Since 2012 the artist and Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow A.R. Hopwood, has been collecting 'false' and 'non-believed' memories from the public as part of his national touring exhibition and events series, The False Memory Archive. The collection has now been edited and themed by Hopwood for a new anthology publication that will feature reflections on the archive from renowned psychologists Professor Elizabeth Loftus and Professor Christopher French.

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The archive submissions follow a pattern: a memory is described, only to be undone by evidence that the recollection is faulty or by a suspicion that the experience never actually happened. The memories are in turn surreal, everyday, humorous and chilling – most are harmless insights into the fallibility of memory, while others resonate with real world consequences for those implicated in the false recollection.

 

The archive is themed in a loose chronology starting with ‘Pre-Birth’ memories and ending in misremembered anecdotes about death. In between, we hear false memories about family members, friends, animals, ghosts, sexual encounters, world events, illnesses, fights, accidents and flying. This extraordinary, intimate and compelling archive takes the reader on an uncanny journey through the shifting sands of autobiographical memory.