Session 4b (Digital Memories Track): Externalization and Mediation of Memories, Representational Principles for Memory Record, Digital Recording Strategies
5th Global Conference
Friday 12th March – Sunday 14th March 2010
Salzburg, Austria
Integration of Digital Memories within Hand Made Objects
Cerys Alonso and Elisabeth Edwards
The North Wales School of Art and Design, Glyndŵr, University, Wrexham, United Kingdom
In the age of ‘everywhere’, any object can become a site “for the sensing and processing of information” (Greenfield, p.11). Every object can have a memory store that, shadow-like remains with the object through life. There is the potential for objects to gather data in an arbitrary, structured or reactive way as shown through the development of Microsoft’s SenseCam. In this way objects can hold an accumulation of data, which could be classed as the object’s memories.
While these can establish a memory of a place or the relationship of an object to an environment they can also act as a memory aid/trigger for people. Digital stores can also hold imposed memories, dictated by an external source.
Some objects, particularly jewellery and handcrafted artefacts are predisposed to be vessels for memories, in part because of their relationship to significant life events and because of what they represent in people’s lives and relationships but also due to the very nature of being hand made. Over time, as heirlooms, these objects often become repositories for family memories.
When digital memory storage is applied to objects that have not traditionally had this potential the intrinsic nature of the object or may change. This paper aims to discuss the relationship of memory to traditional craft objects and those possessing a digital dimension.
Exploration will encompass the nature of stored memories and their permanence or transience in relation to Paul Virilio’s notions of chronoscopic time and the mediation of memory with respect to data retrieval, particularly in response to Weisers’ assertion that “the most profound technologies are those that disappear.” Issues of ownership and the nature of memories, notably the creation and imposition of memories will also form part of the discussion.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
“Why not become an Author and help us build the Archive?” Mediating Personal and Community Memories in Online Archival Work
Jez Collins and Paul Long
Birmingham City University, United Kingdom
The threat posed to the music industry by digitisation and file-sharing has been widely bemoaned and commented on (http://www.ukmusic.org/policy/164-uk-music-submits-response-to-p2p-consultation, www.berr.gov.uk/files/file52658.pdf). A not unrelated development is the appearance of a prodigious range of projects devoted to the preservation and commemoration of popular music and its cultures. These projects include those produced by and devoted to individual tastes and taste cultures, circulating and exchanging music which is otherwise ‘forgotten’, protected or deleted by the industry.
More ‘public’ and ‘official’ projects in this vein are designed to archive and celebrate music and are often an adjunct to initiatives designed to draw attention to the cultural heritage of particular sites for the benefit of tourism and commerce. In the UK these include Liverpool Museums’ ‘The Beat Goes On’ and Manchester District Music Archive, amongst others.
Such activities raise questions about digital archives and curatorial activities, of popular culture, memory and the relation between the individual and the collective as well as issues of authorship, ownership and copyright.
We seek to explore these themes through our experiences in development of the Birmingham Popular Music Archive Project (http://birminghammusicarchive.co.uk), responses to it its relationship with similar projects.
BMA is an online initiative forged out of a partnership between cultural entrepreneurs and cultural studies academics. The project seeks to explore the musical heritage of the City of Birmingham and to generate a usable and interactive archive resource for the use of the city’s residents. In celebrating this history a further objective of this project in so doing is to contribute to a wider civic pride as well as seeking greater national and international recognition for the city’s neglected contribution to popular music culture.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Once Upon a Paradigm Shift: Interactive Storytelling in a New Media Context
Patrick McEntaggart
University of Leeds, United Kingdom
A story gives the gift of human attention, connecting us and touching our hearts to make us feel alive.
The human brain looks for patterns in sound such as speech and music, in images it finds colours and shapes, recognising these patterns gives meaning. Just as we look for these sensory patterns, it can be said that we also search for them in our lives and experiences; it is these wider patterns that we call stories. Stories are a large part of our lives, helping us to understand who we are and where we have come from, by creating, telling and re-telling them we can discern meaning and understand our changing world.
The technological change we have seen in recent years has been immense, affecting all aspects of communication. This research will consider why stories are an important part of communication, how they have developed over the years and explore storytelling within the context of our digital future.
Entries (RSS)