Memory matters. It matters because memory brings the past into the present, and opens it up to the future. But it also matters literally, because memory is mediated materially. Materiality is the stuff of memory. Meaningful objects that we love (or hate) function not only as aide-mémoire but as memory itself.The international conference Things to Remember: Materializing Memories aims to explore a sustained focus on the materiality in and of memory. Such a focus helps to understand memory as a vibrant process, by analysing the active, creative and popular forms of remembering and forgetting. At the same time a materialist focus entails recognising certain forms of agency in material objects. On June 5-6, 2014, more than a hundred scholars from several continents will gather at Radboud University Nijmegen to inquire into the ways in which we remember with and through things, drawing cultural memory into the discourse of ‘new materialism’.

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014, 5-7 PM: Conference Opening Reception in Museum Valkhof.
Presentation and screening of Memory Objects, Memory Dialogues (2011), co-directed by Alyssa Grossman and Selena Kimball, a 26-minute split-screen animated ethnographic film that explores the complex nature of memory in post-communist Romania. Followed by drinks.

See the Call for Papers

NB. It is no longer possible to submit proposals.

Our previous successful conferences resulted in two book publications: Technologies of Memory in the Arts, edited by L. Plate & A. Smelik (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009). Performing Memory in Art and Popular Culture, edited by L. Plate & A. Smelik (Routledge, 2013).

Registration fees:

  • Regular: 175 Euro
  • PhD students: 100 Euro
  • BA & MA students: 25 Euro

Fees include tea, coffee, and lunches on both days, drinks at the opening reception, and access to all sessions and keynote lectures.

For non-speakers:

  • Regular: 75 Euro per day
  • PhD & BA/MA students: 12,50 Euro per day

If you are interested in attending the conference as a non-speaking participant, please use the registration form for non-speakers N.B.: there are limited spaces available for non-speaking participants!

Conference committee
Marguérite Corporaal, László Munteán, Vincent Meelberg, Liedeke Plate, Anneke Smelik, Lianne Toussaint, Wouter Weijers

Contact information
e-mailadres: thingstoremember@let.ru.nl

Bron: http://www.ru.nl/hlcs/programma%27s/things-to-remember/things-to-remember/