jose van dijck mediated memories 1

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MEDIATED MEMORIES IN THEDIGITAL AGE

t ~ ~ P Y ; / . ? Jose van Dijck

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA2 00 7


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xviii AcknowledgmentsSome chapters in this book have roots in journal articles or collec

tions of anicles I have written. I have used parts of the following previously published materials: "MediatedMemories: Personal Cultural Memoryas an Object of Cultural Analysis." Continuum: Journal 0/Media and Cul-tural Studies 18 (2004): 261-277; "Memory Matters in the Digital Age."Configurations 12 (2006): 349-373; "Composing the Self: Of Diaries andLifelogs." Fibreculture 3 (2004); "Record and Hold: Popular Music between Personal and Collective Memory." Critical Studies in Media Com-munication 25, no 5 (2006): 357-375; "Digitized Memories: Th e Computeras Personal Memory Machine." New Media and Society 7, no. 2 (2005):29I-312; "Future Memories: Th e Construction of Cinematic Hindsight."In Theory, Culture and Society (forthcoming). I thank all anonymous referees for their constructive comments.

Reviewers and editors at Stanford University Press showed confidence in this project from the beginning; thanks to Norris Pope for his encouragement and Deborah Masi for her editorial support. Mieke Bal hasbeen more than a wonderful series editor; she has also been a longtime rolemodel and intellectual source of inspiration.California and Santa Cruz provided the geographical sub text to thisbook, the larger part of which was written in Craig Reinarman's lovelyhouse, providing a second home; the idyllic surroundings of the Universityof California-Santa Cruz campus and the hospitality of the Sociology Department's faculty in the spring of 2005 substantially contributed to myhappiness.

I have long depleted my vocabulary to express gratitude toward Ton,so I will keep it simple this time: lowe you. This book is dedicated to mysister Ria, who witnessed its progress in California but did not live to see itin print. She will be etched forever in my memory, with immense fondnessand deep respect.

AMSTERDAM, JANUARY 2, 2007

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Mediated Memories asa Conceptual Tool

Many people nurture a shoebox in which they store a variety of items signaling their pasts: photos, albums, letters, diaries, clippings, notes, and so forth. Add audio and video tape recordings to this collection as well as all digital counterparts of these cherished items, and you have what I call "mediated memories." These items mediate no t only remembrances of things

P ! ~ i . ~ l : e y a l ~ ( ) _ ~ < ! ~ ~ ~ ! : ~ ~ ! l ? n ~ J T b e ' t w e e n : l i l a [ v l d U ; a l s _ ~ c l - g r ~ t l E s _ < : ) f a ? } ' tvkind (such as a f a m i O / ~ ~ ~ l : ? C ! L < : : 1 . < l : s s e s ' < l I 1 . c ! . s ~ 0 I 1 ! i 1 1 g c l 1 1 ~ s 2 ? _ a n d _ t l 1 ~ y . . llrC: .madebY media-technologies (everything from pencils and cassette recordersto' comp'uters digital'cameras). We commonly cherish our mediated

m e m ~ ~ i e s ' i s ' a ' f ~ r m a t i v e part (;f our autobiographical and cultural identities; the accumulated items typically reflect the shaping of an individuali!la historical t i ~ ~ frame. But besides their personal value, collections o r ~ e -

' d l a : t e a ~ e i n o r i e s raise i ~ t e r e s t i n g questions a b o u t . 1 L J 2 ~ _ o n ' s identity in a . ; p _ e . = ~ ~ ~ ~ u l t ~ : . : . : _ ~ ~ ~ a i n ~ ~ e n t i n _ t j ! ! 1 ~ : : . _ --------

Putting these "shoebox" collections at the center of a theoretical and analytical inquiry, this chapter investigates two questions and one concept. First, ~ e r s ~ , a l ~ l t u } 2 - 1 1 T ! . ~ t ? l g [ y , ; t , ! ! ( 1 h 2 ~ " < ! 2 ~ ~ j ! n 7 1 ! : l J ~ _ ~ Q _ ( ; Q l l e . . ~ i y ' ~

, ~ d _ e n t i t y a n d m e I ! ! q ~ y ? .Wecan distinguish-though not separate-the construction of autobiographical memory as it is grounded in individual psyches from the social structures and cultural conventions that inform it. Personal (re)collections are often subsumed as building blocks of collective history rather than considered in their own right. Personal cultural memoryQ:,) ; f ' Z ~ ~ , " ~ ' r a . , ~ 1 " - ' " "

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". .f; , . ( .e" 'f (."'-"* . 2 t.;:'"-c-C. 'r:.0,-.'1/f/ , Pi' -':>7 ( - ? ~ /.&.,(" ( 'I /JcC ~ d J-"(':-(.!emphasizes the value of items as "mediators" between individuals and collectivity, while concurrently signifying tensions between private andlie. 1he growing importance of media t e c h n o l ( ) g ~ ~ ~ _ ! 9 _ ! h e q > l l s t r ~ ~ . . fpersonal r e m ~ i i C e g r v e s rISe "to a second pertinent 'luestion: what ex:;'ctly is the nature-;;rmemory's 'mediatIon?" M e d i ~ - t e ~ h ; ~ i ~ g i ~ ~ o'b

'Jects,ta r 1'rom--l:lelng'external instruments for "holding" versions of th epast, help constitute a sense of past-both in terms of our private lives an dof history at Memory and media have both been referred to metaphorically as reservoirs, holding our past experiences and forfuture use .. u ! . . E . ~ E . ~ ~ ! . _ ~ ~ ! P : ? F ~ ~ ~ __ ~ ~ F " ~ ~ s i , ~ , ~ , . ~ ~ ~ _ p , ~ s s i v e nn , _ r . pn , uPp t ' \

