nije evidentirano

Digital memories of the Holocaust

nije evidentirano

For a number of reasons, we will concentrate on the case of Shoah Memory. First, Memory of the Shoah is a diasporic, trans-national, European and even worldwide concern. Seemingly contrary to this fact is the particularization and localization of the Holocaust. Different and heterogeneous communities have found and told their own histories. Shoah-memory will therefore be a relevant stance from which to study affordances and restrictions of digital memory, which could be both connected to local sites and expositions, and universal and immaterial. Second, a relation of contiguity is about to disappear with the last primary victims of Nazi violence deceasing. Museums, educators and policy makers are looking at new technologies to reach new generations and to create an affective relation to this past (Reading, 2003). The World Wide Web could be, even more than television, a producer of a 'moral community' of listeners (Margalit). Third, with the cosmopolisation of memory, the Shoah has been said to acquire a universal status (Levy and Sznaider), having become a 'symbol' in the fight for peace and human rights next to being remembered as a particular event in history. However, this logic seems to adhere to an institutional desire rather than a critical analysis of the practices of online commemoration- in reality the Internet is deeply political, framed and often local or national rather than global. We know too little about how digital hegemonic and counter-hegemonic practices of memory really work and what their effects are, to be able to draw conclusions yet. We, nine European research groups in the field of Digital memory and Shoah memory, propose to collaborate in order to exchange and deepen our knowledge of digital memory practices. In order to answer the central question, 'what is the nature and function of digital memory practices?', we have identified sub-questions in three clusters of themes in digital memory. An expert meeting is devoted to each of the thematic clusters: (1) interactivity and community (2) testimony, narrative and digital archives (3) performance, affect and presence. The meetings are not about answering these questions, but focus instead on the meta-question: which research activities are needed to answer them in the years to come?