Westerbork

How a Dislike of ‘Goodbyes’ Inspired Our Digital Holocaust Memory Programme

By Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden The Landecker Digital Memory Lab is up and running, but how did we get to this point? How did it all begin? The Director of the Lab gives her personal account of the events which led to the official launch event in London last week. I have a habit of not wanting to say goodbye to wonderful people when I meet them – this habit has served the Lab well. It’s always difficult trying to write an origin story because the way life twists and turns tends to make it difficult to identify a particular moment as pivotal. However, there are probably two moments that can be considered the origins of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab: The first British Association of Holocaust Studies Conference in 2014 held by the University of Southampton and University of Winchester. The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure’s (EHRI) Conference in 2019 held in Amsterdam, on the theme: ‘Holocaust Studies in the Digital Age. What’s New?’ During my PhD, I had wanted to explore the use of (digital) screens in Holocaust museums, but I was in a traditional film studies department, so this wasn’t possible. I settled on exploring the ‘intermedialities’ of [...]

Three Phases of Digital Holocaust Memory Development

By Professor Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden Through artificial intelligence, machine learning, crowdsourcing, digitisation, VR, AR and computer games, we take you on a tour of some of the world’s most prolific digital Holocaust memory initiatives by way of the theory of the ‘three stages’ of development. To argue that there are three phases of digital Holocaust memory development is not to suggest a clear and simple historical chronology from the 1990s – when digital technologies were first introduced into this arena – to now. Rather, this proposition offers a framework for mapping the different types of approaches organisations take when adopting digital media for the sake of Holocaust memory. These three phases are: the experimental, the normative, and the connective, and they define the different relationships organisations have with digital technology and cultures through their work. Let’s take a closer look at each of them. Experimental Phase This phase acknowledges periods of enthusiasm for a new medium, often led by a ‘what if?’ curiosity among a handful of digital advocates or a desire to shake up the status quo. During this phase, creators are explorative and playful with a medium’s possibilities, they’re not afraid to take risks and can be inquisitive [...]