Sites Of Memory Research Articles

Transcultural Memory in the Study of Folk Music in Turkey

In this article, I argue that gramophone records by first-generation Armenian immigrants in the United States can be considered some of the earliest field recordings, so much so as if they had been collected from local people in Anatolia. Although such 78-rpm records have not received sufficient disciplinary interest as field recordings in ethnomusicology due to their commercial nature, they are among the earliest sound recordings from any region of the world. Not only because they are commercial, but also because they constructed counternarratives against the “national music” project of the Republican era, these recordings have also been ignored in the music historiography of Turkey. The content of the folk songs recorded in the diaspora is very similar to those collected by state-led recording expeditions in Turkey from the 1920s to 1950s. However, the diasporic recordings are more multilingual, reflecting the ethnic, religious, and cultural plurality of the Ottoman Empire. Emphasizing their performative and relational nature, I propose that 78-rpm records of the Ottoman diaspora (focusing especially on recordings of Armenian migrants from Harput/Kharpert) reconstruct the local space and function as sites of transcultural memory as defined by multilingualism and the effective use of makam music.

Flotation Devices Re-stor(y)ing Haunted South African Ocean Herstories through Mending as a Decolonial Love Language

ABSTRACT This paper engages in a dialogical meaning ∞ making between South African Story-tailor Cleo Droomer and sociologist/artist Dylan McGarry, exploring Droomer's creation of “floatation devices” or “Life(Jackets).” Using a “pedagogy of echolocation” that surfaces the living archival memory of Droomer's artworks, the authors navigate the haunted entanglements implicit with our relationships with the ocean. Their tactile research, rooted in personal and intergenerational trauma, utilizes heirloom fabrics to craft social wearable sculptures. These pieces facilitate a dialogue with his ancestors, from the apartheid-induced removal of his grandparents from the ocean to his enslaved forebears. Droomer's work highlights the ocean's role in the transatlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades, underscoring the need for recognizing it as a site of remembrance and intangible heritage. This contrasts with the acknowledgment of other sites of human suffering, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging the ocean's historical significance. KEY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Our oceans are haunted in South Africa by complex exclusions, violence’s and sunken histories, and require re-configured “flotation devices” to surface them. The rush for Oil and Gas and other extractive rapid Blue Economy activities are not just violently excluding marginalized communities, they erase the necropolitics of our ocean. Art-making as a form of thinking, theorizing and re-membering/re-configuring our histories can offer ways to surface and work with our ocean heritage with the context of Blue Economy expansion. Global Bodies like the International Sea-bed Authority (ISA) and UNESCO overlook the seabed and ocean as sites of human suffering and cultural history, and should consider Droomer’s sculptural policy briefs, i.e. (Life)Jackets. Social Sculpture and “story-tailoring” offers ongoing living archives or “an-archives” to support meaningful approaches to practicing Ubuntu and re-figuring our relational ontologies with the ocean. Mending both as a practice, and as a figurative theory is an embodied phronesis for decolonial justice, or “love-language.”

Árkádia Somogyban

ŸThe paper analyses a poem entitled the Tomb of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz. ThŸe work was published anonymously, but the poem was written by Ádám Pálóczi Horváth (1760–1820), a close friend of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz (1773–1805) and is an under-analyzed poeticcommentary on the early cult of Csokonai. ŸThe paper analyses an unknown text variant from Horváth Pálóczi’s collection of poems. ŸThe poem is linked to the 1806 Arcadia trial, surrounding Csokonai’s tomb in Debrecen. It is a commentary on the controversy fromthe point of view of a friend, and thus an important element of the cult of Csokonai from a Debrecen perspective. It designates a local memorial site and lists the places, the persons and the events that were significant for Csokonai during his stay in Somogy County.

