False Memory: last term's projects
Another set of experiments we did, was directed towards exploration of false memories.
My first tiny exercise consisted of writing a letter to Anna K (the Greek ;) ), describing situations and evens which never took place, connecting them to Olympic games and the myth of Prometheus. Luckily, my tactics worked: when Anna read the letter, she was confused and felt is if she had a light form of dementia.
In our bigger experiment we wanted to engage people actively in constructing false memories, which would at the same time deal with cultural memory (= memory shared by a broad circle of people, e.g. historical events, films, books, etc.). Our tutor gave us an idea to look into Stalin's famous practice of retouching of the repressed from all photographs, thus intending to erase them not only physically. This inspired us to let people rewrite a document of historical significance to question its authenticity and the whole concept of media as a credible carrier of memory. Initially we wanted to do it with Mein Kampf, to change history in a symbolical way, but Graham said that this will most likely to take us into a wrong direction. So eventually we decided to go for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as it was written 1948 after WWII and we thought that actually a number of new issues evolved since then.
For this purpose we created a website, where you can still rewrite a paragraph or two if you wish to update the history.
And hurray, I did something technical after a long break :) Had to refresh my humble PHP. That's why on some screens the webpage looks a bit dodgy. Still need to work on it...
I posted it on Facebook previously, so I want to thank everybody who participated! I received some interesting suggestions on topics like marriage, education, etc. ;) If you want to, I can publish a best-of list.
The third term has started and my head is totally occupied with plans for the final project. But it takes so long to set up a framework for it. You always need so much time if you want to work with people. But, as I read somewhere a couple of days ago: "If you want to get somewhere fast, walk alone. If you want to come as far as possible, walk together."
My first tiny exercise consisted of writing a letter to Anna K (the Greek ;) ), describing situations and evens which never took place, connecting them to Olympic games and the myth of Prometheus. Luckily, my tactics worked: when Anna read the letter, she was confused and felt is if she had a light form of dementia.
In our bigger experiment we wanted to engage people actively in constructing false memories, which would at the same time deal with cultural memory (= memory shared by a broad circle of people, e.g. historical events, films, books, etc.). Our tutor gave us an idea to look into Stalin's famous practice of retouching of the repressed from all photographs, thus intending to erase them not only physically. This inspired us to let people rewrite a document of historical significance to question its authenticity and the whole concept of media as a credible carrier of memory. Initially we wanted to do it with Mein Kampf, to change history in a symbolical way, but Graham said that this will most likely to take us into a wrong direction. So eventually we decided to go for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as it was written 1948 after WWII and we thought that actually a number of new issues evolved since then.
For this purpose we created a website, where you can still rewrite a paragraph or two if you wish to update the history.
----------------http://annablumenkranz.de/medium-memoria.php-------------------
And hurray, I did something technical after a long break :) Had to refresh my humble PHP. That's why on some screens the webpage looks a bit dodgy. Still need to work on it...
I posted it on Facebook previously, so I want to thank everybody who participated! I received some interesting suggestions on topics like marriage, education, etc. ;) If you want to, I can publish a best-of list.
The third term has started and my head is totally occupied with plans for the final project. But it takes so long to set up a framework for it. You always need so much time if you want to work with people. But, as I read somewhere a couple of days ago: "If you want to get somewhere fast, walk alone. If you want to come as far as possible, walk together."
very interesting exercises, very different from our study programm.
ReplyDeletewebsite is off center. or should it look like this?
This is what I ment with I still need to fix it. It is buggy on some screens.
DeleteYes, it's like a different world compared to what I did in my BA, although the names are almost the same... An analogue way of thinking about technology.
Basically, the idea is that to construct something technically sophisticated you need a lot of time and this is what you can learn on your own to a certain extent. But as we have just one year for the whole MA programme, our tutor tries to make us think about the whole rather than letting us go into technical details with something specific, because this way you'd learn less.
of course this way of studying is also important, but i disagree in some points. technical stuff is also important, u can have great ideas, but if u can't realize it - it's nothing. may be i think so because i study digital media and not design...
DeleteЯ согласна, в обоих подходах свои плюсы и минусы. И я безумно рада, что в бакалавре получила техническую основу. Но для мастера мне такой подход кажется в самый раз.
DeleteНа счёт того, что если не можешь осуществить идеи, они ничего не стоят - не совсем согласна. В наше время всё равно фактически ничего не возможно реализовать одному, всегда нужны люди разных специализаций. Поэтому иметь идею целого - это не так и плохо )
If you have great ideas, you consult a technician ;)
И по-моему как раз наоборот в дизайне надо уметь реально делать вещи, это более ремесленная профессия, так сказать.
ну не знаю, я просто иногда чувствую, что мне не хватает технических знаний, хотелось бы больше. может, в больших компаниях, где идет это разделение специальностей, это и неважно, но мне хочется самой все уметь. бывает хочется сделать какую-нибудь веб-страницу, но не знаю как, и приходится делать намного проще.
DeleteBest of list? Yes, please! I liked that project very much and would be very pleased to see what has become of it.
ReplyDelete:)) Thank you so much for taking part!
DeleteI'll make a list when I'm finished with my essay. Thank God there are deadlines! I could have gone on with this sad writing style for ages :D