~ E i a t i . Q g j ! ~ ~ ~ l ' l ~ ~ < : ~ l l y ' ~ h a p e s the way we build up and retain a sense'dividuality and comml:!l1.ity, of identity,a " " ~ ~,,""f-"7 : 5 } , : : " - ~ t : - . O /" / c..-:;-H-C,;at"a---y-- ......"..... - - - c u l t u i a l s e n s e ; ; T s e r r e m e r g ~ a ; o ; : ; ; ; d '

to seven years of age, a developmental stage where children start to contrasts the ideal self portrayed by the culture and the

actual self as understood."5 A child's autobiographical memory evolves as a ~ / d - ; f 4 ? 1 1 -O C c::r..,c) J ! : : " ~ ./'a

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(,/Mediated Memories as a Conceptual Toolculturally framed consciousness, where personal narratives constantly intermingle with other stories: "Personal memories, which ha d been encapsulated within the individual, become transformed th rough verbal narrativesinto cultural memory, incorporating a cultural belief system."G A c ulturall yframed autobiographical memory integrates t h ~ s Q c i ( ) ~ t . t ! . t l ! r a J ' Y ! ~ ~ R e r -

7). s . ? ~ a L ~ d t h e - s e l f t l i a i : e m e r g e s - f i o ~ this P : ~ ~ < : ~ ~ _ i s e x p ~ i . ~ i . d y . ~ ~ n c l ~ T . E } ~ c i t l y/ ' s h a p e ( r ~ Y l t s - envIronment's norms ana v a T t t . e ~ : _ A s Nelson remarks, the nar' r ; t i ~ ~ s that confront children-fairy tales told by parents and teachers, orstories they watch on television-are an important factor in their development. Children test their sense of self against the communal narratives theyare exposed to, either through verbal reports or via television or video. Eventhough some cognitive and developmental studies on autobiographicalmemory touch upon the important intersection of individual psychologyand socializing culture, few psychologists specify the role of culture in relation to memory. Wang and Brockmeier eminentlyexpound on the interplaybetween memory, self, and culture, arguing that autobiographical remembering manifests itself "through narrative forms an d models that are culturally shaped and, in turn, shape the remembering culturally."7 Even if (social)psychologists acknowledge the dynamic relationship between memory andself to be integrated in the larger fabric of a culture, and even if they affirmthat conceptions of self are inscribed in various material and symbolicways, the role (media) objects play in the process of remembering remainslargely unexamined. Understandably bu t regrettably, psychologists seem tothink those questions are the proper domain of anthropologists or mediascholars.

And yet, opening up sociopsychological perspectives on autobiographical memory to insights in cultural theory and media studies mayturn out to be mutually beneficial. Let me elucidate this by elaborating asimple domestic scene from everyday life. A fi fteen-month-o ld toddler attempts to stand on his own two feet and take his first cautious steps. Hisparents are thrilled, an d they converse about their relief over this happen-

The delighted father brings our his video camera to capture the toddler's effort on tape; that same evening, the proud mother verbally reportsthe first-step achievement to the grandparents. Snapshots of the child's developmental milestone, complemented by a few lines of explanation, s u p ~plement the latest update on the family's website. The parents mark the eventthro ugh various activities: telling stories, takin g picmres, and composing an

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account help to interpret th e event and communicate its significance to others. They concurrently produce material artifacts that ma y assist them-and their offspring-to recall the experience at a later moment in time, perhaps in different circumstances or contexts.

Th e autobiographical memory at work in this instance consists of several stages and layers-aspects that can be accentuated or eclipsed in consonance with respective academic interests. Psychologists center on how . t h ! : ~ r e n t s i r 1 . ~ ~ r ~ ! , _ ~ ( ) f ! : H I ~ ~ n i c a t e , an d latei--- r e c a l l b : i . b Y ' ~ f i r s t ,steps. (!

M ~ n . f a L f r : a m e s and cognitive schemes help parentse-valuate theeyent: they - - ~ ~ m p a r e their own baby's achievement to infants' development in generaL

Th e average baby starts walking at twelve months, bu t this one is slower. Parents relate their experience in a narrative framework that places the event in the spectrum of their own lives and that of others. (How old was I when I started to walk? Ho w old was the baby's sister? Ho w slow or fast do babies in this family start walking?) Sharing their oral report with grandparents helps parents determine the significance of what happened, but it also sets the stage for later reminiscence: interpretation an d narration form the mental frames by which the experience can be retrieved from memory at a later stage. Memory work thus involves a complex set of recursive activities that shape our inner worlds, reconciling past and present, . allowing us to make sense of the world around us, and constructing an idea of continuity between self and others-the three functions Bluck describes, as noted earlier.

Cultural theorists considering this scene may shift the center of gravity and emphasize the way in which the parents record, share, and later reminisce about baby's first steps using various media. Recording the event through video, pictures, or a written account enhances its actual experi

e n c e . : . . _ M < : f ! 1 ( : J E z _ . V ' l ~ : k . : . i t : ! , , : ( ) l v e s the .,prodtt_ction of objects-in this case snapshots and video footage-with a double purpose: to document -'communicate what happened. These items also portend future recall: for

parents to remind them of this occasion an d for the baby to form apicture of what life looked like before his ability to register memories inthe mind's eye. Later interpretations invariably revise the meaning ofmemories, regardless of the presence of hard evidence in the form of pictures or videos. In hindsight, baby's-first-step video may be viewed as anearly sign of his lazy character, bu t it ma y also provide evidence of anemerging disability that went unnoticed at the time of recording.


