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Author
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Comment
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midori
Unregistered User
(3/31/05 3:08 pm)
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knotted strings and other things
Hello all,
I am just wondering if anyone has any examples of the coded mnemonic devices used for story telling. I have the khipu...the Incan story strings, I know the Yoruba use a similiar knotted string device...Hawaiian's use a form of cats cradle.
Hmmm...aren't there versions of the knotted story strings among Native Americans? Aborigines?
Also anybody know much about "story sticks" that seem to have the same function?
Thanks!
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Chris
Peltier
Registered User
(3/31/05 3:33 pm)
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Re: knotted strings and other things
In his book Aegypt, John Crowley writes about the medieval memory device used by monks called ars memoria (art of memory). In order to remember long passages from the Bible, or perhaps a complex sermon on the seven deadly sins, monks would build "memory palaces", and decorate them with various colorful devices that would prompt their memory. For example, in his mind a monk might "build" a wing to his memory palace for the above sermon, and in a alcove he would place a green head with a snake for a tongue to represent the sin of jealousy.
~Chandra~
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(3/31/05 7:08 pm)
ezSupporter
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Re: knotted strings and other things
wow...thank you for reminding me of this...I immediately went and googled the term and found a wonderfully odd and lovely site:
imaginarymuseum.org/AMS/
someone has developed their own system...
actually the whole imaginary museum site of Dutch artist Tjebbe van Tijen is pretty astonishing
imaginarymuseum.org/
Edited by: midori snyder at: 3/31/05 7:17 pm
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Chris
Peltier
Registered User
(3/31/05 9:46 pm)
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Re: knotted strings and other things
That is a pretty intense site!
I also found this link about storytelling sticks, and how to make them at:
www.callofstory.org/en/fa...-stick.asp
Can you tell us a bit more what your article is about - it sounds really interesting!
~Chandra~
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(4/1/05 7:41 am)
ezSupporter
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Re: knotted strings and other things
Well this is really part of an introduction to an article for the
Spring issue of Endicott's
Journal of Mythic Arts. I write the "Crossroads" column
which looks at contemporary mixed media and performance based uses
of myth and narrative. I am working on an article on Born
Magazine's web site and their new huge art installation project
called "Help Wanted" which explores interactive storytelling,
art and computer technology. I was thinking about the evolution
of storytelling techniques--the tangible and intangible ways we
remember stories and recount them. I have been reading Gary
Urton--a Macarthur recipient for his work with the Inka "Khipu"
(Urton prefers the Inka spelling for Inca because he argues its
closer to the Quechua) a complicated language system coded in knots
on different colored strings. He argues it is a form of a binary
code (I've seen an interesting comparison of this idea to Native
American Wampum--those beaded belts also seem to encode text in
dark and light colored beads)--so it makes a nice seque in the introduction
to move from the binary mnemonic story telling device of the Khipus
to the binary strings of code that create Flash films and interactive
web design--the tools of Born Magazine's storytelling. The art installation
project brings the audience into even closer proximity to this interaction
with text, code, visual art and story.
Whew...I'll let you know when the article goes live on Endicott...I am hoping to have a short film from the installation on the site.
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VanTijen
Registered User
(4/12/05 7:11 am)
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Re: knotted strings and other things
For mnemonic devices and story telling you may like to check out a design for a big instllation once (2000) made for the Berliner Festspiele which had the name "The true source of religion". One of the interfaces was a series of stones whereby each ot them linked to a primordial myth.
imaginarymuseum.org/IMP2/index.html
This is based on a working installation made in 1998 and shown in Tokyo, the InterCommunication center... under the name 'Neo-Shamanism'. There are pictures of it at the following link
imaginarymuseum.org/IMP1/index.html
You need to scroll sideways (and as it is a heavy web page please be patient and led it load first).
An article of mine that mentions menomics and story telling is 'Ars oblivivendi' the art of forgetting.. can be found at
www.iisg.nl:80/%7Etvt/tijen01.html
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Midori
Unregistered User
(4/12/05 11:56 am)
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gasps
Wow...I am utterly astonished that you found us here! Thank you so much for replying and what wonderful links. I so enjoyed perusing your site.
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Aboshi
Unregistered User
(4/12/05 1:04 pm)
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I'm sorry it's so off topic...
Hey, I'm new here and I'm thinking about joining. I'm sorry this post totally doesn't fit here but:
Midori, Where can I get your "Jack Straw" story? You've mentioned it on one old "Godfather Death" topic and I really wish to read it. Is it possible to get a copy of it or to find it somewhere?
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(4/12/05 1:58 pm)
ezSupporter
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Re: I'm sorry it's so off topic...
Yes...though you will have to look for it in the library. It's in an anthology edited by Jane Yolen and Martin Greenberg titled "Things That GO Bump In The Night". I know it was reprinted in Datlow and Windling's "Years Best Fantasy and Horror"...but I can't remember which volume right now.
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(4/12/05 2:31 pm)
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Re: I'm sorry it's so off topic...
Midori, according to Locus it's the Third
Annual volume.
http://www.locusmag.com/index/s701.html
Heidi
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(4/12/05 3:43 pm)
ezSupporter
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Re: I'm sorry it's so off topic...
Ah..thanks Heidi.
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avalondeb
Registered User
(4/12/05 7:58 pm)
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Re: I'm sorry it's so off topic...
I'm not sure this is what you are looking for, but some of the Psalms in the Bible book of Psalms use the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as a memory aid. Check out Psalms 119. It has 176 verses, 8 verses per letter of the alphabet.
That is the only one that comes to mind right now, but I'm almost certain that more Psalms use this type of memory system, although maybe not the entire alphabet.
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