The new grey of memory: Andrew Hoskins in conversation with Huw Halstead

Andrew Hoskins*, Huw Halstead

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Andrew Hoskins – interviewed by Huw Halstead – discusses the tensions and paradoxes of memory and place in the connective era. Digital media liberate memory from the spatial archive, but they also create a connective compulsion and dependency, a disconnect from the present moment and a loss of control over memory. The overwhelming abundance and immediacy of digital data breed a placelessness of the digital traces of ourselves, an algorithmic narrowing of information, knowledge and life. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified this compulsion to record to such an extent that it may be considered a new memory boom, an obsessive desire to remember. Locative and mobile technology may seem to locate us in space more than ever before, but they do so in ways that are beyond our comprehension: our smartphones know more about our locatedness than we do, ushering in a ‘new grey’ in digital memory. Yet, it is critical to be aware of the variegated geography of connective memory – and of Memory Studies itself.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)675-685
Number of pages11
JournalMemory Studies
Volume14
Issue number3
Early online date8 Jun 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2021

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • connective turn
  • COVID-19
  • digital memory
  • grey memory
  • hyperconnectivity
  • place

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