Conceptual Archive 

Concept : “Experience”

To understand the principle of an experience we need to keep in mind that just because something happens, it does not necessarily turn into an experience. Experiences are a symptom of modernism as life is filled with mundane moments but not all of them are experiences. This leads us to question what has meaning. We can ask ourselves: what has to happen in order for something to become an experience? An experience holds some kind of significance whether it is an emotional one or a change in perception. An experience requires something of the person living it. The individual must engage with his environment, be aware of what is happening around him and within him. It needs a sense of awareness or reflection that allows the person to recognize its impact. We can start with a simple and mundane example: eating at your favourite restaurant. Every time you go eat there you enjoy it but it does not mean that every time you go, it is an experience. Maybe, the first time you ate at the restaurant marked the moment as an experience because of the amazing food and ambiance. Maybe, if you bring your family to this place or a partner or friends, their company could transform the moment into an experience. This concept can also be illustrated in the novel All The Bright Places where the two protagonists Violet and Finch are brought closer by a school project where they need to discover the wonder of Indiana. Finch brings Violet to the most unusual places, places that are not seen by others. He brings joy back into her life and their friendship will develop into something deeper. In terms of experiences, it is the moments they spend together exploring that become significant. Violet starts the novel as someone numb to life after her sister’s death, but her experiences with Finch awaken her to the possibility of living again. We can even analyse Finch as a character and his experiences a modernist lens. Finch lives in a constant struggle between being fully present and feeling detached. Finch tries to make meaning out of every moment because he knows how fragile life is. This novel focuses on mental health and the characters trying to stay awake and find the beauty in life. 

Another example I want to use is the movie Before Sunrise. In the movie, both protagonists are complete strangers randomly crossing each other on a train. Jesse is heading to Vienna, and Céline is on her way back to Paris. They start talking with one another and seem to have a surprisingly good connection. Everything changes when they make a spontaneous decision to disembark together in Vienna. Through deep conversations, wandering the city streets, sharing thoughts, dreams, and fears, they step into a space that feels separate from reality, almost suspended in time. It is the transformation from two travellers with separate lives to two individuals sharing something deeply personal that illustrates the shift from a moment to an experience.

I am also wondering if an object can be considered an experience. I believe it can be because it can engage a thinking process within someone where memory is directly sought out. For example, every time someone mentions the alcoholic drink Ricard, I will automatically remember my grandma’s best friend’s husband because it was his go-to drink. That single word brings a flood of memories, transporting me back to those times in France when we gathered with my grandparents, playing “pétanque” in the village. I can vividly picture him, with a cigarette in his mouth and a glass of Ricard in his hand, laughing heartily embodying the fun uncle I never had. The object, Ricard, thus transcends its physicality; it carries with it the warmth of those summer days. In this way, the drink becomes more than a beverage: it becomes a portal to a lived experience. An object becomes an experience when someone sees it or understand it as alive with meaning.

Concept : The Fragment

A fragment is an incomplete and broken thing. Its beauty comes from its imperfections and the many ways it can be bent. It is a piece of a whole that cannot be fully restored which means it has potential for a new meaning. Something in a fragment will be the basis of something else. A fragment can be something out of time, a memory of your childhood, a piece of jewellery from your great grandma or an ancient building in the middle of modern architecture. We, humans, are fragments. In “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown”, Virginia Wolf states that “we must reconcile ourselves to a season of failures and fragments” (Woolf, p.22). Modernist stories are about finding something that is broken and try to make it mean something again.

We can look at the relation between fragments and nostalgia. Fragments are incomplete things. They suggest that something once whole has been broken or lost. Similarly, nostalgia emerges from a longing for something absent, whether it's a time, place, or experience that feels distant. Hence, memories become fragments. They are small and incomplete snapshots of who we were and what our lives were like at a particular time. These moments are not the full picture but rather fractured glimpses that hold meaning precisely because they’re unfinished. I am sure we all have memories which are still pretty vivid in our minds and we will never really forget. For example, I remember an encounter at the beach, swimming in the sea late at night, stargazing, holding each other in our arms whishing we met earlier and that something more could happen. Remembering his touch and his laugh. Every time this memory resurfaces in my mind, I hold onto it because it is a glimpse of a moment where time felt eternal but now, probably does not mean much to him anymore.