An Analysis of Popular Culture Novels Can Function as a Site of Memory: A Case Study of The Great Gatsby

An Analysis of Popular Culture Novels Can Function as a Site of Memory: A Case Study of The Great Gatsby

Below the Surface: Swimming Pools as Sites of Memory in Post-Apartheid South African Art

The private swimming pool is an iconic part of the South African suburban landscape, sustained by dark legacies of migrant and domestic labour and ecologically unsustainable practices as much as by climate and lifestyle. It is also a powerful signifier of the shifting neuroses of its privileged, predominantly white, middle-class resident bathers. This article argues that, in representing the private swimming pool, contemporary South African artists interrogate issues “below the surface” of unresolved historical trauma and create a space for often reparative memory work. Works by Kirsten Beets, Lungiswa Gqunta, and Berni Searle are examined in painting, video, and installation; works examined have all been produced against the backdrop of Cape Town’s severe drought of 2015– 2018. Avoiding a habitualised instrumentalisation of water, the article thinks with water firstly as memory and secondly as a container for a traumatised South African consciousness, grappling critically with issues of acculturated whiteness and notions of privilege, leisure, and recreation in the time of climate crisis. This is done by interpreting works by the selected artists, bringing into focus how water itself, while “captured” in the swimming pool, is nonetheless acting through the works and this article to shape an imaginary of watery spaces alongside and through the sociopolitical. Watery spaces are also argued as existing even in the absence of water.

Authenticity, absence, and pedagogy on a historical injustice bus tour

This article explores how memory practices at sites of historical injustice are shaped by authenticity and absence. It explores a case study of a weeklong bus tour which visited over 15 historic sites dedicated to memorializing the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Drawing on the concept of dark tourism, this article explores how the bus tour was simultaneously a planned pedagogical experience, and part of a larger and sustained set of memory practices dedicated to maintaining and cultivating the cultural memory of injustices faced by Japanese Canadians. The article illustrates how these memory practices helped establish a pedagogical authority for some attendees and facilitated certain ethical engagements with the difficult past while avoiding and excluding others. It also demonstrates how the practice of dark tourism is implicated in larger conversations about the erasure of settler colonialism at sites of memory in Canada.

Remembering and forgetting famines in Ethiopia

This article aims to advance the understanding of famine memorialization—or the lack of it—in postcolonial Africa by focusing on famines in Ethiopia. It analyses the memory politics of Ethiopian state actors, and the silenced or marginalized place of famines, particularly the 1984–1985 famine. Drawing on interviews with individuals involved in memory-making in Ethiopia, observations of museums, monuments and other memory sites, and archival and secondary sources, the article shows how famine memory only appears at the margins of public commemoration initiatives. It discusses how tensions between a centralized national authority and Ethiopian identity, on the one hand, and regional ethno-national politics, on the other hand, along with efforts to brand the country as modern and developed, have served to silence past famines. However, artistic work and initiatives to remember famine victims “from below” contribute, to some extent, toward making the memory of mass-starvation publicly visible.

History and Histories: Shared and Unshared Sites of Memory

History and Histories: Shared and Unshared Sites of Memory The paper is devoted to the issues of modern history/historiography as a transdisciplinary system of mythical, historical, and metahistorical knowledge and consciousness. The question is how can a balance be established among the ethnocentric, supremacist, megalomaniac, and, often, arbitrary narratives; how can the over-interpretation of history within regional frames be avoided? This paper focuses on three interpretative strategies: narcissistic (national, exclusive), consensual (idealistic), and transnational (pluralist, inclusive). The co-existence of shared and unshared sites of Balkan memory can be a pretext not only for diverse ethnocentric narratives but also for a post-national or transnational narrative based on an empathetic historical consciousness. ‘Macedonia’ was in the past and still is an extraordinary example of an over-interpreted site of shared and unshared Balkan history. The more ‘Macedonia’ becomes a factor in integrating Balkan memories and histories, the more it becomes a subject of incoherent interpretations. Historia i historie: Wspólne i niewspólne miejsca pamięci Artykuł poświęcony jest kwestii nowoczesnej historii/historiografii jako transdyscyplinarnemu systemowi wiedzy i świadomości mitycznej, historycznej i metahistorycznej. Pytanie dotyczy tego, w jaki sposób można ustanowić równowagę między etnocentrycznymi, supremacjonistycznymi, megalomańskimi i często arbitralnymi narracjami; jak można uniknąć nadinterpretacji historii w ramach regionów? Niniejszy artykuł koncentruje się na trzech strategiach interpretacyjnych: narcystycznej (narodowej, wyłącznej), konsensualnej (idealistycznej) i ponadnarodowej (pluralistycznej, inkluzywnej). Współistnienie wspólnych i niewspólnych miejsc bałkańskiej pamięci może być pretekstem nie tylko dla różnych narracji etnocentrycznych, ale także dla narracji postnarodowej lub ponadnarodowej opartej na empatycznej świadomości historycznej. „Macedonia” była w przeszłości i nadal jest niezwykłym przykładem nadinterpretowanego miejsca wspólnej i niewspólnej bałkańskiej historii. Im bardziej „Macedonia” staje się czynnikiem integrującym bałkańskie wspomnienia i historie, tym bardziej staje się przedmiotem niespójnych interpretacji.

