The Dis-placement and Re-placement of Memory – A Physical and Virtual Stumbling across Two Sites and Archives of Trauma

Tamara West

Abstract

This paper explores how traumatic events are memorialised beyond the site(s) of their occurrence and re-placed via online archives of memory. Starting with the example of the usages and transformations of a building, a large former psychiatric hospital built in late 19th Century Germany, the paper recollects a stroll and photographs taken in the once abandoned grounds of the site, and contrasts it with a more contemporary experience of the redeveloped site. Through these interactions the extent to which the periods of abandonment and redevelopment enabled a type of purposeful forgetting, extricating the building from its wider historical context, is examined. The article then proceeds to consider the role of online archives of memory and memorialisation, concluding with the story of an online walk and virtual stumbling across the description of unknown victims and memorials of a large mining disaster during the early 1900s.

Original language	English
Publication status	Published - 2017
Event	TRANSCULTURAL MEMORIAL FORMS: CONTEMPORARY REMEMBRANCE OF WAR, DISPLACEMENT AND POLITICAL RUPTURE: Narrative and Memory Winter Symposium - Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia Duration: 17 Mar 2017 → … https://narrativeandmemory.com/programme/

Conference

Conference	TRANSCULTURAL MEMORIAL FORMS: CONTEMPORARY REMEMBRANCE OF WAR, DISPLACEMENT AND POLITICAL RUPTURE
Country/Territory	Estonia
City	Tallinn
Period	17/03/17 → …
Internet address	https://narrativeandmemory.com/programme/

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

Global Development Institute

Access to Document

https://narrativeandmemory.com/abstracts/Licence: Other

Cite this

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title = "The Dis-placement and Re-placement of Memory – A Physical and Virtual Stumbling across Two Sites and Archives of Trauma",

abstract = "This paper explores how traumatic events are memorialised beyond the site(s) of their occurrence and re-placed via online archives of memory. Starting with the example of the usages and transformations of a building, a large former psychiatric hospital built in late 19th Century Germany, the paper recollects a stroll and photographs taken in the once abandoned grounds of the site, and contrasts it with a more contemporary experience of the redeveloped site. Through these interactions the extent to which the periods of abandonment and redevelopment enabled a type of purposeful forgetting, extricating the building from its wider historical context, is examined. The article then proceeds to consider the role of online archives of memory and memorialisation, concluding with the story of an online walk and virtual stumbling across the description of unknown victims and memorials of a large mining disaster during the early 1900s.",

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year = "2017",

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N2 - This paper explores how traumatic events are memorialised beyond the site(s) of their occurrence and re-placed via online archives of memory. Starting with the example of the usages and transformations of a building, a large former psychiatric hospital built in late 19th Century Germany, the paper recollects a stroll and photographs taken in the once abandoned grounds of the site, and contrasts it with a more contemporary experience of the redeveloped site. Through these interactions the extent to which the periods of abandonment and redevelopment enabled a type of purposeful forgetting, extricating the building from its wider historical context, is examined. The article then proceeds to consider the role of online archives of memory and memorialisation, concluding with the story of an online walk and virtual stumbling across the description of unknown victims and memorials of a large mining disaster during the early 1900s.

AB - This paper explores how traumatic events are memorialised beyond the site(s) of their occurrence and re-placed via online archives of memory. Starting with the example of the usages and transformations of a building, a large former psychiatric hospital built in late 19th Century Germany, the paper recollects a stroll and photographs taken in the once abandoned grounds of the site, and contrasts it with a more contemporary experience of the redeveloped site. Through these interactions the extent to which the periods of abandonment and redevelopment enabled a type of purposeful forgetting, extricating the building from its wider historical context, is examined. The article then proceeds to consider the role of online archives of memory and memorialisation, concluding with the story of an online walk and virtual stumbling across the description of unknown victims and memorials of a large mining disaster during the early 1900s.

M3 - Abstract

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