SchoolArts - December 2007

Memory

Palaces

A memory palace is a memory tool used to remember
information, usually as visual images, in a sequence
that is logical to the person remembering it. In his
book, In the Palaces of Memory, George Johnson calls
them “. . . structure(s) for arranging knowledge.”

Marianne Wood

Last year I attended a session at the Texas Art Education Association’s annual conference entitled Memory, Identity, and the Art Educator. Melinda Mayer talked about the ancient practice of memory palaces and how they connect to the work of museums and galleries today. I tucked this intriguing idea away until today when I presented my Memory Palace art activity to fourth-grade students from Jackson Elementary who had come to tour our galleries last week. As a follow-up to their visit to my workplace, I visited theirs.

I asked students what things they remembered from their tour. I required specific details like color, shape, and size. Then I told the students the basic history of memory palaces, which are mental “structures for arranging knowledge.” Next, we worked as a group to build a memory palace.

With each student imagining his or her own style of palace, I started them off by suggesting that the first room on the right, inside our palace, is a parlor or small living room that had a banner with Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on it.

A student then suggested that the room on the left of the entry was a bedroom that had a bedspread with a zipper across a pair of lips. This

symbol reminds students not to talk when others are speaking. A third room, a kitchen at the back of the palace, had an inscription across the top of the wall: 8 x 8 = 64. Other classes suggested attic rooms and bathrooms with all sorts of information that might be hard to remember.

Next, I showed the students
some examples of palaces: Egyptian,
British, French, and Spanish. After
making sure that they understood
the terms, “palace” and “façade,” I
asked them to create small sketches
of at least three art objects they saw
on their tour of our galleries. They
colored these draw-
ings with markers
and/or crayons, and
cut them out. Then
they cut from
a single sheet

of construction paper a palace façade. I showed them how to cut windows and doors that have hinges and fold out. Once they had cut the façades and openings, they glued their colored sketches under the openings onto 8½ x 11" ( 22 x 28 cm) sheets of 67 lb. paper. Finally, they glued the façades to the paper. If you have a full hour, architectural details can be added with black pens or fine-tipped markers.

One of the teachers, Susan

Walker, suggested adding a writing activity to the art project. Window openings can be the portals for telling a story, perhaps of summer vacation. Lots of connections to language arts, reading, social studies, and art are possible with this lesson.