Displaced Memories: Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya

Abstract This paper reflects on Malaysia’s twin capital cities – Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya – drawing on diverse insights about cities, images, absence and memory from Calvino’s Invisible Cities. The paper examines the contrasting spaces, aesthetics and symbolism of Malaysia’s two adjacent capitals. It explores how Malaysian identity and memory are framed within these cities’ historical, cultural and geographical contexts: their landscape settings of jungle and water; their translation of particular architectural and urbanistic styles; and their cemeteries. It examines how Kuala Lumpur’s commemorative sites have been displaced and transformed over time. Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya are explored as an illustration of Calvino’s idea of ‘Twofold Cities’: places that are described, and function, in relation to their twin, their opposite, or their bifurcation. Malaysia’s capital cities are also used to illustrate two themes that frame Calvino’s dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan: Cities and Empire, and Cities and the Orient.

What (Counter) Monuments for Feminism? The Debates over Monumental Commemoration and the Search for New Feminist Memory Frameworks

At the intersection of memory and feminist studies, this article examines the issue of suffrage and feminist monumental commemoration in the United States. Starting from the deficit of statues representing female historical figures in the public space, it analyzes the conception and reception of two important monuments honoring women’s suffrage (Portrait Monument 1921 and the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument 2020). While those monuments have somewhat broken the “bronze ceiling”, they testify to the mechanics of exclusion and inclusion at work both in the construction of history and memory. Then, the article takes on a broader perspective, questioning the extent to which traditional monuments, as products of a patriarchal culture and memory, can properly commemorate modern feminism. The essay identifies two trends, one consisting of transforming the bronze through various strategies, the other of “breaking the bronze” by replacing it with other materials and proposing new memory frameworks belonging to what James E. Young has labeled countermonuments. Still, the article ultimately questions the limits of the monument itself and points to the notion of interactive spaces as perhaps the most adequate sites of memory for the complex, multifaceted, contested, and contemporary movement that feminism(s) stand(s) for.

Heritagizing the Maestro

Bhupen Hazarika was a multifaceted personality known for his contributions as a singer, songwriter, composer, filmmaker, writer, and social activist from Assam, a state in the north-eastern part of India. To honour his life and works, a memorial site is constructed in the Jalukbari area of Assam. The site is called ‘Dr Bhupen Hazarika Samadhikshetra’. It is located in Guwahati city, near Gauhati University, in the state of Assam, India. The literal meaning of the Assamese words Samadhikshetra is a burial site. Through empirical research, the paper investigates the conceptual framework of heritagization as applied to Dr Hazarika’s legacy, focusing on preserving, maintaining, and celebrating his contributions to society. The study emphasises the role of the memorial site, as a tangible example of Dr Hazarika’s cultural relevance by delving further into its architectural design, symbolic elements, and commemorative features. Beyond these tangible aspects, the study also addresses the intangible values, identity and collective memories that the site evokes and preserves. The paper also explores the close interaction between the cultural and constructed heritage of the site, emphasising the need for a holistic strategy to protect and preserve the cultural past. Despite controversies and challenges over selecting the last resting place of Dr Hazarika, the Samadhikshetra stands as a tribute to his lasting influence and gratitude for his artistic legacy. Through commemorative events and ongoing public engagement, the memorial site continues to serve as a sacred space where Dr Hazarika’s spirit can live on and inspire future generations.

