Memorial Thoughts

I have really enjoyed learning about memorials in the class so far. There are many aspects of the memorials that I have not thought about before. For example, there have been many memorials that I have visited which were most likely loaded with meaning connected to its structure and ritual that I completely missed due to lack of knowledge about how important these aspects of the art from are.

I also did not realize the full scope of memorials in our communities. With living memorials and traditional memorials taking very different roles and functions within a community, we are often always surrounded by memorials in whether we realize it or not. I know that I will start to pay more attention to the dedication plaques in a community’s park, their highway names, etc. I think it is really cool that all of these aspects work together to tell a story about the location.

However, this also brings me to my biggest concern with memorials. As we have been diving into deep analysis regarding memorials, we have come a across many that manipulate the narrative of a history much more than I imagined would be acceptable. The purpose of memorials is to ensure that people never forget, but if they only allow the public to remember one side of a story that can lead to problematic erasure of topics that need to be addressed. While I will be more eager to look at memorials after this class, I know I will also be much more critical of what they memorials do not remember.

A question that I have been thinking about is how will memorials and shrines change as we become more dependent on technology. Some of the readings have discussed how memorials use computers for database help and other functions as well as how some memorials take the forms of websites or blogs. I think it will be interesting to see how this affects the landscape of remembering.

Overall, I think that memorials can be very powerful when constructed in a way that allows a community to best connect with it, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Yet, as we have seen, memorials can also fail to commemorate or serve a community well. Memorials are much more complicated than I expected!