To better understand the concept of fragments, here are two fragments that I wrote for one of my communication classes for my “Communication and Cultural Studies” major. In this case, fragments are short paragraphs describing one moment of urban life that we experienced.

Fragment 1: "In the enchanting Montmartre neighbourhood of Paris, the summer sun casts a golden glow over the cobblestone streets and bustling cafes. My friend and I stumble upon, in a dreamy little garden, the iconic “I love you” wall, made of vibrant blue tiles. It forms a mosaic of affection and as I glance upward, I spot a message atop the wall: "Aimer c’est du désordre…alors aimons." My contemplative moment is cut short as the garden swiftly fills with tourists, bringing my time of admiring the artwork to an end. Nearby, the “Crêperie du Manège” attracts families and friends with the irresistible aroma of freshly cooked crêpes and doughnuts. As we sit down to enjoy our lemon and sugar crêpe and Nutella-filled delight, the words "Aimer c’est du désordre…alors aimons" resonate in our hearts, reminding us of the power of love and friendship. In that moment and specifically for me, Paris becomes the city of love that everyone believes it to be."

Fragment 2: "The end of summer and the beginning of fall in Montreal is the perfect occasion to do a soundwalk. Inspired by an assignment I had to do for an English class, I decide to walk around Jeanne-Mance Park. A notebook in my hand, a pen in the other, I slowly walk, feeling the gentle breeze and the warm sunlight. I notice a couple running together and recognize the sound of love by the pattern of rapid footsteps. They almost seem to be scared of running out of time. The flow of cars behind me is like a song, one similar to waves hitting the shore. It is almost soothing, like a beautiful mechanical harmony. Interrupting this calm lullaby is a piece of 90s rap. I then hear a sea of intonations and accents, recognizing French, English, Quebecois and American. These bits and pieces of conversations allow me to be part of a stranger’s life. Just for this one short moment, I am not alone in my own world."

The question is now, what can you with something that is already broken? Our first instinct would be to repair the broken thing, but what if a fragment is beyond repair? Do we have to mourn the fragments?

Concept: Affect

Spinoza defines affect in his book The Ethics as the impingement or involvement of one body upon another without the impinging bodies. For Spinoza, affect is not just about feeling but about the relational power and influence that bodies exert on one another. It is about emotions as well as perception, the world around you, the bodies, the abstraction, the movement. Thus, affect exists within its own reality. To understand what I mean by that we can look at the example of a kiss. During a kiss, one body has to do something to another body and so, two bodies come together in a very intimate way. A kiss is a beautiful moment of togetherness when lips are touching each other fuelling the body with the warmth of another. What happens when the kiss is over? Is the kiss gone and if so, where? Does it linger in your mind, on your lips? A kiss becomes a thing it itself, a thing created from love. It exists in time forever but is only temporary in space. Hence, it lives in its own reality.

Virginia Woolf argues that affect is a deviation from traditional storytelling where her characters feel emotions which they ignore the name of. She presents us new characters and new emotions in her novel Mrs Dalloway. Her characters are shaped as much by the subtle, often unnamed forces acting upon them as they are by recognizable emotional states. Near the end of the novel, Clarissa learns of Septimus’s suicide and feels an unnamed connection to him even though she never met the man: “She felt somehow very like him—the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away” (Woolf, p.284). It doesn’t necessarily make sense to the reader that she would be connected to someone she never met and especially if she feels a strong one in relation to his death. This moment exemplifies the concept of affect, which is not about clear, defined emotions like grief or sadness, but rather about an unspoken, visceral connection that surpasses rational thought.

Another example could be a glance across a room or an eye contact. I am sure we all had cute or maybe even intense crushes in school where we would do anything to be able to connect to that person.  We would be seated next to each other for most classes. One time, in French class, I remember him putting his elbow on the table and leaning against his hand while looking at me. I saw his eyes lock with mine and a little smirk appear at the corner of his mouth, his cheeks becoming a bit red and my heart racing while we both looked away in fear of embarrassment. We both knew we shouldn’t look at each other that way in class as we felt the teacher’s gaze threatening to end this moment. The affect here isn’t just the simple acknowledgment of another’s presence. It is everything around us. It is the energy that is exchanged in that moment of eye contact, charged with warmth, love, excitement and danger. This moment happens in silence, there are no words and yet its affect is felt in my body. The affect of a glance can remain long after the interaction is over. To this day I still remember that feeling and as I am writing this now, I can still picture him next to me, looking at me, smiling.