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The museum will be open on Monday, April 1st, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM! Book your tickets in person. We can’t wait to see you!

Preserving History in the Digital Age – One-day symposium with Dr Victoria Walden

This one day symposium brings together museum professionals, academics, and educators, working in Holocaust studies and related fields across Australia, as well as digital media specialists. This is an opportunity to meet colleagues, hear experts present on digital projects and applications, and discuss opportunities, challenges, & ways forward.

Click here to download the draft program.

Full program of speakers to be announced.

 

Keynote: Dr Victoria Grace Walden (University of Sussex)

How can we ensure the sustainability of Holocaust memory in the digital age?

For several decades, the holocaust museums, archives, memorial sites, and educational organisations has been preparing for the time when this past moves from a “living memory” to a solely “mediated memory” (James Young 2000). As we soon reached the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, this time is getting closer. Despite almost 30-years of digital development in holocaust commemoration and education, there has been no systematic exploration of the projects created to date and the experiences of those involved in producing and using them.

In my fieldwork, which commenced in 2022, professionals working at holocaust institutions have voiced their frustrations with feeling like they are ‘reinventing the wheel’ every time they approach a ‘new technology’ (knowing it has been done elsewhere but not connected to those other projects extensively enough to learn from their practice). Tech companies commissioned to produce digital works for holocaust museums and memorial sites often have a very different understanding of the possibilities of the technology to the curators and educators with whom they partner, which often leads to frustration and disappointment regarding the finished products (on both sides). Digital capacities and literacies within the sector are uneven and few organisations have a permanent team dedicated to their digital development and projects are often funded by short-term grants which leaves them abandoned after a short period, broken and buggy. There is also little support to run extensive user impact research, so as a sector, we are left wondering what really works and why bother with any of this expensive technology at all? Social media has also made denial, distortion and hate more visible to staff as part of their daily work and emotional labour.

In-Person
$60 General Admission | $35 concession 14 Apr 2024

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Hearing from a survivor was such a moving experience, I recommend it to everyone that visits MHM.”

Alexander S. Visited 2022