Memory as the theatre of archive footage – WORK PLAN
Description and goals of the project:
Inspired by the ideas of Walter Benjamin about memory and the violent revitalization of the past by the present, “Memory as the theatre of the archive footage” is a project, initially enclosed within the context of this blog, where the main actors are: the present and the past, the memory and the imagination of creative people, and archival footage. Through the remix of found footage material, I and other people will recreate the history of our parents, giving way to our memories and to a free and personal proliferation of meanings. The aim of this work in progress is to encourage anyone who is interested to develop a deeper aesthetic sense, to focus on their memories and imaginations regarding their families but also to connect with the cultural audiovisual heritage which nowadays at least, thanks to digital technologies, becomes accessible and vital. Furthermore, it will be interesting to notice how different people combine ideas about history and certain images to express meanings and how the images themselves impress these people.
Finally, the works created during this 5-weeks period will be displayed online together with the original footage and some notes.
Audience:
Film students, the creative participants and their families, archivists.
Resources:
Creative people, engagement, Walter Benjamin, found footage film, archives online, (enthusiatarchive.net, openimages.eu, archive.org), editing skills.
Results of the project:
The vignette will show at least one of the remixed video next to its original archival extracts. Some impressions and comments about the whole project and the recompilations of the past by the partecipants will also be displayed.
“The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.” (Walter Benjamin in “On the Concept of History.” )
There are 1 Comments to "Memory as the theatre of archive footage – WORK PLAN"
I’m truly impressed by the vision and strengh of this project using found footage and in specific amateur home movies to start a journey on the exploration of memory, collective and personal at the same time. I’m myself drawn to home movies for their universal character they share, a place where we can easily drop our rational forces and loose ourself in them, believeing they deal with our life. The power of those images and what they are able to uncover has still to be fully discovered, This project is a smart and visionary step towards this process. It needs further encouragement!