0:00:03 > 0:00:05In this digital age,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08we back up all our memories and our knowledge,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10our private and collective history,
0:00:10 > 0:00:13and we store them in a virtual cloud.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Learning by heart seems archaic, even futile.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20Perhaps we're losing our ability to remember.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23As a writer and as an artist,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26I'm fascinated about the storytelling around objects
0:00:26 > 0:00:29and the memories that they can hold,
0:00:29 > 0:00:34so my Artsnight is all about the creative power of remembering -
0:00:34 > 0:00:37even those memories that we might rather forget.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Memories of porcelain tend to be of the everyday,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49the intimate stuff we surround ourselves with -
0:00:49 > 0:00:51plates and cups and bowls...
0:00:51 > 0:00:54but at the heart of this strange white material
0:00:54 > 0:00:55is another kind of secret.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58It's one of obsession and power and purity,
0:00:58 > 0:01:02and it takes us to the worst moment of the 20th century.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07It took hundreds of years
0:01:07 > 0:01:11before we worked out the secret of making porcelain in Europe,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and when we did, it was here in Dresden.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19Augustus the Strong, ruler of Saxony, was a man possessed.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24He even built palaces to house his mammoth collections.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29So, here we are, surrounded by 30,000 pieces
0:01:29 > 0:01:33of Augustus the Strong's collection of Chinese porcelain,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Japanese porcelain, and then his own porcelain he gets created here.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42He has, he says, porcelain madness - Porzellankrankheit.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45This extraordinary display,
0:01:45 > 0:01:47made from the most difficult of materials,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49is all about power.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Augustus was filling the world with porcelain,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and in doing so, he was building his own mythology.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59This isn't even the full collection.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08And here in the vaults, on trolleys, they've produced a whole army,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11a regiment of porcelain soldiers.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13So, this one is incredible,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16because this is the representation Augustus the Strong -
0:02:16 > 0:02:21and here he is, looking like a great emperor.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29This porcelain quickly became synonymous with a Teutonic ideal -
0:02:29 > 0:02:33pure white substance made from German earth.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36It was named Meissen, after the town where it was produced,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and it's still being made here today.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43This is the big door into the factory and the archive.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Really heavy door.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53But there's a part of the Meissen story that's rarely talked about -
0:02:53 > 0:02:56and that's its connection with the Nazi Party.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00This is what I've really come to see.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04This is the...1930s and 1940s material,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07and this is the daybook -
0:03:07 > 0:03:11and this just shows you how profoundly embedded
0:03:11 > 0:03:14this factory is in the life of the Reich.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Here is the 6th of August 19...
0:03:17 > 0:03:22This is at random, I'm opening this up - 6th of August 1941,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26number one - Goering, who wants a tea service
0:03:26 > 0:03:30in...in...Kupfergrune, in copper green.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32That's what Goering wants.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36The Reichminister Frick wants things...
0:03:36 > 0:03:40Goebbels orders a porcelain platter.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45Of course, actually seeing orders from Goering or Goebbels
0:03:45 > 0:03:47is pretty shocking.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53It couldn't be more immediate, this synergy between...
0:03:53 > 0:03:56the material and the people.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03But the Nazis' obsession with porcelain doesn't end at Meissen.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08So, as I'm looking into this whole extraordinary period,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12the 1930s and '40s, and the German obsession with porcelain,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15I keep coming across this strange name, Allach,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17which is a factory I'd never heard of.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21And my default position with anything is to buy a book,
0:04:21 > 0:04:23so I ordered this on the internet, and it arrived.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29It's a small black hardback from the 1960s called Porcelain Allach,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and I open it up and the first photograph,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36the first illustration is of Hitler, with Himmler,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40looking avidly at a whole table full of porcelain figures
0:04:40 > 0:04:43that look like they could have been made at Meissen.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48They have that same quality of Augustus' porcelain figures.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53And then it says it was "the unique concentration of talent
0:04:53 > 0:04:55"made available for its production"
0:04:55 > 0:04:59that made Allach so special and so desirable -
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and that's a really tough phrase to read,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06because it became clear quite quickly that this porcelain
0:05:06 > 0:05:10was actually made in Dachau concentration camp.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19The Allach factory is the project of Heinrich Himmler,
0:05:19 > 0:05:21the leader of the SS.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24In fact, he calls it his "favourite child".
