The Recording Needle

“Life is enslaved to the passage of time, except for this moment which is free” – Unknown

According to physicists we carry within ourselves a tape and a recording needle. The recording needle represents what we recognize as the present – constantly recording information into our past. The present, as we record it, starts to become a fleeting moment – a mental awareness of us recording our memories. This needle becomes a representation of our ‘realest’ perception of time. The recording tape we carry becomes all our memories.

Mama’s needle is broken.

Mama has been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease for 10 years. As the disease progresses, Mama starts to lose her tape – the loss of her long term memory has been the most obvious of symptoms among several others. Mama isn’t presently conscious of this, however we are. The immediate characters in this story – Mami, tia Estela, Mildred, tia Miriam, Laura, Ely, Sklyah, Tio Maximo, tio Ezequiel, and tio Ramirez. Our recording needles are more present than ever as we start to desperately grasp onto the present, spending as much time with Mama as she begins to forget part of herself and we start to make her ever present in our memories.

Physicists say time is an illusion with the future being an unmeasurable component while the past and present, though obviously inaccessible, become the only concepts that can be measured through our own memories.

This project becomes a testament of all our tapes that have been furiously recording all they can since 2011.