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8 9ediated Memories as a Conceptual Toolprejudiced assessments that characterize these genres as boring, predictable, or bourgeois. Yet on closer inspection, it is remarkable howmany people gain creative energy our of shaping their own historiesan d subjectivities in response to existing cultural frameworks.lo Admittedly, few people record family rows, and though teenagers shooting homevideos of their fathers' most irritable habits may count as exceptions, theynevertheless illustrate my point that the very presence of cultural formsincites individual expressions. It may not be a coincidence that many SllC-cessful commercial productions (feature movies, television series, orpublished autobiographies) expound on playful, expansive versions of personal memory accollnts. I I Conventional formats for individual culturalmemory thus both constrain and unfetter people's proclivity to inscribeexperiences.

The term "personal cultural memory" allows for a conceptualiz,ationof memory that includes dimensions of identity and relationship, time andmateriality. Temporal and material aspects are extensively theorized in thenext for now, I dwell a bit more on the relational nature of personal cultural m e m o r y . ~ ~ . e . I : r ! J ? h a s ! ~ ~ . s . . t E ~ E ~ ~ - , ) ~ ~ , ! : ! , ~ e c t ~ o f ~ < : m o r yneed to be explained from at work in our that we com

~ y " T a D t T a S c u f i : ~ ~ r e - m o r e s , ~ ~ ~ d i t i o n s , . ~ ~ , H j , l ~ . ' . J L ~ ' . ~ ; ~ ' : - O ,i ; ; - ~ ~ ~ T ; ; ; { i c i n e s ' - - - w h ~ r e a - ~ these same processes c o n t r i ~ l . l t . ~ _ ! g ! ~ n d d e r i v e. t i : o m ~ - i : h e T c i r r n a i i i : ) l i of individual i d e n t i t i e s ~ Y e t b y advocating a definition

c u " l t ~ r a l memory"i:h";t-highlights the significance of personal collections,I do not mean to disavow the import of collective culture. to thecontrary, if we acknowledge that individual preferences are filtered throughcultural conventions or social frameworks, we are obliged to further explore the intricate connection between the individual and collective in theconstruction of cultural memory.

Individual versus Collective Cultural MemoryCollective memory, like its autobiographical penchant, is commonly

referred to as something we have or lack: it is about our ability to build upa communal reservoir of relevant stories about our past an d future, orabout the human proclivity to forget as amnesia of collectivetraumas or shameful episodes in our history. For the purpose of this book,I prefer the notion of cultural memory over collective memory because

Mediated Memories as a Conceptual ToolI am less concerned with what these reservoirs dD or no t consist of ; in -

this book concentrates on how memory works in constructing asense of individual identity and collectivity at the same time. To set up thisclaim, I first need to sketch how prevailing notions of collective memoryhave structured academic thinking, most notably in sociological and historical accounts.Just as individual or autobiographical memory is almost auromati

associated with theory formation in the area of psychology, collective memory, since the early twentieth century, has been thedomain of sociologists, historians, and cultural theorists. Originated inlate nineteenth-century French and German sociology, th e concept of collective memory was most prominently theorized by Maurice Halbwachs, acritical student of both Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim. In Les cadressociaux de fa memoire, first published in I925, Halbwachs sketches the partially overlapping cadres (spheres) of individual and largersuch as family, community, and nation. In contending that memory needssocial he distances himself from more physiological app roaches tomemory, particularly those insisting on the isolated enframing capacity ofthe human mind. Far from being a cognitive trajectory activated by inter-

or external human memory "needs constant feeding from collective sources, just as collective memories are always sustained by socialand moral props."12 Halbwachs thus emphasizes the recursive nature of in dividual an d collective memory , one always inhabiting the other. Collectivity, he claims, arises in the variable contexts of groups who share anorientation in time and space. Our memories organize themselves accord-

to ou r actual or perceived participation in a (temporal) collectivity-:-agroup vacation, a school class, a family, a generation-and recall tends tolean on a sense of belonging or sharing rather than on a relocation in realtime or space. We may remember events chronologically or spatially, bu tquite often we remember in terms of connectivity. As social creatures, humans experience events in relation to others, whether or not these communal events affect them personally.

One of Halbwachs's important observations is that collective memoryis never the plain su m of individual remembrances: every personal memoryis cemented in an idiosyncratic perspective, bu t these perspectives never culminate inro a singular collective view. Th e memories of both parent andchild participating in the same event are no t necessarily the same or even
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II0 .Mediated Memories as a Conceptual ToolVa.lL"""" ma y retain vastly different interpretations of

the occurrence. Yet even if their accounts are antithetical because of the different (social) of each they still "share" the memory of a

not only evolves around events or shared ex-r",ri"nc", it can also advance from or environments-anything from

feel connected spatially.expressions, such as mu sic, and to which are exposed from an early age andthat late r serve as for collective recall.13 Each memory derived fromthese common resources can be distinctly and individual memories never add up to a collective reservoir.