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Allach is producing a new mythology for Germany -
0:05:28 > 0:05:31but the circumstances of this porcelain's creation
0:05:31 > 0:05:33are beyond horrific.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Dachau is the first concentration camp.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42It set the template for the thousands more that were to follow,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45and for Himmler it provided the perfect home for his project -
0:05:45 > 0:05:49a steady supply of prisoners to replace the skilled workers
0:05:49 > 0:05:50lost through the war.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56This is where the prisoners arrived.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58This is their first sight of the camp -
0:05:58 > 0:06:01this guard tower here and the gates.
0:06:07 > 0:06:15And this is the gate into the camp, and "Arbeit macht frei."
0:06:15 > 0:06:17"Work makes you free."
0:06:19 > 0:06:20And then you're here.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27All around here, all around the camp are these SS factories,
0:06:27 > 0:06:33these places where all the people who were here were forced to work,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37so they would leave in the morning, first thing in the morning
0:06:37 > 0:06:42after their roll call, and march out here towards the factory.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Hans Landauer is one of the survivors of Dachau.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50He arrives in the camp in 1941,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52and a small sketch gets him
0:06:52 > 0:06:53assigned to the Allach factory.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58It's a small moment, but one that proves crucial.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Hans starts work modelling simple candleholders,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05but he becomes irreplaceable when he masters the riders
0:07:05 > 0:07:08that Hitler and Himmler love so much.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Inside the factory, the prisoners are given leather shoes
0:07:13 > 0:07:16to prevent them from falling while carrying their work.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Allach comes above everything.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23The factory is the first stop on the tour for visitors to the camp.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27It's over there. It's just beyond the chain-link fence.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31That's where the Allach porcelain factory was,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35and for 18 hours a day, the prisoners would come and work.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Hans Landauer says it was a piece of luck - it was a piece of luck,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42because at least working in the factory,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46they weren't subject to the total terror of being in the camp.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58In the final few months of the war,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01over 14,000 people died at Dachau -
0:08:01 > 0:08:04but even then, the factory was still producing work.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11By the time the camp was liberated in April 1945,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16all the moulds and all the figurines had been destroyed or removed -
0:08:16 > 0:08:19but the memories of this place live on.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23I mean, this is a very strange place to be,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25I mean, it's the archive in Dachau.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30It starts out with a catalogue of Porzellan Manufaktur Allach,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32the catalogue that was produced.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35There's Hitler's words,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38"Kein Volk lebt langer als der Dokumenter seine Kultur."
0:08:38 > 0:08:43"No people live longer than the documents of their culture."
0:08:43 > 0:08:45This... This...
0:08:45 > 0:08:51This is Hitler saying that culture, this pure, Aryan culture,
0:08:51 > 0:08:57is going to live forever. And there's his bust, for 76 Reichmarks,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59and you turn over the page,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and a white, springing stallion in porcelain.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05This is the thing that they could never do in Meissen.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Himmler said, "They tried to do this everywhere else,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13"but through our will, through our will, we've managed to create this."
0:09:13 > 0:09:15And then a bunch of flowers -
0:09:15 > 0:09:20and then, SS figures, all-white figures.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22And then a fencer.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25This wasn't for sale - this was only given by Himmler.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28There was a painting of Heydrich -
0:09:28 > 0:09:33the Heydrich who masterminded the whole of the Holocaust -
0:09:33 > 0:09:37and there's a picture of Heydrich with this figure next to him.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44Six months ago, apparently, a local woman - her father died,
0:09:44 > 0:09:46and she was clearing out his house,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50and found that he'd been secretly collecting Nazi memorabilia
0:09:50 > 0:09:51and she didn't want it.
0:09:58 > 0:09:59And there's the Allach mark.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05You've got people making porcelain who were living in conditions
0:10:05 > 0:10:09which are literally unimaginable,
0:10:09 > 0:10:17and going every day to the factory to make things for this regime...
0:10:19 > 0:10:21..and you end up with Bambi.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Something which is profoundly kitsch.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32"Kitsch" meaning sentimental, over-emotional,
0:10:32 > 0:10:38and totally alienated from the circumstances in which it's created.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46For all the same reasons that these objects are disturbing,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48they're also collectable.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52The memories and stories that they carry with them are now worth money.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58A short drive from Munich, I find a dealer who's agreed to speak to me.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06I was going to ask you, who collects?
