Performing Memory in the Age of the Internet
2012; Routledge; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13528165.2012.696867
ISSN1469-9990
Autores Tópico(s)Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration
ResumoThe article deals with the issue of the art of memory creation in the computer age, when the dominant visual paradigm is established by the Internet. It focuses on the analysis of the tear donating session The Cabinet of Memories (1998) and its reconstruction The Wailing Wall (2011), in which the Slovenian director Janez Janša invited the visitors to explore their emotional relationship with their memories. The installation is reflected on in comparison with the Renaissance Memory Theatre by Giuglio Camillo and his visionary anticipation of the Internet, which also inspired Janša's work. While providing the common points and the basic differences between the art of memory in Camillo's and Janša's theatres, the article focuses on the question of the configuration of perception and that of the field of vision, which profoundly determines the ways in which we experience, create and stage memory. The author argues that the structuring of memory in the visual order of the Internet is decisively influenced by two strategies of looking: the gaze that entirely absorbs the spectator into the scene (like Barthes’ punctum) and the gaze that takes place within the spectator's own field of perception and makes them part of the spectacle (in terms of Sartre's voyeur, surprised by the gaze of the Other). She demonstrates that the construction of memory in the computer age results from a constant negotiation between these two kinds of gaze.
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