Ever since Halbwachs coined the concept of collective memory, ithas prominently figured in the accounts of historians, where it was also renanled "social" or "public" memoryY' The historical meaning of "collective," however, differs from its sociological counterpart. In a sociologicalsense, "collective memory" means that people must feel they were somehow part of a communal past, experiencing a connection between whathappened in general an d how they were involved as individuals.15 Adjustedto historiographical explanation, "social memory" constitutes the interfacebetween individual an d collective ordering of th e past. Some historianshave chosen collective memory as a central ordering concept for their interpretation of how history can be written. David Gross, who appropriatesHalbwachs's term for the purpose of historiography, views (collective)memory as a prism for historical reconstruction: his main thesis concernsthe value societies have p'laced in either remembering or forgetting as a ba

and from this point of entry he reinterprets historyto late moderniry. Gross agrees that memory is a compli

.... L J . ~ V ' U l , L 1 l ' . process and that memories are preserved through elaborateshifting scripts, and social circumstancesYtheir own existence in the grand scheme of his ortheir own remembered experience

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Mediated Memories as a Conceptual Tr)olTh e recent institutionalization of personal memory items can be

seen as a corollary to historians' designation of a "new" collective memory.An d yet, the elevation of personal memory objects to th e status of collective history's ingredients paradoxically underscores their distinct hierarchy.A case in point is the inclusion of numerous individual testimonies in public representations of the Holocaust. Especially in the past two decades,the collective remembrance of the after a period of relative suppression, has exploded into a plethora of forms: exhibitions, monuments,

audio-visual testimonies, books, museums, an d so forth. Taking theHolocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in England as an example, historian Andrew Hoskins that its "mixing artifactual representations .. . with audio-visual mediation of individuals' memories oftheir experience of the Holocaust in the form of testimony of survivors" is

-datively recen t phenomenon in public exhibitions.19Apart from the rypmediated nature of these testimonies-a pivotal aspect of Hoskins's

characterization of "new" collective memory to which I turn in the nextsection-the relationship of innumerable individual accounts to collectiv

seems self-evident and aspiration to save all re-Illdining individual testimonies of survivors to form a grand narrative ofthe Holocaust bolsters a few such as StevenSpielberg's Shoah Foundation.

However, as Halbwachs no collective experlenceand certainly not one of this uut:--can ever be reoresented in a singular collective memory. Th e inclusion in our memory sites of manyindividual each a t h r o u ~ h which tomake sense of historical events, will never add up to anview of the Holocaust. the view of some of his < - U l 1 C d l ' ; U C ~ ,lean cultural historian Andreas argues that thememories of the Holocaust may obscure rather than strengthen the notionof collective memory: "The problem for Holocaust memory in the 1980sand 19905 is not bu t rather the ubiquitousness, even the excess ofHolocaust imagery in our culrure."21 Huyssen questions the idea that individual memory representations serve as building blocks for, or form particular versions of, collective memory, because such a premise ignores the alwaysinherent creative tension between individual and collective.22

Although the foregrounding of individual testimonies has undoubtedly helped popularize important tak:es on communal history, the assumed
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. ' i i ' MediatedMemories as a Conce ptual Toolself-evident relationship berureen individual an d collective memory is indeed problematic. Remarkable in both Halbwachs's sociological discourseas well as in Gross's historiographical account is the virtual absence of th eterm "culture." As an explanatory concept, cultural memory inherently accounts for the mutuality of individual an d collective. Culture, like memory, is less interesting as something we have-hold or discount-than assomething we create and through which we shape our personal an d collective selves.23 Like Halbwachs, I see the conjunction of individual an d collective memory as dialectic, yet in emphasizing cultural memory, I stressthe recursive dynamic of this ongoing interconnection beyond the level ofcognition or sociality. Culture is more than the encounter of individuals withmental structures an d social schemata, as Gross suggests; discursive an dmaterial artifacts, technologies, an d practices are equally infested with culture, thus forming th e interface berureen self and society.

Cultural memory is a guiding concept in th e work of German historians Jan Assmann and Aleida Assmann. Building on Halbwachs's sociological theory, Jan Assmann defines cultural memory as "a collectiveconcept for all knowledge that directs behavior an d experience in the interactive framework of a society an d on e that obtains through generationsin repeated societal practice an d initiation."24 Aleida Assmann expoundson this definition by sketching cultural memory as one end of a complexstructure that also involves individual, social, and political memorygoing from a purely private leveLt? the institutionalized an d r i t u a l i z _ ~ dlevel of remembrance. 25 Sh e p e t i t i o ~ ; - ~ - - ; ~ ~ ; ; : I Z s " ~ t ~ ; ; : ~ ~ f o r m a i : i o n f r ~ ~ in-

y , - , d T ' ; ' i c [ ~ ~ t ~ - ~ ~ l t ~ ~ a l ~ e m ~ y , t h ~ - i ~ s u l t of which is never a f i x e J ~ ~ ~ ~ Q i r- ' - ~ ~ E , ~ l : Y ~ Y ~ ~ . - ~ ~ i ~ ~ i ~ ~ a l v e ~ t ~ ~ that c o ~ ~ ~ ~ t ; ~ c l T t o ; ; a ; ~ ~ ; : p ~ I ~ a t ~ t ; pub

-iic, an d individual to collective. 26 0 r i l i k ~ - - ; ; t h ~ ; - h i s t o r l a n ~ , Assmann' ~ t r e s s ~ s - ~ h e i m p o r t a n ~ e of memory objects' materiality in texts an d images; th e sum of individual objects of memory never ad d up to one unified "collective" memoryin fact, Assmann is very suspicious of thist e rm-but the objects are unique anchors of remembering processesthrough which self an d others become connected.