0:11:06 > 0:11:09So, most of the clients come from Russia.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11Russians, and United States.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16- Mm-hm.- England, er, Great Britain. So, most are the Russians.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21If I was a Russian, how much would one of these figures be?
0:11:22 > 0:11:27Um, that one goes to a Russian for 28.
0:11:27 > 0:11:2928,000 euros?
0:11:29 > 0:11:31Could be more.
0:11:31 > 0:11:32But...
0:11:34 > 0:11:36- A small crack.- Mm-hm.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Without, over 50.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41- 50,000?- Right.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45And... And this bowl here?
0:11:45 > 0:11:46I've never seen this bowl.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Biwakabend.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50- Nuremburg?- Yes. Yeah.
0:11:50 > 0:11:57And the evening before, that was a present for some people.
0:11:57 > 0:11:58So, the Nuremburg rallies -
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- they presented these the night before?- Yes.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Mm...little moment, I show you something.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Do I... I wait here?
0:12:07 > 0:12:09Yes.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Perhaps you will see it never again.
0:12:21 > 0:12:22So, tell me about this.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27I didn't even know that there WERE Allach chess pieces.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31That was produced for a present.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34- For a present. From Himmler, or..? - From Himmler.- To... To...
0:12:34 > 0:12:36- Do we know who?- Don't know.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42So, this is a present from Himmler to someone
0:12:42 > 0:12:45- and this would have been made in Dachau.- I think so, yes.
0:12:49 > 0:12:50Where did you find this?
0:12:52 > 0:12:54Internet.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58What do you think about the collecting of...? Because...
0:12:58 > 0:13:01I am collecting because it was from Allach.
0:13:01 > 0:13:02- That was history.- Yeah. Yeah.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04What do you think that people are collecting,
0:13:04 > 0:13:09when they're collecting these very difficult historical pieces?
0:13:09 > 0:13:10You know, the...
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Like, over here, the Nuremburg bowl or the drummer boy -
0:13:14 > 0:13:17what do you think they're thinking when they collect?
0:13:17 > 0:13:20There are some people I know, they want to save for money.
0:13:23 > 0:13:30Because when the rouble goes down, the prices in euro will be the same.
0:13:30 > 0:13:31And in America?
0:13:31 > 0:13:33America...
0:13:36 > 0:13:38Don't know.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I hope, history...
0:13:43 > 0:13:45and nothing other!
0:13:52 > 0:13:57The story of Allach is barely mentioned in the history books,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00but these fragile objects continue to change hands
0:14:00 > 0:14:02amongst the few that know their secret.
0:14:04 > 0:14:05He's been...
0:14:05 > 0:14:09you know, dealing in this stuff for 20 years,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14and the material, the kind of...the stuff is there on glass shelves,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18and it's, you know, commodified "stuff" -
0:14:18 > 0:14:21but, of course, it's made by slave labour,
0:14:21 > 0:14:26under the edicts of people who are...just are profoundly...
0:14:28 > 0:14:30..profoundly disgusting.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42I'm intrigued by the nature of memory when it comes to my own work,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45so I put vessels up high where it's out of sight,
0:14:45 > 0:14:47or I put it in frosted cabinets where it's blurred.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50I want to capture the sensation of memory.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Claudia Hammond went to Tate Liverpool,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58where a new exhibition explores how works of art
0:14:58 > 0:15:02can live on in our memory long after they've disappeared from view.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Several years ago, I visited the 4,000-year-old city of Palmyra -
0:15:10 > 0:15:14a living museum reflecting the stunning art and architecture
0:15:14 > 0:15:17of all the civilisations who've passed through it.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22But Palmyra is in modern-day Syria,
0:15:22 > 0:15:27and in May this year, so-called Islamic State started to destroy it.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32We have footage, of course, and we have photos,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36but I know that I'll never see Palmyra again, as it was.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38All I have now are my memories.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Memories are so much richer than mere reproductions.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48They involve peoples, cultures and experiences.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53The art world, above all, is saturated with reproduced images.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56It started with the Industrial Revolution,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59machines, the advent of mass production
0:15:59 > 0:16:03and, most recently, the ubiquitous screen.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06We don't need to remember visual images in the same way any more,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09so are some types of memory becoming redundant -
0:16:09 > 0:16:12and does that mean that we don't look at artworks
0:16:12 > 0:16:13with the same urgency?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Tate Liverpool is taking this idea as the basis
0:16:18 > 0:16:22for their bold new exhibition An Imagined Museum.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24The show asks the public to imagine a world
0:16:24 > 0:16:27where all art has been removed,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and all we have left are our memories of those works.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32The idea of the show is this idea
0:16:32 > 0:16:35that we want the audience to remember work by heart,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38to take a work that they find meaningful, emotionally charged,
0:16:38 > 0:16:42so they can tell others and bring the work into the future.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43And why do you want them to remember it?
