Memory and Memorialisation
"Memory is the faculty of the brain by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action".
"Memorialization generally refers to the process of preserving memories of people or events. It can be a form of address or petition, or a ceremony of remembrance or commemoration".
Source: Wikipedia
"Historical narratives are important elements of cultural heritage. They play a decisive role in collective identity, with people striving to retrieve, validate, make known and have acknowledged by others their own history, on the one hand, and contesting interpretations, on the other".
Source: United Nations Human Rights
A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) first designed in 1994 for the automotive industry in Japan. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached.
Source: Wikipedia
Faded Cemetery-The Digital Cemetery
In the present time of history and with the integration of social media into all aspects of our lives including memory and memorialization, the terms have come to also include the etheral sphere of the internet. For my project, I have looked into the rold of social and digital media in the shaping of our collective future and how some of us if not all of us will be remembered in years to come.
According to statisa.com, there are estimated about 1.69 billion facebook users and for those of you who have a facebook account then you will know that a facebook account is never ever completely deleted even in the case of one's death, your account remains as an etheral marker of your once mortal existence. This got me thinking about the possible changes to cemeteries of the future.
In the Faded Cemetery Project; I propse a digital presence, a facebook of the cemetery. Through the placement of QR Codes on the faded grave stones and markers and linking these codes to social media pages and a website, we are able to view all the information relating to the cemetery and all those that are buried there. This then becomes a place of living history and also a place where can contemplate the changing history of man from sticks and stones to digital technologies and the future beyond.Memorialisation becomes a collective act of participation by all those who visit the Digital Cemetery.
Visitors to the Digital Cemetery can access the information from their mobile devices or through a touch screen placed within the cemetery compound. This is a symbolic project but in years to come this might be the reality of inner city cemeteries around the globe.
The Artwork below are digital sketches of my imagined Digital Cemetry.
