also Jorg noticed that although we talk about time, the phrase “time travel” has dropped out of both our writing, which is interesting.

Feedback on diary entries leading in to pitching process – think seriously about giving the pitch from a child’s eye perspective, because this voice is strong and emotionally engaging in the diaries. Sam’s phrase about “Memories are very delicate things – they can evaporate if defrosted too quickly…..”- this is the missing third, the thing that makes people care about memories! – so this is to be first phrase of pitch :-) Tanya came up with an idea for the end phrase of the pitch – the idea that every time that child eats a [whatever the flavour] ice cream, they will be taken back to that extraordinary experience they had in the ice cream van when they were exposed to these beautiful/intriguing, multisensory memories……so, that five minute experience has a longer legacy….a powerful afterlife.

Idea that the ice cream van crew are doing something slightly anarchic seems important. (see Bronia’s diary entry).

The ice cream flavours are important, as is the idea that one flavour could contain many memories on a particular topic eg. ‘raspberry embarassments’ (Sam)

Being excited and scared. Tanya pointed out that intrigue and fear are just one continuous line on the same path– and that children love to be scared, no matter what anyone says……so Sam’s stuff about signing a disclaimer, going into a radioactive style chamber etc, could be v. effective, if managed with an awareness of this. 

 There were various ideas about maybe actually giving the recipient an ice cream to eat whilst they are being pitched to. The pitch has to end when they take their final bite!

Thursday late morning discussion and afternoon session with actors (bronia’s notes)

Late morning - Trying to plan what to do with the actors. Difficult and it all seems a bit too like it has to be a sort of scientific experiment which I find confusing. An experiment of this nature would be interesting in its own right but perhaps won’t tell us that much about how to take our project forward? Not sure.

Come up with a plan:

Exercise 1: Play Martin (waiter from the hotel)’s memory to the actors. Ask 2 of them to improvise a version of that scene. Then, ask them to do scene again with support of two more actors to enrich the scene.

Exercise 2: have 3 actors narrating/acting out memories on one topic eg. childhood, 4^th actor to ‘channel hop’ and flick between  the memories, whichever memory is chosen can use words as well as actions, the other two will be in the background

After lunch: session with actors.

We used our plan for the session with added elements suggested by Anna Justice as director.

Ex.1: We played Martin’s memory to the actors.

Sophia narrated an improvised version of the memory, Ed played Martin and Chris was the Grandfather. They created the atmosphere of peace and stillness v. effectively in a minimal way, lots of nice details, eg making a wooden whistle and playing it in the wood. The actual sounds of the real river/wood outside could be heard through the open door and this contributed a lot to the retelling of the memory.

-         Importance of showing more than is told – Sophia sat near front and couldn’t see Ed and Chris for the first part of the narration. They did the things she talked about, but added much more in actions and ideas, so it became very rich just from this even. The narration and action responded to each other, no one was leading all the time….which I think is part of what gives it energy, unpredictable next move etc.

-         We tried a retelling with added sound effects from the other actors, which was quite interesting to try but perhaps wasn’t totally necessary…. As the first time round there was already plenty going on in the scene.

Ex. 2

Sophia, Chris, and Ed all stood in the space. Catherine sat at the front with the switch/remote control to flick between memories. We asked Sophia, Chris, and Ed  each to narrate a childhood memory out loud, when Catherine ‘switched them on’ and to continue to mime it when she flicked the switch to someone else. Steve was a floating element who would attach himself to whichever memory was the main focus of attention.

-This exercise really stood out as successful firstly because we were so bowled over by how brilliantly the actors did it, and that they managed to get it to flow so well and sustained it for so long. 

-         All the memories were realistic things (first cigarette, bullying, new pet, death of a pet, death of a friend, birthday party…) and were all very engaging.

-         The experience for us as an audience was very instant, very direct, and it did make me feel aware of how much work there is to do to get this kind of connection across using other media such as puppets and film. I think it is very possible to do – just aware of how carefully it needs to be directed, and how the emotional connection with the memory is the most important thing – not how cleverly the puppet is constructed etc.  