My ow n concept of cultural memory shows clear affinity with AleidaAssmann's dynamic definition. Perhaps more specifically, I prefer to thinkof cultural memory as an act of negotiation or struggle to define individuality an d collectivity. Closely enrurined with these ruro notions are thespheres of private an d public; memory is as much about the privacy to

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16 Mediated Memories as a Conceptual Toolenhancement of human perceptual capacities: photography an d televisionwere augmentations of the eye whereas audio technologies and radio extended the ear's function.32

Similar dualities can be traced in more recent debates, particularlythose discussing how mass media infiltrate colleaive memory. Adding tothe disjunction is the tendency to define memory in ambiguous terms ofmedia: either as tools for inscribing the past or as an archival resource. Forinstance, when French historian Pierre Nora laments the enormous weightof media versions of the past on ou r historiography, he basically regardscollective memory as a giant storehouse, archive, or library.33 Contrastingthis conceptualization is Jacques Le Goff's concern that media representations form a filter through which the past is artificially ordered andedited-manufactured rather than registered.34At once a means of inscription and an external repository, media are seen as apparatuses for production and storage, modeled after the mind's alleged capacity to register andhold experiences or impressions. Visions of printed and electronic media asreplacements of human memory notably echo in phrases like this one fromthe late British historian Raphael Samuel: "Memory-keeping is a functionincreasingly assigned to the electronic media, while a new awareness of theartifice of representation casts a cloud of suspicion over the documentationof the past."35 Even if unarticulated, pervasive dichotomies inform scholarly assessments of the media's tole in the process of remembrance. On the

media are considered aids to human memory, but on the otherthey are conceived as a threat to the purity of remembrance. As an ar

tificial prosthesis, they can free the brain of unnecessary burdens and allowmore space for creative activity; as a replacement, they can corrupt memory.Media are thus paradoxically defined as invaluable yet insidious tools formemory-a paradox that ma y arise from the tendency to simultaneouslyinsist on the division between memory and media and yet conflate theirmeanings. 36Media an d memory, however, are not separate entities-the first enhancing, corrupting, extending, replacing the second-but media invariablyand inherently shape our personal memories, warranting the term "mediation." Psychologists point at the inextricable interconnections between actsof remembrance an d the specific mediated objects through which these actsmaterialize. ~ n . ! l ~ . t t ~ , . K l l h t l c l a i t J : l ~ , p h Q t o g r a p h i c images".. from being

t r ~ ~ ~ p ~ r e n t renderings. of a pre-existinKreality, emb()dycoded rp j p r . n , 'p< :

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3 ! 9 c l ~ y e l 1 he.lp. Q . f l s . t r w ; : . t , J ~ a 1 i t i ~ ~ , ~ ' : ~ _ M . ~ c : ! i : a . ~ ~ d I l l e . m Q r y ( ) b j ~ ~ ! ~ , ~ e . : ~ e r E e p . r { ! -,.sent a 6xe d . serve to fix t ~ m p o r a l notions. an.d relations be

~ ~ ~ ~ P ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ c f ... E . r < : ! ~ e : n t . Steven Rose, British scientist who discusses thephysiologIcal complexity of human memory and consciousness at length,makes the case that mnemonic such as photos or videos, are confounded with our individual memories to such extent that we can hardly distinguish between the twO.38 An d anthropologist Richard Chalfen, in hisstudy of how home media help communicate individuals' perceptions of

to others, argues that our "snaps hots are us."39 Personal cultu ral memoryseems to be predatory on media technologies' an d media objects' shapingpower.

A similar notion of mediation can be found among historians discussing th e infiltration of mass media in collective memory. British sociologist John Urry explains in his essay "How Societies Remember the Past"that electronic media intrinsically change the way we create images of th epast in the present. 40 Mass media, according to historian of popular culture Lipsitz, embody some of ou r deepest hopes an d engage someof ou r most profound sympathies; films, records, or other cultural expressions constitute "a repository of collective memory that places immediateexperience in the context of change over time. "41 Media like televisionand, more recently, are devices that

" - - " , - , - , - , ~ ~ - - ~ , - " , . ~ , - " , - - , - " - ~ - - - - , : - , ~ - , , , ,recent -"" 'VL \ J ' :HVHtools for memory have shifted in nature and funct ion-a

I return to in the next chapter.We can witness this contrived interlocking most poignantly at the

metaphorical level; the term "mediation of memory" refers equally to ou runderstanding of media in terms of memory illustrated by historians'accounts above) as well as to our comprehension of physiological memoryin terms of media, evidenced by rhe many metaphors explaining certainfeatures of human memory. Ever since the invention of writing tools, bu rmost noticeably since the emergence of photography in the nineteenthcentury, th e human capacity to remember has been indexed in daily language by referring to technical tools for reproduction. Dutch psychologistDouwe Draaisma, wh o extensively researched the historical evolution ofmemory metaphors, notes that media are a special conceptual categoryfor envisioning memory's mechanics. 42 For instance, the term "flashbulbmemory"-the proclivity to remember an impacting moment in full
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18 Mediated Memories as a Conceptual Tooldetail, including the time, and place in which the message was received-derived its signifier from the realm of photography.In the t\ventieth century, the terminology of film and video started to in vade the discourse of memory and memory research: life is said to be replayed like a film in th e seconds before death, and haveextensively examined the phenomenon known as "deathbed flash." Bysame token, we arc now firmly grilled by the media's convention to visualize a character's recall of past experience as a slow-motion replay orflashback. Metaphors are not simply means of expression, bu t are conceptual images that structure and meaning to our lives.43 As media havebecome our foremost tools for memory, metaphorical reciprocity signalstheir constitutive. .

However compelling an d valid, most mediation of memory theoriesstill hinge on a few that funnel the scope of this concept, restricting its explanatory range. an exclusive focus on either home media ormass media often presume a symbiotic union of home media with individual memory and of mass media with its collective counterpart; such rigiddistinctions hamper a fuller understanding of how individual and collec.:ive memory are s h a ~ r : , . c : o n j l l n c t i o n , w i t h _ : , ~ : : : : : ~ ' : . ~ ' : : . ~ ' ~ A t ' ..-"",....,,,..,",,,means connecting ~ E h ~ r . s . : Second, even most theories ac

k n o ; ; f e c r g e t h ~ - ~ ; ; ; ; : v e r g e n c e of memory and media, the "mediation" concept frequentl y favors a vecwr: media shape our memories, but weseldom find of media being shaped by memory, indicating animplicit hierarchy. Let me address each of these conceDtual deficiencies inmore detail.

