Confabulations

onfabulation is a memory disorder that is defined as the spontaneous

production of false memories - either memories or events that

never occurred, or of actual events that are displaced in time or space.

CC O N F A B U L A T I O N

Although it may appear that the person is fabricating a story to

fill gaps in their memory, it's important to realise that the

person is not deliberately trying to mislead or lie. Rather, they are usually unaware that their

memories are altered.

VTHE MAN WHO SOLD THE

EIFFEL TOWER

V I C T O R L U S T I G

...twice.

ith forty-five known aliases, the mastery of five different languages, and nearly fifty arrests in the United States alone, Lustig was the king of confidence men. While reading the newspaper one afternoon, Lustig noticed a small article in the paper that claimed that the Eiffel Tower was in great need of repair.

From here, Lustig managed to generate a meeting of scrap iron metal men, and sold the Eiffel tower to a man called André Poisson.

Ѫ

wLustig later sold the tower a second time in Paris, to another scrap iron dealer before getting caught by the police with a suitcase full of cash.

TEMPORALITY THEORY/FEBRUARY 17’TH/BUSKETTS LAWN/LONDON

IMAGE WITHIN IMAGE

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TEMPORALITY THEORY/6 PHOTO PORTRAIT MANIPULATION

YOU'VE PUT ON A FEW YEARS

T

ery so often when I send a text, a while after having done so I suddenly can’t remember myself writing out a particular word that I meant to send, so in a panic I re-read the text to make sure I didn’t absentmindedly write one thing while thinking another.

“

E

“ainly when I’m at work in the Ecco Shop, one of the tasks consist of tagging the shoes when they arrive. This is both routine and time consuming work, so after I finish I have several times forgotten about doing it, and had to check to see if I simply forgot to do it.

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M

“

ften when I’ve parked my car and have been shopping for a few hours I get back to the car park to find I have forgotten where I have parked. It’s because it’s a routine. I’ve even tried to get into other peoples’ cars before as they were a similar model and colour.

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O

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CHARLIE BARDER

KATRINE HOLDHUS

TINA ENDRESEN

ost of my life I’ve lived on the outskirts off the city. My daily routine of getting to university now consists of walking down the high street and having to weave and swerve in and out of people. You would think with so many people in one place one would remember a couple of faces throughout this experience. I’ve looked back on this situation time after time and everything has become a blur to me. I have therefore asked 6 people to write a paragraph on their own experiences to see if they can relate in any way.

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M

“

STUART HAMPSON

W O U L D Y O U E V E N N O T I C E ?


ight, well sometimes while driving to work every day at the same time on the same route I do wonder if the traffic lights were actually green? I guess I’m on auto-pilot and when I’ve parked up outside work, I do think to myself, I totally didn’t remember that journey!

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R

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es, I’ve played in a band for over ten years and some of the songs on my set-lists have been there just as long. I’ve probably played these songs thousands of times and they’re the same every time. When I look back at gigs, I never remember playing these songs, I only ever remember the venue, or the crowd, or the decorations. I can never actually remember any of the notes I’ve played.

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Y

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KELLY ROBINSON

AIDAN HAMPSON

trategic retrieval theory suggests that confabulations occur when

an individual cannot actively monitor a memory for truthfulness

after it’s been remembered. The individual recalls the memory,

however decides to believe that it is not true.

ST H E M I S T A K E

John Christie is an English serial killer who’s murdered at

least eight females including his wife. Two of these murders were

Timothy Evans’ wife and daughter.

The jury found Evans guilty despite the revelation of Christie’s

criminal record of theft and violence, after an appeal on

20 February had failed, Evans was hanged on 9 March 1950

– however, three years after the execution Christie was found to be

a serial killer and in 1966 Evans was granted a posthumous pardon.

Evans at first claimed that Christie had killed his wife in a botched

abortion operation, but under police questioning, he eventually confessed to the murder himself

– however the police decided this confession was fabricated as the

statement seemed artificial and arrested Evans himself.

D A Y S W E E K S

I T ’ S A L L T H E S A M E T O M E

iving in the New Forest my entire life, and trailing through the woods

in all weather conditions, I tend to forget that the trees are in fact

growing, as they always appear to look the same to me. I’m always unable to place walking through

the Forest to an actual day or time as the surroundings always blur

into one.

