Abstract
This chapter introduces the themes of the edited volume, Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age: Memorialization Unmoored. States have long sought to monopolize the narrative-producing functions of memorialization. The advent of new technologies, particularly in the digital realm, have permitted non-state actors to engage in greater and more public participation in memorialization, and thereby in the narrative production function it entails. The chapter offers an overview of the types of ‘unmooring’ of memorialization from state control that have occurred more prominently in recent years, and it explores how the internet, artificial intelligence, and other technologies have altered the dynamics—and ethics—of memorialization. It concludes with a summary of the contributions to the rest of the volume.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, the platform Second Life features a virtual rendition of Germany during Kristallnacht at the “Holocaust Memorial Museum” site accessible at https://secondlife.com/destination/747. See also Draxtor (2017) for a video discussion of how Second Life hosts a virtual rendition of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp.
- 2.
For an extended discussion of the long path of narrative creation, revision, and forgetting, see Benjamin Forest and Juliet Johnson. “Confederate monuments and the problem of forgetting.” Cultural Geographies 26, no. 1 (2019): 127–131.
- 3.
See for example, the removal of a statue honoring King Leopold of Belgium from a public square in Kinshasa: Robert Aldrich. “Commemorating Colonialism in a Post-Colonial World” E-rea [En ligne], 10.1 | 2012, mis en ligne le 20 Décembre 2012, consulté le 28 Octobre 2018. URL.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
See for example https://www.facebook.com/KhaoIDangRefugeeCampThailand/
- 7.
See for example https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGag_gDJ1GrOKnHSxoDT6Vw
- 8.
The full quote taken from The Daily Beast: “I do not and never have believed the six million figure,” Johnson posted on Reddit in 2017. “I think the Red Cross numbers of 250,000 dead in the camps from typhus are more realistic. I think the Allied bombing of Germany was a war crime. I agree with David Cole about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real.” Will Sommer, The Daily Beast, Jan. 17, 2919. https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-congressmen-meet-with-holocaust-denying-troll-chuck-johnson?ref=home
- 9.
Holocaust Denial, Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/fightinghate/extremist-files/ideology/holocaust-denial
- 10.
Deborah Lipstadt. 2019.“Debunking Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Denial On Trial” https://www.hdot.org/debunking-denial/
- 11.
- 12.
Joint House and Senate Hearing, 114 Congress, “A Century of Denial: the Armenian Genocide and the Ongoing Quest for Justice”, Apr. 23, 2015, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-114jhrg95113/html/CHRG-114jhrg95113.htm
- 13.
Hutton Patric. H. (2016).
- 14.
See https://digg.com/2018/second-life-in-2018 (accessed on October 28, 2019). Seven such memorials were cataloged in the Second Life news blog, “Second Life Newser” on September 11, 2015 (http://slnewser.blogspot.com/2015/09/911-memorials-in-second-life.html, accessed on October 28, 2019).
- 15.
Sarah Hucal, “When a Selfie Goes Too Far: How Holocaust Memorial Sites around Europe Combat Social Media Disrespect.” ABC News online, March 30, 2019, accessed at https://abcnews.go.com/International/selfie-holocaust-memorial-sites-europe-combat-social-media/story?id=62025268 on October 20, 2019.
- 16.
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Simon, D.J., Zucker, E.M. (2020). Introduction: Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age—Memorialization Unmoored. In: Zucker, E., Simon, D. (eds) Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39395-3_1
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