Janna Lopez MFA Creative Writing Thesis 2021
Provisional Sound
There are many ways we record and retrieve memories. Ones that embed themselves within the cannon of our lives relate to sound. Sound evokes deeper cellular-saturated recollections beyond time and place. Audio-memories define who we are. They eternally linger through essence. They tug heart vessels and gather warmth when we hear them. They flood with sadness and clarity. Sounds deliver us to undefined internal spaces. We can hear a particular song and it instantly transports us to a setting, to a person, to a life-defining moment. Or perhaps a sound sticks to our consciousness and we feel who we once were. What happens to our minds, our hearts, our experiences, in silence? Where do we go without sounds? Are we lost in silence? Can we fabricate or reconstitute memory through sound? I’m fascinated by questions of where sound ends and memory begins. When does memory become life’s soundscape?