It is practical to assume that personal cultural memory is generatedby what we call home media (family photography, home videos, raperecorders) whereas collective cultural memory is produced mass media(television, music records, professional photography), implying that thefirst type of media is confined to the private sphere, whereas the latter pertains to the public realm. But that simple division, even if functional, isalso conceDtually flawed: it obscures the fact that people derive their auw

memories from both personal an d collective media sources.Media sociologist John Thompson, who highlights the role of individualagency in media explains the hermeneutic nature of this relationship.44 He argues that "lived experience," in our contemporary culture, is interlaced with "mediated experience"; mediation,

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Mediated Memories as a ConcePtual Tool I9not only the media tools we wield in the private'sphere but also the activechoices of individuals to incorporate parts of culture into their lives.rience is neither completely lived nor entirely mediated, as the encounterbetween the two is a continuously evolving life-project to define rhe selfin a cultural context. What makes mediated experience today differfrom lived experience two hundred years ago is the fact that individualsshare a common locale to pursue commonality; the grow-

of mediated creates "new opportunities, new0PUUl l :>, new arenas lo r ~ 5 I f. we accept anary distinction between home and mass media, we not onlv fail to account for media shaping our sense of individuality and

c o n j u n c t i o n , J ) I l L \ y ~ . ~ . q l l ; l l l y o ~ ~ c u r e h ( . ) ~ i r : l ( i . i y i Q u a l s actively.. - ' : ! - ! : : . . . : ~ = : ~ = ~ . - " ~ ; ; : ~ : e . , ~ . : ~ " , , ! h ~ ~ h ~ p e t h ~ l ! j n d i Y i d u ~ a l i t y .A strict delineation of home and mass media has also become im

becaU,Se each type informs the other. For instance, America sFunniest Home Videos (AFHV), a program format that has been success

franchised to television stations around the globe for over two de-is made up entirely of home media footage, woven into a glitzycommercial production; by the same many home video enthusiasts

have taken AFV's narrative structure (or its announced themes) as directive models to film their cure children and pets; Amateur videos of thetsunami hitting the shores of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia in December 2004 made the news worldwide; the power of amateur LVIJld. l ' .Cprobably motivates individuals who buy and carry a camera to create newsand offer it to television stations. There are many examples of documentaries based largely on compilations of amateur or home movies, and thistrend is likely to increase with the growing availabiliry of affordable digitalcameras, computers, and editing equipment. Tn the next chapter, I furtherelaborate on the meaning of media technologies (digital and analog) astOols that mediate between personal an d collective cultural memory.The second conceptual in the mediation of memory concerns the implied hierarchy between external and internal memory, or inplain terms, between technology and the human mind.our metaphors often explain the invisible in terms of the visible and knowable; that is wh y the mysteries of mental processing are often elucidated interms of media technology-technology that is at once transparent and

predictable. But how about turning the vector back on its

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20 Mediate d Memories as a Conceptual Toolarrow: could our development and use of various media technologies be

,\ n f o r m e d b y i : h ~ ' p e [ ( : e p t 1 : l ; l ! m e c h a n i s m s , t h ~ ' ~ Q ! ' y motor- ~ ~ i : i ~ n s that/ u n d e d i e ' i l I e ~ ~ 1 ~ " i y ' f ~ ~ ; r n a t i o n ? 4 6 An intricate aspect o f r ~ ~ ~ ~ b e r i n g is that

mental perceptions (ideas, impressions, insights, feelings) manifest themselves through specific sensory modes (sounds, images, smells). Th e meqiawe have invented and nursed to maturity over the incorporate a simcapture ideas or e x P ~ J j ~ ~ ~ < : . s . ____se:nsory' !IlscrlptioU$",J;uch

or written words, still or moving images, recorded sounds orOn e memory rarely encompasses all sensory modes, b ecause we tend

to remember by selecting particular ones. For instance, we may recall amood, locale, or era through a particular smell (such as th e smell of applepie in the oven triggering the image of your mother's kitchen on Saturdayafternoons), or we ma y remember a person by his nasal voice or her twin

eyesY Th e same holds ttue for memories captured through ,mediatechnologies: rather than wanting exhaustive recordings, we commonlyselect a specific evocative frame in which to store a particular aspect ofmemory-a still photograph to store visual aspects, a diary entry to retaininterpretative details and subjective reflection, or a video to capture themovement of baby's first steps. We a sensory andmedial modes at our disposal to inscribe specific memories, ' t h ~ - ' i n -

" t ~ i g u I i 1 g . : g ~ e S t w n ' l s : ( f o ' a v a i l a b l e media t e c h n ( ) I o g I e s a I c i : a i : e w h i c h s e n ~ 5 ? , r y'"aspects of an event w e T ~ ~ ~ c r i b e in our memory, or do sensory perceptions

d i c r ; r t e - ~ h i ' d l - m e d i ' u r i : l we to -reco[crtheexperlence? . ,most our media e c h n ~ i o g i ~ s p r i ~ i I ~ g ~ ' ~ particular sense