-         It was all really good but a few standout moments were: Sophia turning to the audience to narrate (3^rd person) and flicking straight back in to character and acting 1^st person. Shift in focus at unexpected points helped to keep engagement. Catherine seemed to pick the perfect moment every time to switch to another memory – and this kept the flow going.

-         Themes started to develop – a connection between animal stories, and stories about loss.This led to discussion about how will be deal with sad/difficult memories? Will anyone want a ‘sad’ ice cream flavour?

Bronia’s (fictional) user’s diary

Paul set us an excercise to write a fictional diary from a users perspective - written after experiencing our project. Here is Bronia’s one:

Today an ice cream van came to our school.

 I saw it first because I was late hanging up my coat on the pegs by the window in the corridor and I saw them through the window. They drove in to the playground which is normally not allowed unless you have a special reason, like when it was the weekend and my mum had a stall at the school carboot sale and then we were allowed to come in the playground in a car. I told Miss James and she said it was ok they were the theatre company so it was allowed.   The ice cream van parked in the playground and Miss James sent me and Josh and Eve to meet them and show them how to get to our classroom. I was excited but a bit scared because I didn’t know what they would be like but I wanted to see what the van looked like up close and I wanted to get an ice cream

When we got there, there was a man and he had big flying goggles on and a hat like a pilot with ear flaps. He said his name was Victor Bartailed-Godwitt and asked us the name of our school. He had a video camera and he was filming us and filming everything all the time, and he was talking in to a microphone and saying what he was doing and what we were doing. There was a woman too, she was friendly and had lots of coloured boxes with her and we had to help her carry them to the classroom. She had a sketchbook and I could see it was covered in postcards of different places and drawings. Her name was Miss Meadow-Pippit. She was drawing in it and making notes all the time, and talking to us and asking about us as well. She was a bit crazy and was even trying to write notes whilst we were walking along.

 When we got to the classroom, Miss James told us to get the teacher’s comfy chairs for the ice cream people and put them on the carpet. Then we all sat on the carpet with them. Victor Bartailed-Godwitt took his goggles off and said what a long journey it had been. Miss Meadow-Pippit opened one of the coloured boxes and took out a box with a screen in it. It looked a bit like a television but brightly coloured. She turned on the screen and it showed us their journey in the ice cream van to come to our school. They had been all over the place, including the top of a mountain in Wales and to a castle in Scotland as well. At first I thought it was all made up but then on the film they drove past our local park and they went past my house too! They even showed on the film them driving in to our car park. 

Victor and Miss Meadow- Pippit explained that they had come up with an amazing invention for freezing memories in time by using ice cream. They were collecting memories from all over the place and freezing them, and then taking the memories in the van to schools and showing them to other people. Everyday they were coming up with new flavours of ice cream, because there were so many memories.

 Victor flicked a switch and showed us on the screen a drawing of how the time freezing machine was designed, he was very excited about it.  He showed us where the memories go in and how they get processed. 

Sam’s fictional user’s diary

I had a fantastic day at the Hayfields festival. The best thing I saw was The Frozen Memory Van.At first I thought this was a normal Ice Cream Van but I could see straightaway that there was something slightly different about it. For one thing there seemed to be a lot of people waiting outside it but they didn’t look like they were waiting to be served - more like they were waiting for something to happen, and occasionally I could see that the back door of the van would open and a bewildered looking person would climb out. Plus there seemed to be a strange glow coming from the windows and I could see the silhouettes of small figures moving inside. 

So I took dad’s hand and said “Let’s take a look - there is something going on over there”, and we moved closer. 

Now I could see that outside the van was a sandwich board advertising several flavors of frozen memory : 

Mint-Choc-Childhood , Strawberry-First-Kiss-Sundae, Vanilla-Toffee-Travels, Raspberry-Embarrassments and several others..

