(PDF) Mediated Memory Work: Conceptual grounding and empirical analysis of media- related remembering practices | Christine Lohmeier - Academia.edu

Paper presented at the conference: Changing Platforms of Memory Practices. Technologies, User Generations and Amateur Media Dispositifs Organized by Susan Aasman and Tom Slootweg, University of Groningen 10-12 September 2015 Title: Mediated Memory Work: Conceptual grounding and empirical analysis of mediarelated remembering practices Presenters: Christine Lohmeier, University of Munich Christian Pentzold, Technische Universität Chemnitz / Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society Mediated Memory Work: Conceptual grounding and empirical analysis of mediarelated remembering practices The mediated environments we live by are both, oblivious and observant. On the one hand, too many messages, images, tweets and comments compete for attention and nothing attracts concentration for long. On the other hand, all activities done in, with, and through digitally networked media are recorded, archived, and retrievable and in that sense cannot be forgotten. Under these circumstances, how can we possibly think about remembrance and memory in current mediascapes? In other words, how can we understand the ways, personal and public memories are enacted in environments that have become increasingly digitally networked? Following this fundamental question, we first develop a concept of 1 mediated memory work. Building on theories of social practices, accomplishing remembrance and commemoration is thus understood as happening in sets of sequenced activities done in relation to media and geared into personal as well as collective memories. Capitalizing on such an understanding of mediated memory work, the paper demonstrates how and to what ends the enactment of memories can thus be empirically studied by example of the Cuban American community in Miami. As an exile community, the experience of migration has made some of the analyzed practices particularly apparent. Then again, they are not specific to the Cuban American community or migrant communities as such, but rather can be observed in a variety of settings and communities. Building on participant observation, in-depth interviews and (media) ethnography, we outline practices, cultural artifacts, communal bonds, compassionate relations and a media manifold that have been employed by different segments of the diasporic collective to shape what and how the country of origin and the exilic experience is remembered. Within these examples the diverse strategies and practices of individuals of the community become apparent. They vary in terms of approach, intensity of engagement, the media employed in the process and the degree of institutionalization sought. In addition, by analyzing these dynamics we demonstrate the ways of passage memory objects undertake from moving to individual to collective realms and possibly back again. They also travel between analogue and digital spaces, for example, when they are described in a blog post as part of a memory practices or become digitized to enter a museum collection. Keywords: memory, media memory, mediation, mediatization, memory work, media practices, Cuban Americans, diaspora, exile 2