(e.g., photography singles out sight, tape recorders sound) that does notmean there is a one-to-one relationship between specific sensorial aspectsof memory and the preferred insttument of recording. On the contrary, astill picture may invoke the sound of a child's laughter long after the childhas grown into adulthood. Nevertheless, insttuments of memory inscrip

privileging particular sensorial perceptions over others, always to someextent define the shape of our future recall. Most people have unconsciouspreferences for a particular mode of inscription; for instance, they favormoving images over still pictures, or oral accounts over written.part of that propensity is undoubtedly rooted in individual mindsets, another part is inevitably defined by the cultural apparatus available and

accepted at that time. But this apparatus is far from static: eachtime frame redefines the mutual shaping of mind and technology as one is

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LUil.o"22Mediated Memories as a Conceptual Tool

Futurer

..---. OtherselfPrivate M,dlated MemOria] .. Public

..---. Collectivendividual r ~Past

FIGURE 1

move back and forth between the personal and collective, an d they travelup and down between past and future. Th e commingling of both axesnals memories should be understood as processes-mediating self to cul-ture to past to future. The dynamic nature of this analytical model showsin Figure 1.

Mediated memories refers both to acts of memory (construing a re-lational identity etched in dimensions of time) and to memory products(personal memory objects as sites where individual m i n d ~ and collectivecultures Th e term is neither a displacement of a psychological definition of (personal) cultural memory, nor is it a dislodgment of the histo-rian's notion of (collective) cultural memory. Instead., foranalyz.ing c o m 1 2 I ~ _ e s of ~ ! ~ ~ r y . . E ) . 1 : I l 1 ; a t i o n and. transformation,~ ~ . g S b o : x ite!p'':> as culturally r e 1 e v a n ~ " ; ; b J ~ ~ ~ ~ - : n_.,_'

Taken at face v a j u e : - ~ y - m e " ' d r ; t e ~ f m ~ m ; ; ~ i e s concept appears quitesimilar to the term "tangk:d memories" coined by American media theorist~ - " " ~ " - " " " ' ' ' ' ' ' " . " . , '",,," .... ,Marita Sturken. Sturken deploys a concept of cultural memory that comes

t ~ . A l e l d ; Assmann's, but unlike the German historian, she includesmedia (objects) in her theoretical m o d ~ C ' e - ; ~ - ; ; - t ~ i n I n g - t h e m i n t o a centralr;(;us of ;malysis.49 Sturken explains how i tems;f p o p ~ l a r culture-fromthe Vietnam Memorial to the AIDS Memorial Quilt-are compiled frompersonal acts of commemoration out of which arises a collective statement

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t4'/:> /",!(:: J ,,'about a shared trauma. Media playa principal role in this process, both aspersonal instruments private photos or videos) an d as mass conveyors of social narratives (e.g., news coverage or documentaries). Individuals

_ E ! ~ ' : ' J ~ ~ J : ! ! Q n a L r n ~ m ' : ) . ! ~ t : s in cultural objects an d__ .. __activitie; t h a t ' a t ' - ~ ~ ~ ~ . .and attdbute ,

correctlymemory, an d history do not existwithin neatly defined boundaries: "Memories and memory objects canmove from one realm to another, shifting meaning and context. Thus personal memories can sometimes be subsumed into history and elements ofcultural memory can exist in concert with historical narratives."5o If wecompare Sturken's concept of tangled memories to my concept of mediatedmemories figured in the diagram, they differ on two accounts. As figure Ishows, it is possible to advance mediated memories from both the right an dthe left angle. Sturken approaches manifestations of cultural memory fromthe (right) angle of collectivity. What is more, she explicitly excludes "shoe-box contents" insofar as they remain private possessions, not having gainedany cultural or political relevance in the public, collective r e a l m . 5 l ~ S t u r k e n ' sapproach is similar to Alison Landsberg's who proposes the term "prosa;:etic memory" to arguei:hat m e m ( ; r i e s ~ e ~ ~ t ~ o : much' o ~ i a l l y ' con

- ; ; ~ ~ t e d or i n d i v i d l ~ ~ r o ~ c u r r e n ~ e s b ~ ~ " .... at the interface of individuala n W l e e t i v e e ; p ~ r i ~ ; c ~ ; " - ~ h ~ ' ; ~ ; ~ ~ " ~ h ; ~ p r o s ~ h ~ ~ i ~ ~ 7 r l e ~ ~ r y .is .. inter.;r;;JiIi" G ; g ~ j ~ ; ; : j ; s ~ ; ~ i i l i f ! 1 p J ~ ! < ? n ~ d 4 i ~ ~ i c ~ . t h a D ~ ; : ; ; t h ~ ~ E i ~ i ~ ; ; ! i a lquality'or p r o s t h e ~ ! . , ? ~ ~ < : : . ' ! l ( ) E y a n d in t!le_!arnifj


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25

-1/") 1../' / " ' j / i ~ ' -;,,7 ~ ; ; ; : c . t X I' ) ? ~ U ? , C t ~ 1 ( ~ : : - "!

, ' ~ , . . - : ; : " ' I( ; / / ' ~ ~ : ' C ( ~ ; " /C,n' .:'"/ ' >',7//t"r''//(c !24 Mediated Memories as a Conceptual Tool

There is one more aspect in my proposed concept that I wish topush to the fore: th e term "mediated memories" s j E ~ < ' : f . 1 . d e d a s _ : 3 . : E ~ p

