Rooms of the Mind

Rooms of the Mind is a three-dimensional textile work inspired by the diversity of the mind’s responses throughout life, by John Locke’s philosophical thought and by the perspective of cognitive neuroscience.

Its title evokes the construction of a series of “rooms” in which we store experiences and memories. These experiences and memories are kept together with the feelings and emotions they generate. Each time the door to one of these rooms is opened, they trigger a personal or social response, different in every person and shaped by the feelings and emotions stored within it.

John Locke’s philosophical thought leads me to imagine the mind as a collection of empty rooms that gradually become filled. According to Locke, through consciousness, sensations are processed and transformed into knowledge, memories and emotions. In his work, he describes these as “ideas of reflection”.

Reflection.

There are rooms we enter frequently and others we avoid. In the latter, we have not been able, or have not wanted, to go in and “put things in order”, because feelings of anguish can alter our state of rational awareness.

The grids of the three-dimensional textile represent these “rooms” as they are gradually built and “furnished” with sensations and memories. The rooms remain empty, inviting you to recreate your own according to the memories held within each one.

These rooms are connected through elongated formations reminiscent of neurons and the way they function: linked by electrical connections that shape behaviour.