Temporality theory suggests that confabulations occur when an

individual is unable to place events properly in time, for example, they

say they did it yesterday when it happened weeks ago.

LT E M P O R A L I T Y

M O N T H S Y E A R S

I T ’ S A L L T H E S A M E T O M E

TEMPORALITY THEORY/6 PHOTO PORTRAIT MANIPULATION

YOU'VE PUT ON A FEW YEARS

T

R O U T I N E C A N T A K E T H E B E S T O F U S


Ø

S E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / S T O N E W A L L / T H E S T U D I O

S K I P P I N G T I M E

Λ

ithin self identity theory individuals are motivated to

confabulate when they have gaps in their memories that they want to

fill and cover up.

Within the weekdays of my life I continuously make the same

journey from one place to another – whether it will be from the

studio en route to the car park, or walking through the town center

and driving home through the New Forest.

WS E L F I D E N T I T Y

I can never remember the journey in between these destinations, I

can only remember leaving and arriving.

S E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / S T O N E W A L L / T H E S T U D I O


S E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / O L D W A L L / C A R P A R K


�

ǏF R A N K A B A G N A L E

catch me if you can

rank William Abagnale Jr. is an American security consultant known for his history as a former

confidence trickster, cheque forger, impostor and escape artist. He became one of the most famous

impostors ever. Abagnale's life story provided the inspiration for the feature film Catch Me If You

Can, a successful Hollywood film that came out in 2002.

Abagnale decided to impersonate a pilot because he wanted to fly throughout the world for free. He got a uniform by calling Pan American World Airways, saying that he was a pilot working for them who had lost his uniform and obtaining a new one with a fake employee ID.

While he was posing as Pan Am First Officer "Robert Black," Abagnale forged a Harvard University law transcript, passed the Louisiana bar exam, and got a job at the Louisiana State Attorney General's office at the age of nineteen. F.

F

SUCCESSFULLY IMPERSONATED MORE THAN EIGHT ROLES INCLUDING AN AIRLINE PILOT, A DOCTOR AND A LAWYER.

onfabulations occur within monitoring theory when

individuals attribute memories as reality, or find the incorrect memory source. For example,

someone might be watching television or heard a story from

their friend – wake up the next day and believe what they’ve seen or

heard has actually happened.

CM O N I T O R I N G

I find the process of believing a television program or film to be

reality amazing and I’ve recreated the famous Mary Poppins scene

with a friend, using a photograph I’ve taken in Cornwall

as the background.

TEMPORALITY THEORY/FEBRUARY 17’TH/WOODLANDS/POMPEII

IMAGE WITHIN IMAGE

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T V D I R E C T M A I L

C O N S U M E R M A G S N A T I O N A L N E W S

I N T E R N E T

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10.8%

I T I S N ’ T O N L Y D R U G S T H A T M A K E Y O U D O T H I N G S .

T H I S Y E A R S A D S P E N D / £ 1 6 . 1 B I L L I O N .

%

I T I S N ’ T O N L Y D R U G S T H A T M A K E Y O U D O T H I N G S .

T H I S Y E A R S A D S P E N D / £ 1 6 . 1 B I L L I O N .

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R A D I O B 2 B M A G S

C I N E M A

7.8% 5.8%

3.8% 2.8%

1.5% G I V E I ND O N ’ T

†

S E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / B O N D S T O R E / W O O D L A N D S R O A D


φS E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / B A R G A T E / N E W F O R E S T


S E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / B O N D S T O R E / W O O D L A N D S R O A D


S E L F - I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y / T R O M P E - L ' Œ I L / B A R G A T E / N E W F O R E S T


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:00 Get myself out of bed. 8:15 have a shower. 8:20 get ready to start the day. 8:40 get breakfast.

9:00 leave for university. 9:30 arrive, pay for parking. 9:40 get to

university. 10:00 have a tutorial. 11:00 stare at laptop. 12:00 debate

going home. 12:30 finally go home. 1:00 have lunch. 1:30 do

more work. 8:00 Eat dinner. 9:00 more work. 10:00 more work.

11:00 go to bed and dream of work.

8R O U T I N E

I REMEMBER NOTHING

C O N F A B U L A T I O N S / A L L P H O T O G R A P H S A N D D E S I G N S C R E A T E D B Y

S T U A R T H A M P S O N

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Confabulations

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