0:16:43 > 0:16:46There have been times in history when art has been under threat -
0:16:46 > 0:16:48and we're thinking about the idea, actually,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50if you had to save a work of art,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52if you had to take a work into the future
0:16:52 > 0:16:54to tell others about why it's important,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57why it has sort of meaning, what work would you choose?
0:16:57 > 0:17:00So, it makes you imagine a world where there's no art,
0:17:00 > 0:17:01no culture left?
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Yes. Thankfully we don't live in that culture.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Oh, lovely.
0:17:13 > 0:17:14So, what do we have here?
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Andy Warhol.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18It's a painting called Warhol Flowers,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21but it's by an American artist whose name was Sturtevant.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23She's known to make works from memory.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25So, is it slightly different, in fact?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Once you examine the work and think about the variances in colour,
0:17:29 > 0:17:31it's not quite right.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33This pink, this kind of salmon pink flower at the bottom right,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36- I don't recognise that as being a Warhol colour.- Hm!
0:17:36 > 0:17:38You know, she's somebody who's asserting the power of memory,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41and really the power of pop art at the same time.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45All of these works of art are here, and the people can see them,
0:17:45 > 0:17:47so how are they going to get the experience of them being gone?
0:17:47 > 0:17:51At the end of the show, we're going to de-install the entire exhibition,
0:17:51 > 0:17:53all the painting, the sculpture and the film,
0:17:53 > 0:17:54it's all going to be removed,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57but we're going to leave the screens and the exhibition labels in place,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and the works will be replaced by people.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02- And you get to see what they remembered.- Yes.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08The average time a person spends looking at a work of art
0:18:08 > 0:18:11is just 17 seconds.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15I'm going to see what I can remember about a work in that short time.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19Right, time's up.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24In recent years, neuroscience has shed some light
0:18:24 > 0:18:26on how our brains process visual images -
0:18:26 > 0:18:30perhaps how we remember works of art, too.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33So, how much do we know about what goes on the brain
0:18:33 > 0:18:35when we look at a piece of art like this?
0:18:35 > 0:18:37When we look at figurative art,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40specific areas of the brain will be activated.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42If we would measure the activity of our brain,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45we would see activity in the fusiform gyrus -
0:18:45 > 0:18:49underneath the cerebellum there is the fusiform gyrus -
0:18:49 > 0:18:52and the gaze, so the eye movements would focus
0:18:52 > 0:18:55on single specific features like faces, eyes, in the picture.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57- So, we like picking out those features.- Exactly.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00- We're drawn to those and want to look at those.- Exactly. Yeah.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08So, when it comes to abstract art,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11our eyes move all around the painting.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13They don't really stick to one single spot.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16So, is that because it doesn't really make sense, necessarily?
0:19:16 > 0:19:19- Exactly.- You don't know what to look at - you can't look for those faces.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21The brain, let's say, doesn't recognise anything
0:19:21 > 0:19:22that it's accustomed to,
0:19:22 > 0:19:24and if we would measure the activity in the brain,
0:19:24 > 0:19:28you would see an activity more widespread all around the brain.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31- Does that make it harder to remember a piece of abstract art?- Yes.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33- Cos there's less to focus on, in a sense.- Yes.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34Absolutely.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38It's not just the type of art that affects your memory of it,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40but how much you like it.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45What happens when we see a piece of art that we really, really love?
0:19:45 > 0:19:47We would see a high activity
0:19:47 > 0:19:50in an area called our orbitofrontal cortex,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53which is located here, in the middle, here.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58So, it is our reward centre that is involved in our appreciation of art.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00And presumably, if we love it, it makes it easier to remember.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Yes, it is, because the anatomical connection and functional connection
0:20:04 > 0:20:07with the hippocampus, or with the storage of memory,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09is very tight, and widespread,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13and therefore the activity in the orbitofrontal cortex,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16so, what we like, can influence what we memorise.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20And, yes, therefore we memorise better what we like.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26So, memory test time - what I can remember about the work
0:20:26 > 0:20:29of art behind me is that there are two figures lying down.
