In 2022, Prof. Gaby Hernández, founder and director of Story & Material, took on a one-year project that explored the visualization of memory on a daily basis. The project, titled "Coqueterías," aims to capture the emotions provoked by spontaneous memories every day. She employed dozens of analog and digital visual storytelling tools and techniques (from written testimonial narratives to poetry; from collage and image production to digital photography) organically and freely, allowing herself to build a strong creative energy anchored on emotion throughout the year.
Memories pop up at any moment during the day. Aromas, textures, colors... all kinds of sensory elements trigger memories, which directly define who we are. Our memory develops as a chapter-based comic book, containing both snippets and long episodes of the past, often heavily informed by other people's memories and experiences. As a result, our memory is a nebula of visual moments, owned or acquired by association.
What happens when we allow the continuous visualization of memory over long periods of time? A probable response to this inquiry resulted from “Coqueterías”—once we permit ourselves to visually express memory in concrete forms of art and design, freely, outside of existing frameworks and theoretical restrictions, our true "visual self" emerges. Uncommon color combinations, marks, textures, spontaneous reinterpretations of materials, symbology, and unique handwriting are some elements that conform a person's visual language.
Could decolonial design start by prioritizing the discovery of people's hidden visual languages? How genuine could a person's visual language be?