What to do with our Memory Sites: A Reflection on the Contribution of Archaeology and Architecture in the Tourist Development of the Bimbia SITE

The article deals with historical memory and the importance of memorial sites, focusing on Bimbia, a site associated with the slave trade in Central Africa. It examines the historical context of Bimbia, highlighting its role as a transit point for slaves, while also addressing present challenges, such as armed conflict in the region. Theoretical debates on the conservation and restoration of monuments, illustrated by interventionist and anti- interventionist positions, are presented to stand up for a balanced approach to the enhancement of Bimbia. The article proposes a synthesis of preservation methods, with a view to guaranteeing the historical integrity of the site while developing its tourism potential. Finally, the article argues for tourism development that respects and integrates local cultural and social realities, thereby promoting sustainable and inclusive development.

When the past meets the present: The role of memory sites in time of crisis in Chile

In October 2019, massive social unrest broke out in Chile, triggering unprecedented violence and destruction unseen since the Pinochet dictatorship. The State responded with harsh repression, curfews, a state of emergency, and torture reminiscent of past violence. The Social Outbreak reopened old wounds in Chilean society that had never fully healed. Since the return of democracy in the 1990s, numerous sites of memory have been erected, created, or rescued from civil society organisations with the scope of preserving the memory of those brutally killed, tortured, or made disappear during the Pinochet dictatorship. During the 2019 social protests, several sites of memory played an active role, either by providing first aid to protesters or by documenting the crimes committed by the military and police in the streets. Other sites of memory actively engaged with the Constitutional Convention process that followed the social protests. The paper examines and compares the roles played by two renowned memory sites, Londres 38 and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, during and after the Social Outbreak. It delves into the potential of memory sites as a tool for present-day activism. It analyses how Chile’s 2019 social uprising was a critical instance where memory sites played a significant role in supporting and promoting social change. The utilisation of memory sites as a tool for activism has successfully broken down the temporal barrier between the past and the present and raised awareness regarding the relevance of memory in comprehending contemporary social issues in Chile.

Making Memories: Countercultural Memory in Irenaeus, Martyrdom of Polycarp, and Apocryphon of James

Abstract Cultures define themselves largely by how they remember the past; the commemoration of history provides a link to bygone eras that helps determine social dynamics in the present. But not everyone remembers the past in the same manner. Not only do people champion competing historical narratives, but they also memorialize the past in different ways, such as erecting monuments, glorifying a specific person, constructing and honoring an archive, revering a symbol, holding an event that repeats periodically, maintaining an institution, and more. These various hubs of memory creation and preservation are often called “sites of memory.” This article explores how various Christian groups in the second century invested their social memory in divergent sites. These sites not only propagated differing forms of Christian expression, but also diverse notions of what it means to remember. While some championed preservation of the past, others believed that memory entailed radical innovation.

3D characterization of the Mila 18 archaeological site in Warsaw, Poland: From imaging to excavation

Archaeological site investigations in urban environments are often beset with challenges such as (1) an absence of buried artifacts due to recent disturbance from infrastructure development or (2) community concerns about potential site impacts from excavations. Noninvasive geophysical surveys that use a combination of methods can help mitigate the risks of uncertain outcomes by identifying areas where culturally significant features are more likely to be uncovered. We show how new technology and traditional geophysical survey methods were used to characterize the subsurface of the Mila 18 Memorial site in Warsaw, Poland. This site is one of the most important places of remembrance for the Holocaust and coincides with the location of an underground bunker that was used by Jewish resistance groups during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In this case study, we showcase the use of drone multispectral imaging and handheld lidar scanning in conjunction with other geophysical techniques including electrical resistivity tomography, ground-penetrating radar, magnetic gradiometer, twin-probe resistance, and fixed-frequency electromagnetic surveying. The geophysical results were included in an interactive 3D site model to help identify a suitable site for excavation. To document the excavation and to validate and further interrogate the geophysical survey results, we used lidar-based photo-textured scans of the excavation that were incorporated into the 3D site model.

