EDITORIAL
come across as obvious , but the results were and have been effective and enlightening . While my students may not have had the expertise of a professional or an academic , each and every one of their proposed projects nonetheless made use of many of the elements that we too draw on as we unravel the knotted skein of the most current work on memory : the use and interchange of diverse disciplines , digital techniques , creative resources , versatility , a multiplicity of prisms and interventions , the blending of theoretical and physical elements , links between different scales of language and experience , plasticity in practices , a capacity for dynamism and adaptation , and many more . Most surprising was a persistent effort among my students to involve society and think of the public as a recipient of each and every small project or cultural activity that they produced . A young art student put her approach as follows :
“ I ’ m going to do an audio-visual project to convey the process of planting a cherry tree in memory of my grandfather and everyone else who has been alone in a critical situation , with a long history and many loved ones at their back . To counter so much anger , loneliness and helplessness with life , caring and humility . I want to project the result onto one of our classroom walls , together with text / subtitles about the process of creation , reflection and memory .”
The student ’ s grandfather recently wrote down the story of his life in a notebook , engaging in a form of written transmission that has salvaged such a great many personal , invisible stories and turned them into collective stories . However , our approach , which looks beyond the first two decades of the present century , is to promote and embrace the project of the young artist as a mode of transmission that not only regenerates memory , but also forces it to interact with our infuriating present . Many other projects have produced diverse and varied results too : a song , a video installation , a text , a piece of art , a reflection , a proclamation or declaration . They have amply achieved their goals as well , thanks to their dynamic use of digital tools , whose employment this time has been imposed by physical isolation .
Using the modest example set out above , I am thinking of the manifold nature of memorial work . Academic specialities of all sorts come into play when we retrieve , rethink and design a project or even a space for memory , including art , architecture , anthropology , sociology , political science , work with new technologies , and more . We have also seen how different social groups become involved in the effort and how , depending on each country , place , region or city , political power and the state , they always come into contact with an open narrative about the past .
A thousand analogous examples will come to mind from each of our professional and personal realities . At the European Observatory on Memories , our aim is to draw on the participation of neophytes and novices and to bring them together with professionals , experts and academics . The present issue of our yearly journal Observing Memories sets out to share these and other reflections on a concept that is becoming ever broader and more widespread : democratic memory .
The work of memory is a process . The conclusions of comparative examples and theoretical cases help us – or should help us – to learn from history and its memorial transmission and apply new formulas that draw on more and better engagement from our fellow citizens . This is the engagement that guides our actions , research and efforts to mobilize professional academic processes in and with
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Observing Memories ISSUE 4