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Last broadcast on Sun, 11 Sep 2011, 02:05 on BBC World Service (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Ten years since 9/11, the Forum contemplates the role of memory, shared and private, visual and literary.
Bridget Kendall's guests are: photographer Dorothy Bohm, whose remarkable photographs have captured the lives of ordinary people worldwide over seven decades; physician turned philosopher Raymond Tallis, who argues that memory remains a mystery, which neuroscience has still not been able to fathom; and Russian-born writer and broadcaster Zinovy Zinik, whose latest book explores the way our pasts can be embellished or even invented.
Illustration by Emily Kasriel: photographing memories outside the brain; both real and imagined.
Dorothy Bohm
Dorothy Bohm doesn’t like to waste a single frame, so she waits patiently until the picture is perfect and only then releases the shutter. Even though we usually have no idea who the people or places in her photographs are, they still bring memories flooding in. What’s the secret? And how much can photography act as a ‘limit to forgetfulness’?
Dorothy Bohm - Approach to the Castle
'Approach to the Castle' Lisbon 1963
© Dorothy Bohm
Dorothy Bohm - Haifa
'Haifa' Israel 1959
© Dorothy Bohm
Raymond Tallis
Polymath Raymond Tallis starts his exploration of memory from a paradox: a memory is a ‘presence of something that’s no longer present’. How is that possible? And what is the relationship between individual and pooled memories, such as history?
Zinovy Zinik
The inspiration for Zinovy’s latest book came from remembering an unsual dream: he dreamt of a large, old, somewhat ramshackle, red brick house which – naturally – he assumed to be somewhere in England. Imagine his surprise when, a few months later and fully awake, he saw this very house standing …. in Berlin. He’d never been to Berlin before. How to explain this?
SIXTY SECOND IDEA TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Raymond Tallis proposes a World Carpe Diem Day when as many people as possible would jump off the treadmill of acquiring and spending and instead would rejoice in the actual richness and complexity of their lives. We would then appreciate the ingenuity that has gone into the ordinary objects which surround us and marvel at the miracle of self-presence that is being alive. There would be a yearly Ten Minutes of Stillness when every political and business meeting would be preceded by a reflection on the mystery of everyday life.
In Next Week’s Programme
New activism in architecture, poetry and economics, with Australian poet John Kinsella, professor of architecture Marie Aquilino and Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang.
BBC World Service: 9/11 - Ten Years On
A decade on, BBC World Service reflects on the impact of the 9/11 attacks with a collection of programmes - from 2011 and from the archive
Chapters
Broadcasts
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Sat 10 Sep 201109:05
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Sat 10 Sep 201122:05
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Sun 11 Sep 201102:05
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