Thoughts, Artworks, Projects

Exploring the things and people we leave behind from an environmental and social perspective.

Clare and Dan

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

Cesar A Cruz

Working from the memory notebooks/planners of Dan Macnee (who has hydrocephalus and severe memory loss as part of an acquired and severe learning disability) we co-create artworks which gives insight into his condition whilst simultaneously offering a rare opportunity to learn from each other.

​Dan’s notebooks are repetitive, a reminder to do everyday mundane events and can be a way to move forward for those with a profound verbal deficit. In an unintentional code they contain dry, silent cries as described by Dan himself and act as a coping mechanism and give a release of energy, a release from grief and can act as a temporary escape.

​The notebooks also a remind us that memory function is essential to the learning process and so also reflect a loss of a capability that most take for granted. They are an essential method of functioning in an everyday environment and give an insight into his daily life.