0:20:29 > 0:20:35The one on the left is silver and the other one is stripy,
0:20:35 > 0:20:38and over on the right there are these three orange things.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41There was something else very distinctive...
0:20:41 > 0:20:42Oh, there's big blue shoes -
0:20:42 > 0:20:44one of them, maybe the one on the right,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46has got big bluey-green shoes.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48And... I can't think of anything else.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53So, there they are - and I got some things right, I can see.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56But I totally forgot that they're lying on an enormous mirror,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58which does take up about a third of the scene.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01I got the shoes. I forgot that she - I think she's a she -
0:21:01 > 0:21:04has glasses on, so, I got some of it right, but some not.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06But if I'd been looking at this normally,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08I might have just looked at it a little and then gone away,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10so I have remembered more than I usually would,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13but perhaps I need to pay more attention to detail.
0:21:18 > 0:21:19When you go to a concert,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22you expect to see the conductor and musicians
0:21:22 > 0:21:26barricaded behind sheet music, but one extraordinary group,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30the Aurora Orchestra, have done away with all that.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34They're using their memory to unlock complex pieces of music
0:21:34 > 0:21:36in new and very powerful ways.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39MUSIC: Gotham by Michael Gordon
0:21:42 > 0:21:46In just over ten years, Aurora has established itself
0:21:46 > 0:21:50as one of the most innovative orchestras working in Britain today.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Their vigorous physical approach is always concerned
0:21:53 > 0:21:57with exploring new ways in which classical music can be performed...
0:21:58 > 0:22:01..and they collaborate with film-makers, choreographers
0:22:01 > 0:22:03and artists from all walks of life.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Here at the Royal Academy of Arts,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13they're performing a piece of new music as part of my project White -
0:22:13 > 0:22:16an exploration of the colour white
0:22:16 > 0:22:19and the impact white objects have on their surroundings.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26The Aurora piece is by the brilliant young composer Martin Suckling.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29With Edmund's installations,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33there's something almost musical about the way that they're arranged.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35Just looking at them almost creates a rhythm,
0:22:35 > 0:22:41a sort of a breathing, as your eye trains along the shelves,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44so obviously that appealed to me as a composer to try and capture
0:22:44 > 0:22:48that sort of sense, that kind of breathing through my music, as well.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57One of the things Aurora are really well known for these days
0:22:57 > 0:22:58is playing without music,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01and some people might think that's just, well, a party trick,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04but what I think is fantastic about it is that allows you
0:23:04 > 0:23:07to perform the music in a completely new way.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09It's not just playing without music,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13it allows a new type of interpretation to be possible,
0:23:13 > 0:23:15new relationships with the people you're playing with,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18much more direct and spontaneous.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20MUSIC: Symphony No. 40 by Mozart
0:23:22 > 0:23:25This might look like an ordinary classical music concert,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27but there's one special difference.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37These musicians are playing an entire symphony by heart -
0:23:37 > 0:23:39no score to rely on.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43No safety net, just pure memory.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51You've got a Prom, you've got the whole of the Albert Hall,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54you know, packed to the rafters with people -
0:23:54 > 0:23:57what the hell does it feel like to have it all in your head
0:23:57 > 0:24:00and nothing on a page in front of you?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02Well, I remember, the first one we did,
0:24:02 > 0:24:03the players came off the stage
0:24:03 > 0:24:07and I've never seen players in such a sense of...
0:24:07 > 0:24:10not just relief that they'd achieved this challenge,
0:24:10 > 0:24:12cos I think it was more than that -
0:24:12 > 0:24:16a real sense that they'd done something quite special together.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20That we'd created this thing and allowed us, collectively,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22to rely on each other's memory,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25which is a very sort of special dependency on each other.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Definitely, everybody playing from memory
0:24:27 > 0:24:33means that everybody feels a sort of ownership,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36and, of course, the danger aspect is there -
0:24:36 > 0:24:39that you could come in at the wrong point,
0:24:39 > 0:24:41you know, at any moment.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44And I think that definitely gives the performance
0:24:44 > 0:24:46a certain added edge.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54My father has been to both Proms,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56and said he didn't enjoy either piece
0:24:56 > 0:24:58because he was terrified throughout,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02but I don't think that's shared by most audience members,
0:25:02 > 0:25:03it's probably particular to him.