The Memory Seller saw me looking at the sign and caught my eye. “Delicious memories for sale -” he called out, “Beautiful memories.Would you care to try one?”

Well my curiosity was aroused - so I asked for a Mint-Choc-Childhood. Before I had time to reconsider, the pound coin in my hand had been exchanged for a token with a number written on it. 

“Memories are very delicate things,” the seller explained.. “and if defrosted in normal circumstances they have a tendency to evaporate and hence are immediately forgotten.”

Fortunately, as it turned out, the Memory Seller had invented a special Reminiscence Chamber inside which frozen memories could be de-thawed with almost no risk of adverse affects. This chamber, he hastily continued,  was the first and only of its kind, and was large enough to accommodate both myself and Dad, and we would only have to wait a few minutes before it would be our turn to enter. 

And indeed, just a few moments later, the light above the door to the back of the van turned from red to green and the door slid open. A woman with a clipboard and a white scientists’ coat helped three people out of the chamber that looked very dark inside. I caught a brief glimpse of some absolutely fantastic looking cogs before the curtain was quickly drawn shut. 

The woman glanced at her clipboard then called out impatiently:

“Number 47? 47? Mint-Choc-Childhood?”

I gave her the token and she ushered us into the dimly lit chamber. She opened a small cupboard from which came a bright yellowish light and a fair amount of smoke and she took from inside two tubs of Frozen Memory. She handed these to us and then quickly explained that as “memory freezing and subsequent release was still something of an experimental, imperfect science, repeated exposure to high doses of memory could sometimes cause minor headaches and very very occasionally some rather more serious side effects”. Therefore she would not be staying with us inside the Reminiscence Chamber, and she could only guarantee our absolute safety for a period of not more than three minutes. Please could we be careful to make sure she had completely left the chamber before opening out Frozen Memories, which would, she assured us, be quite delicious. Furthermore  would we please sign a waiver indicating that if after our time in the chamber we found we had difficulty remembering trivial pieces of information such as the names of our parents, then we would not blame the Frozen Memory Company in any way and we would also promise to absolutely not contact any troublesome organizations such as consumer watchdogs or the police..

As soon as I lifted the pen from the page she whisked it from my hand and rushed out closing the door behind her.

The lights dimmed until it became very dark inside the chamber, and I took my first bite of Frozen Memory with a great feeling of anticipation.  

In fact it tasted rather like regular Mint-Choc-Chip ice cream - and I was a little underwhelmed. However then I noticed I could hear some sounds like the murmurings of many voices or whispers. And on the surface in front of me I could see some faint faces appearing. I touched one of these faces and it immediately became brighter and the chamber became filled with the sound of an elderly voice:

“I grew up in a big city, Berlin” said the voice “and my grandfather lived in a small village in the countryside. He was my idol and I loved to visit him. I loved the sounds of nature where he lived and to go fishing with him on the lake..”

As I listened to this voice I noticed that the sounds of water and of nature had also started to permeate the chamber. A light lit up in one corner and I saw a scene in front of me of a small child in a rowing boat with an old man.

But then the speaking face went faint and the voice became very quiet and the light went dim again, and a second voice began to speak…

I listened to many of these voices and found I could listen to one I liked for longer by touching their face on the surface in front of me. It was a magical experience, and as each voice spoke, the memory they were narrating seemed to unfold around me as If I was actually seeing and hearing fragments of their original experience.  

Then, suddenly, a red light began to flash and there was a sound like a fog horn. A sign with the words “MEMORY OVERLOAD”  written on it in dramatic letters began to flash. The door to the chamber opened and the woman in the white coat beckoned to us, looking rather flustered.. 

“Quick”, she said anxiously, “come out and get some fresh air.. take some deep breathes..I think we are just in time. You should be fine. Yes that’s it. Now, tell me what is your name again? You do remember don’t you?”

Fortunately I did remember, and I told her so. She seemed very relieved.