{2013}

The Migration of Memories

  

Multimedia Installation

2013


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  In The Migration of Memories, I explore the impossibility of an over-arching narrative as a symptom of globalization. This is an idea introduced by Nicolas Bourriaud in the Altermodern, where he describes altermodernity as a product of the digital age. Within one generation, our communication and information has rapidly migrated from analog systems to becoming digital footprints. How will the elusive and evasive digital age of archive and communication constitute future memories and history of mankind? Where do the memories go, and what role does forgetting play?

  A persona permeating this multi-media installation is my grandfather. He is a diaspora Chinese of the colonial times in Hong Kong, whose physical and mental state is now increasingly fragile. I took him as a point of departure, to take my representation of him as an object of inquiry into memory and representation. Using multiple modes of presentation such as digital photography, video, text and voice-recordings, the installation speaks to the layered, precarious and multifaceted nature of representation.

  The looped media at times overlaps and at times pauses. The act of representation shifts between micro and macro points of view, what is shown or heard is always partial. This “portrait” of my grandfather echoes the condition of the world I find myself living in—transitional and provisional. The memories of the past fading, yet at the same time mutating into new perceptions of reality.

 


photo credit: Dan Meyers


photo credit: Dan Meyers


photo credit: Dan Meyers


photo credit: Dan Meyers

 

Audio Sample: use headphones for stereo effect

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