0:25:03 > 0:25:09For me, the idea behind it was to ask everyone to throw themselves
0:25:09 > 0:25:11into this music in a deeper way
0:25:11 > 0:25:13than they have ever done so before,
0:25:13 > 0:25:15to internalise every note,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18to be able to communicate every ounce of every bar
0:25:18 > 0:25:19in the way that they want to,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22and to mould something quite special.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24By forcing us to take a step back
0:25:24 > 0:25:27and actually to have to memorise it, there's no short cut to that,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31so we have to pour this music this inside us.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33There's something in this whole project
0:25:33 > 0:25:36which is kind of beautifully countercultural,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39- which is saying...- Certainly, yeah. - ..which is saying, actually,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42one of the things about being a human being is about memory,
0:25:42 > 0:25:47is about trying to work out what we remember and how we remember.
0:25:47 > 0:25:54When it comes to the 21st century, music is so readily available -
0:25:54 > 0:25:56you can just, online, find a score.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59You can download music in a nanosecond.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04That, in a way, the idea of Aurora in the memorisation project
0:26:04 > 0:26:07is to show absolute commitment to one piece.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10I think the audience responded to the fact
0:26:10 > 0:26:13that we'd gone to all of that effort just to see
0:26:13 > 0:26:18if we could find something new in presenting Beethoven's 6th Symphony.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21MUSIC: 6th Symphony 'Pastoral' by Beethoven
0:26:26 > 0:26:30Counterintuitively, sometimes music that looks very simple on the page
0:26:30 > 0:26:31is the most difficult to memorise,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34- because muscle memory...- Yes.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37..in terms of repetitive physical movements,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39- is in many ways the strongest. - That's right, yeah.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43So, like many people sit down at a piano and can play Chopsticks,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46it's the muscle memory that they're remembering -
0:26:46 > 0:26:50they're not analysing the notes that they're about to play,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52and they remember structurally how it goes -
0:26:52 > 0:26:54their fingers just automatically know it.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56And that's a danger?
0:26:56 > 0:26:59That's a danger when it comes to longer pieces,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01where repetition is key.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04For example, the last movement of the Beethoven
0:27:04 > 0:27:06is roughly a rondo form,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11so, when the initial material, when the A section comes back,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14you have to know that you're on the second repeat of the A section,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16so that you take the right exit.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19More than that, it might be exactly the same music that you lay
0:27:19 > 0:27:20a tiny different...
0:27:20 > 0:27:22You switch round notes with the other clarinet in the chord,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24or something small like that.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27The danger of muscle memory is that if you stop thinking
0:27:27 > 0:27:29and you just use that,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31it can take you by surprise.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Freed from their music stands, the players and the conductor
0:27:41 > 0:27:46can make visual connections to each other - and beyond, to us.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49And when you're conducting, you actually were smiling -
0:27:49 > 0:27:51you seemed to be much more cheerful
0:27:51 > 0:27:53than I've ever seen any other conductor before!
0:27:53 > 0:27:55But it seemed to me that what you were doing
0:27:55 > 0:27:59was that you were connected to with other people's eyelines.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Suddenly aware of this extraordinary sort of theatre of looking
0:28:02 > 0:28:04that's going on between all the musicians,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07and we're involved, too. We look at you looking.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12I think the interplay between musicians in an orchestra
0:28:12 > 0:28:15is one of the most complex and moving things
0:28:15 > 0:28:18- that I can think of in all of art, or...- Mm.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21..any genre of entertainment, in fact.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25It's a kind of sixth sense that belongs to...you know,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27- elite football teams...- Yes!
0:28:27 > 0:28:29..that they will know as they make a move
0:28:29 > 0:28:31that they are going to do this and this and this.
0:28:31 > 0:28:32It's an incredible thing.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I think when you memorise that, it takes it even further,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38and I think being able to see into that process, as well,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41and see some of the interplay, as an audience member,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43is even more illuminating.
0:28:43 > 0:28:44That's wonderful.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47- Thank you very much indeed. - Thank you.