Future of the Past. New Technologies in Commemorative Practice
events Program
[The webinar will be conducted in Polish with simultaneous interpretation into English.]
Technological progress and digitalization have led to more and more human experiences being shifted into virtual space. One of many is memory. The use of new technologies in memorial practices has increased significantly in recent years. Examples include digital time capsules, virtual or holographic memorials.
New technologies are advancing our ability to document areas of land and space, allowing for for more complex relationships to existing memory archives. This has become incredibly important in the thinking surrounding commemorative practices and building new orders of meaning in how we understand and process memory which will be the main topic of our webinar.
We will talk about the possible forms of using the latest digital technologies in the practice of memory work with:
✔️ conceptual artist Jagoda Wójtowicz,
✔️ Dr. Łucja Kapralska, a sociologist from AGH's Department of Social and Technological Studies,
✔️ legal advisor Dr. Bohdan Widła of the Jagiellonian University,
✔️ Dr Aleksandra Janus, anthropologist and director of Centrum Cyfrowe,
✔️and Dr. Katarzyna Suszkiewicz – a researcher of Polish-Jewish relations and head of the Education Department of the Galicia Jewish Museum
In connection with Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 18), we will also talk about Rywka Lipszyc, a teenage diarist from the Łódź ghetto. We do not know what Rywka Lipszyc looked like, not a single photograph of her has survived. What she left behind was a diary: the words she used to describe her personal tragedy, the difficult everyday life in the ghetto and her relationships with others. Together we will consider – using the example of projects carried out around the story of Rywka and her diary – how to reconstruct the fate of victims and survivors and bring it closer to recipients in digital form. Can an online repository be useful for teachers and educators? How can online materials be made valuable and useful?
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Dr Katarzyna Suszkiewicz
European Studies scholar, cultural educator and head of the Education Department of the Galicia Jewish Museum. She received her PhD in political science with a dissertation on the Holocaust in the political history of Israel. She is also a member and vice-president of the AntiSchemes2 Foundation since its establishment in 2014. Her research interests include the Holocaust, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the issues of material heritage, remembrance and the usage of cultural space.
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Dr Bohdan Widła
Doctor of Law, Assistant Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Jagiellonian University and legal advisor specializing in the law of new technologies. He is also a member of theCritical Heritage Studies Hub. During the webinar he will talk about the legal challenges arising in connection with the digitization of cultural heritage objects.
In connection with Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 18), we will also talk about Rywka Lipszyc, a teenage diarist from the Łódź ghetto. We do not know what Rywka Lipszyc looked like, not a single photograph of her has survived. What she left behind was a diary: the words she used to describe her personal tragedy, the difficult everyday life in the ghetto and her relationships with others. Together we will consider – using the example of projects carried out around the story of Rywka and her diary – how to reconstruct the fate of victims and survivors and bring it closer to recipients in digital form. Can an online repository be useful for teachers and educators? How can online materials be made valuable and useful?
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Dr Aleksandra Janus
Anthropologist, museologist, researcher of memory cultures and curator of cultural projects. She is a co-founder of the initiatives Laboratorium muzeum and inne muzeum and the research group "Visitor's Path". She also coordinated the Otwarte Zabytki project, which aims to facilitate access to knowledge about Polish monuments and advocate for their protection. She is a director and board member of the think tank Centrum Cyfrowe, which aims to help cultural institutions reach their target audiences using new technologies.
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Jagoda Wójtowicz
Conceptual artist, creator of new media projects and graduate of the Intermedia at Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie. She is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary collective Dream Adoption Society at Teatr Powszechny im. Zygmunta Hübnera w Warszawie, a group focused on developing the language of digital art – virtual and augmented reality in theater and performance art. She designed virtual worlds for performances such as "Feast" at Nowy Teatr and "NOTHING" by Krzysztof Garbaczewski at Narodowy Stary Teatr im. Heleny Modrzejewskiej.
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Dr Łucja Kapralska
Assistant Professor at the Department of Social and Technological Studies at the Faculty of Humanities of AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Co-editor of the volume "Network of Memory. Digital Forms of a Colective Memory." During the webinar she will give an introductory lecture on the relationship between new technology and social memory.
Panel Summary & Discussion