Critical Reflection

Prosthetic memories as defined by Alison Landsberg “are those not strictly derived from a person’s lived experience.” (25) However, they are “a result of an engagement with a wide range of cultural technologies.” (26). This creative task is an example of this, employing modified mediated images and audio to reconstruct a prosthetic memory depicting the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

This slideshow’s use of mediated images produce an obvious link to Landsberg’s notion of prosthetic memory by directly using iconic images from mediated technologies, yet the emphasis is placed on how the images are recreated to reflect the impression of memory. Each static image begins in black and white then proceeds to be layered over itself, reworked with altered photo quality applying Maureen Turim’s argument that visual and auditory techniques such as changes in picture quality or non-diegetic music indicate temporality (15-16). Using reworked images in such a way draws the spectator’s attention to the techniques exercised to demonstrate temporality accenting the inorganic origin from which the memory was derived.

The slideshow’s images depict temporality through filmic language but it also displays memory’s ability to be fragmented and mutable. Images are cropped, framed and altered before the viewer sees the full original image, highlighting the process of rewriting a memory in a new associative context each time it is recalled (van Dijck: 32). Layering each static image multiple times conveys the disjointed narrative of the recollection of the inauguration, initially incoherent like a modular narrative until a bigger picture is pieced together.

Shephard Fairey’s inauguration poster not only draws attention to the engagement of mediated technologies but also acts as a temporal anchor and memory signifier. The slideshow starts and finishes with this image, paralleling the effects of the other images, the poster image begins in black and white, symbolic of historical importance then it ends in colour highlighting the brain’s process of remembering. Thus is also evident in the repetition of the slideshow, the slideshow is repeated a second time but at a different speed displaying the pervasive nature of commodified mass culture.

Non-diegetic audio in the slideshow also reflects the disjointed narrative of the memory with more prominence on atmospheric audio such as the cheering crowd or the marching over dialogue. As previously discussed the audio changes portray temporality through its raw unpolished effect. Opting for a lower quality audio recording adds more authenticity to the experience as if the spectator was watching from their personal archive of experience. Dialogue that is included in the slideshow is sparse but poignant, choosing to focus on the visual potency of remembering.

Although prosthetic memories are not a by product of “one’s personal archive of experience.” (Landsberg: 26) it does not infer that memories created from engagement with mediated technologies are not authentic and real. Such as this representation of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, prosthetic memories can be assimilated as a consequence of a spectator’s interaction with technology.

Works Cited

Landsberg, Alison. Prosthetic Memory: The transformation of American Remembrance. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Maureen, Turim. Definition of Theory of the Flashback. London: Routledge, 1989.

van Dijck, Jose. Memory Matters in the Digital Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007.