Fun Fact Friday

Susceptibility.

Memory is no longer considered to be hard data stored in the brain. For a long time brain science compared our biological memory to that of a computer, just not as easily recalled. Now the belief is that memory is a whole lot more quixotic.

Every time you recall a memory it becomes colored with the experiences of the present and restored. If you are presently happy then a happy memory will be enhanced and restored brighter than before. If you are presently sad then that same memory will be dulled a bit and restored with some of its original lustre depleted.

This effect also happens with factual information. We aren't very good at memorizing facts, especially facts without connected emotion. Sure some people seem to be living computers but most of them have to train hard to be able to record so much info (there are a few, however, that have true fact storing and recalling gifts). We even forget the context we learned the original information.

We are really good at generalizing and experts at grouping. Our minds hold onto the general info and then compare that will other similar information or situations. It's often why one thought will trigger another similar one.

With all that in mind (wink), it becomes easy to see how we are very susceptible creatures. Advertisers know this and try to willingly recall our memories and replace or insert themselves. Stuarts soda had a campaign, aided with their old time glass bottles, that had many convinced they had been around since the twenties (they have only been with us since the roaring 80's)!

With violence the audience is coming in with their own preconceived notions and ideas of what things should look like. Sometimes this can jive with where you want to go. Most times it is in opposition.

We can use clever tools to change their minds, however. One show, where I choreographed a series of hits by two hitmen, I put a excerpts from a fictional manual for hitmen in the program. This allowed the audience to gain insight into how the violence in the world of the play was going to go and gave my fighters an edge.

The program is a great place to start. Subtle physical cues in the play, how characters react to eachother or handle weapons, how the relationships change, and many others that I haven't even thought of yet, all aid in us in bringing the audience out if their heads and Into our violent (but safe) playground.

Greg