'_ . tual tool for th e T d y ~ ; : ; ; ; T c ~ ' ~ ; ~ t i ; ; ~ ~ ~ s b chang/rig I ) 1 . ~ m o r . ) ' : ar(I. t i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ s ~ ~ d { a t e d culture. P e o p T e ~ i ~ l d ' p h o t o an d videoc ~ ~ ; ; - r ; : ; ' ~ ; - ; ; p ' i : i t ~ - ; ~ ~ ' p ~ ~ s and pencils, audio technologies an d so on torecord moments in which lived experience intermingles with mediatedexperience. During later stages of recall, they may alter the mediationof.the:,ir records as to relive, a d j u s ' i : ~ c h a n g e , revise, or eveneraseprevious!y}nscribed moments as part of a continuous project of e 1 f - t o ~ ; ; ' ; : ; : t i o ~ .Films or photos are no t "memory"; they are mediated b u i l d i n ~ 5 I ; ~ k sthat ~ ~ = ~ ~ i d " i ~ th e processof r ~ ~ ~ m b ~ r i ~ g : C o i l c r e t e ; ; b J ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t ; ; d for~ l a t i o n a l ~ ~ t s of memory; c ; ; l l e c t i ; ; n ~ ; ; f ; ; ~ d i a t e d objects, stored in shoeboxes, often become the material an d symbolic connection berween generations whose perception of family or self changes over time, partly dueto larger social an d cultural transformations, partly dependin g on the intergenerational continuity each family member brings into this heritage.Beyond immediate family circles, material inscriptions ma y become partof a more public project-for instance a documentary-and thus add toa shared collective remembrance. In an y case, mediated memories neverremain the same in th e course of time bu t are constantly prone to thevagaries of time an d changing relations berween self an d others.

As stated in the introduction to this chapter, a shoebox ma y containboth self-made media objects an d pieces of mediated culture. We increasingly wield technologies to rec ord selected pieces of culture, items considered worthwhile additions to ou r personal collections. In fact, everydecision to bu y a book or record, or to tape a television program, situates aperson in his or he r contemporary culture. Engaging in commercial transactions, like buying music CD s or television series in DV D boxes, differsfrom deploying the same equipment (tape an d cassette recorders, CDplayers an d recorders, VCRs, MP 3 players, an d computers) to create one'sown content, bu t both acts are immanent to the construction of culturalmemory.53By selecting, recording, rerecording, and sharing assorted itemsof mediated culture, people build up their personal collections as an evolving project of self-formation. Since th e 1950S, we no longer need to deriveou r personal tastes or cultural preferences mainly from social circles closeto us, because media have expanded the potential reservoir for cultural exchange to much larger, even global, proportions. Whether with friends or

.." ",: , . , /; l , ' ;" ' /: ' r{' - l'!.c,r.{(j'.'1,' . J " : ~ , : : : < " . < .;.,,,,'0'(/ / "d* -, ':( ,(,J. , ~ z ( . / t : : ~ ' . ~ , Y / #'/" }. t - ' l . " : " " ~ '

( } /" . { -"" . , / ) , - , . ' ~ p " < :> : / ~ ; /._.('r;r,A , ..,. it ' ('a I a ;;./ t / t t . t ' ) /"/.:: n : ~ : ' a n d - s o - r . ~ ~ : ~ ~ _ " , ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ e ~ ~ ~ s : ~ ~ I i # ' e ~ i 4 ~ c : t j V { e ~ ' ~ ~ ~ i d examine . a , ~confrontarions-oetwe.c:n)ndiv:idu:3.:liry . alld colle:ctivity. Counteracting theo ; ~ r ~ h e l m i n g ~ m p h a s i s on collective cultural m e m ~ r y , I aim to restore attention to the mediated items in ou r shoeboxes as collections worthy of academic scrutiny. Personal memory can only exist in relation to collectivememory: in order to remember ourselves, we have to constantly align an dgauge the individual with the collective, bu t the sum of individual memoriesnever equals collectivity. Moreover, I refute the presumption that shoeboxes are only interesting in hindsight, after history has decided whetherthey contain material worthwhile of illustrating particular strands of th egrand narrative. Our private shoeboxes are interesting on their ow n devices, as stilled cultural acts an d artifacts, teaching us about the ways wedeploy media technologies to situate ourselves in contemporary and pastcultures an d ho w we store an d reshape ou r images of self, family, an dcommunity in the course of living.

In the next chapter, I turn to the so far underexposed aspect of mediated memories' materiality an d technology, further exploring the rwoaxes model in light of recent cultural an d technological transformations.
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26 Mediated Memories as a Conceptual ToolBecause we are currently in the midst of a transition from analog to digitalmedia, we need to pay even more attention to mediated objects as sites ofcultural contestation. In order to succeed, we may need to further entwineperspectives of the biological an d cognitive sciences with the insights ofsocial sciences and humanities.

Memory Matters in the Digital Age

In the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the company Lacuna Inc. advertises its method for focused memory removal with the following slogan: "Why remember a destructive love affair if you can erase

When Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) incidentally finds out that his ex-Clementine (Kate Winslet) has undergone th e

Lacuna procedure to their bitterly ended relationship from her memory, he requests Dr. Howard Mierzwiak to perform the same procedure onhis brain. Joel is instructed to go home and collect any objects or mementos that have an y ties to Clementine ("photos, gifts, CD s you bought to gether, journal pages") an d to bring them to the doctor's office. Upon hisreturn, Lacuna-technician Stan wires Joel's brain to a computerized headset; the doctor holds up each separate object (drawings from his diary, amu g with Clementine's etc.) and tells Joel to let each triggerspontaneous memories. Stan subsequently tags each obiect-relaory and punches it into a computer, apparentlysociations on a digital ma p of Clementine. That same night, Stan and hisassistant come to Joel's hook up their drug-induced clientto a machine that looks like a hairdryer but generates images similar to

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), andstart the erasure process. As the Lacuna Inc. website explains: "The procedure works on a reverse timeline, which means it begins with the most recent memories and goes backward in time. This approach is to

jose van dijck mediated memories 1

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