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Transcript
0:00:00 - 0:02:26
Yoyo Munk
Welcome to 'In Memory | Of Being', a mixed reality work created specifically for the Level 5 Dome Gallery at State Library of Victoria. At its heart, this piece is about cultural memory and how our approaches to preserving that memory and choosing what to remember are shaped by the technologies that we use. Every library, archive or museum depends on technology in some form, from papyrus and the printing press to digital scanning and online archives.Each advance has changed not only what can be kept, but has also influenced our collective beliefs around what is important to keep. In this work, you'll be able to explore part of the library's digitised collection in a newly spatialised form, and I would invite you to notice how the way we encounter memory can shape our connection to it.These are the same images that you might encounter by scrolling on the library's website, but now they inhabit the architecture around you, enabling a different way of being with this collection. A common theme of the materials you'll encounter is fragility. Some items are literally fragile: glass plate negatives whose surfaces have bloomed and fractured with time. Others speak to the fragility of knowledge itself.Thousands of portraits appear here, whose subjects are listed simply as unidentified. They survive as part of our shared cultural memory, even as their personal stories have been lost. You'll also find a selection of vintage stereographs, which were early attempts to capture three dimensional scenes. Once popular, they faded from use as their viewing devices disappeared. In this installation, their sense of depth has been restored, at least temporarily, through mixed reality rendering.Scattered throughout are samples from the library's oral history recordings, spatialised as three dimensional sound sources. In the same way that my voice sounds to you now. There's also a subtle layer of interaction within this work as you move through the space. The attention that you give to certain images will make them more visually prominent. And this happens collectively.What draws your attention will influence what others see, and vice versa. It's a small reflection of how shared memory is shaped by collective focus over time. Ultimately, this work is an invitation to wander, to notice and to consider how we inhabit memory through technology. There's no right or wrong way to experience it. I hope it offers a moment to reflect on both the fragility and the beauty of what we try to remember.