In the book ‘Mediated Memories – in the digital age ‘ by Jose Van Dijck they discuss,‘ The interconnection of memory and self is crucial to any human beings development.’ We each are our own person and we become who we are by being able to remember our personality and how we are as a person. ‘Our image of who we are, mentally and physically, is based on long term remembrance of facts, emotions and experiences; the self image is never stable but is subject to constant remodelling because our perceptions of who we are change’. We are built as a person from facts and experiences. Without these experiences and changes we would all be the same.
Personal cultural memory is generated by family (Photography/ Home videos) , this memory is pressed upon us by our family, friends and relatives. It is what we are told and shown in our history that builds us into a person and who we are. Collective cultural memory is produced by television, music records and the mass media. Cultural memory is based on what the world and governments choose to show us, whether this be what tv shows we watch, what music we listen to, ‘Memories are effectively rewritten each time they are activated,’ Memories help us to have continuity between past and present. Without memories there is no distinguished difference between past and presence. When we revisit somewhere that has an emotional attachment we then change the memory by adding new memories to it. The memories are then tainted. We can’t always make out the difference between tainted memories.
‘Without the ability to remember we would have no sense of past or present’
Reading this book has changed and influenced the decisions I have made through the project. The reading made me reflect on my own personal memories and how I feel my memories have changed. When shooting, this has meant I have tried not so much to recreate my memories but capture new ones while using the past to inspire me. As an example I always remember playing in the sand at the beach and building sandcastles, instead of trying to capture this I have captured the grains of the sand and footprints in the sand as a new memory.