Lived queer memorials: How socially inclusive are queer sites of memory?

This article delves into queer memorials: public artworks dedicated to, and commonly designed to commemorate, LGBTQ + people’s lives. As part of a broader international multisite project, we present the first comprehensive case-study survey ( N = 343) of its kind, examining how everyday members of the public experience the Amsterdam Homomonument as an inclusive site of memory. As the world’s first publicly commissioned monument inaugurated for the gay community in 1987, our study shows how Amsterdam Homomonument currently occupies a realm intersecting gay and ‘post-gay’ public memories and imaginings. Through analysing Amsterdam Homomonument as a lived queer memorial, our study reveals the ambiguous experiences of inclusion and exclusion that publics derive from its place and community roles. We argue that queer sites of memory attain inclusiveness through establishing space that embraces broader arrays of gender and sexual differences, amid an era marked by heightened visibility of LGBTQ + communities (though not necessarily).

Teaching Art Online During COVID-19 Using Media as Sites of Memory

Teaching Art Online During COVID-19 Using Media as Sites of Memory

The unique preservation of Yves Saint Laurent’s birthplace: A singular cultural heritage in Oran

Abstract In 2020, the Affane Mohamed Foundation initiated the restoration of the Yves Saint Laurent house in Oran, Algeria, led by architect Youcef Fernane. The project aimed not only to restore the artist’s birthplace but also to showcase his first private theatre, sketches, drawing table, study, and personal bedroom. The house, built in 1925 in the Plateau Saint-Michel district (now Hai Sidi El Bachir), exemplifies neoclassical architecture with Art Deco influences. This project stands out as a unique initiative in Oran, where the preservation of public figures’ homes is rare, making it an exception in Algeria. The restoration, completed in 2022, has attracted significant attention, drawing visitors locally and internationally, particularly through social media, highlighting the cultural and historical value of the site. The research addresses visitor feedback, hypothesising variability in their testimonials, which serve as constructive criticism of this initial tourism initiative in Oran. The dual objectives are to illuminate the significance of the Yves Saint Laurent residence and to analyse visitor perceptions and attitudes towards this memorial site. Methodologically, the study is based on documentary research, including recent surveys and photographs from the Youcef Fernane design office and qualitative data from online questionnaires and visitor books. The results highlight the house’s importance as a cultural landmark but also reveal a lack of publicity, affecting its visibility. Conclusions suggest that the museum significantly enhances Oran’s cultural landscape, offering emotional and educational experiences. However, there is a need for better promotional efforts to increase its visibility and appeal to a broader audience, emphasising the importance of strategic marketing and visitor experience improvements for future projects.

Sutjeska Memorial Park (1958–75): Yugoslav World War II Memorial Complexes and Embodied Strategies for Solidarity

ABSTRACT This article investigates the expansion of World War II memorial sites in socialist Yugoslavia, with a focus on the Sutjeska Memorial Park in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Beginning in the early 1960s, a new typology of memorial complexes emerged, merging domestic tourism and commemoration. These sites operated as forms of social infrastructure that provided ground not solely for the remembrance of the historical events of the War but for enabling solidaristic sentiments required to prevent its resurgence. The Sutjeska Memorial Park exemplifies how artists and architects experimented with new forms to produce embodied affective strategies to engage new generations without personal war memories. Expanded memorial parks attempted to evoke somatic responses to fascist horror while using new tourist amenities to stimulate a sense of significance across diverse generational and cultural communities. Drawing on archival materials and the formal elements of Sutjeska’s monuments, this research examines understudied sites that produced immersive environments intended to open the realm of visual experience to other embodied possibilities and to instil new cultural practices of comradeship and commemoration. This paper illustrates how the design of the Sutjeska Memorial Park as social infrastructure facilitates its continued function today despite Yugoslavia’s dissolution, maintaining much of its original antifascist character.

The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial of Alexandria, Virginia: A remembered, “forgotten,” and re‐remembered memory site

The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial of Alexandria, Virginia: A remembered, “forgotten,” and re‐remembered memory site