Live memory: Holocaust memory and the holographic encounter

Ravia, Gal (2024) Live memory: Holocaust memory and the holographic encounter. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

Inasmuch as Holocaust survivors are assumed to hold privileged knowledge of the past, their ageing is a matter of concern for those committed to Holocaust memory. Memorial institutions are preparing for the moment in which no survivors will remain by adopting cutting-edge technologies to preserve their stories as fully as possible. One of these technologies is the volumetric captures of Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, which lie at the centre of the current study. These testimonies, often referred to as “holograms”, allow museum audiences to interact with audiovisual, pre-recorded, and seemingly three-dimensional images of actual Holocaust survivors, and are part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony project. By examining museumgoers’ interaction with the holograms, the aim of this study is to explore what kind of Holocaust memory the holographic encounter promotes, and how it shapes its audiences as carriers of memory. In order to answer these questions, 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted with visitors and staff members of three US-based Holocaust museums, and 24 holographic encounters were subject to participant observations. Thematic analysis, with attention to discourse, was applied to interpret the data. The study demonstrates that, while the holographic encounter promises to produce a museum “experience” characterised by authenticity, intimacy, and sublimity, it is fraught with tensions that are negotiated by visitors on site. The encounter evokes a sense of authenticity, as a moving, first-person account of a seemingly-present witness, yet this sense is contingent upon visitors’ existing interpretative frameworks; it creates a sense of intimacy, with visitors being introduced to the story of a single witness and self-disclosing their interests and needs through their questions to them, but this intimacy is structured by socio-institutional values and priorities; and it induces a sense of sublimity, astonishment and wonder, bringing to mind a world beyond ours, yet interaction with the holograms is produced through familiar, banal interfaces. Such tensions, I argue, underlie the moment of “post-witness witnessing” – a transitory moment in which the existing structures and agents of witnessing are being tightly held onto, while simultaneously being reconfigured by changing social, technological, and generational conditions.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Gal Ravia
Library of Congress subject classification:	A General Works > AM Museums (General). Collectors and collecting (General) D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D731 World War II N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Sets:	Departments > Media and Communications
Supervisor:	Chouliaraki, Lilie and Orgad, Shani
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4819

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