Footnotes to the Archive: Memory in the Digital Age

Abstract

Memory is often seen as a tool to recapitulate the past. But this process of recapitulation can be seen as a process of understanding a marginalized notion of the past. Seen from this standpoint, there is a proper dichotomy between the notions of memory and history. More will be discussed about the dichotomy between these two notions later. To focus on the aim of this paper first; I must state that there has been a lot of recent focus on the notion of material memory. But within its brief scope, this paper will look to understand the philosophical underpinnings and by products of the creation of a digital archive with images of objects that evoke memory. The paper will look to deal with questions like- how does the horizon of memory connected with a particular object expand with the process of archiving? What exactly is being stored in an online archive? And what are the basic differences in approach while creating differing sorts of archives? (165 words)