Mixing the Memory: Individual, Cultural, Public Memory & Sound

I’ve often heard that smell is the sense most strongly tied to memory. And you hear about how people will ask you if you remember where you were when you found out about Kennedy being shot, or the Challenger blowing up, or September 11. But what about remembering sounds? Do certain sounds trigger memory? Can that memory be both individual and public, or cultural? How does or can new media participate in an evolving relationship between memory and sound?

Regarding cultural memory, Sturken (2004) argues that its “forms of remembrance” indicate the “status of memory” within a culture, a convergence point at which the “shifting discourse of history, personal memory, and cultural memory” meet (p. 401). And in a discussion of public memory-making, Prelli (2006) outlines the importance of rhetorics of display in rhetorical study, arguing that rhetorics of public memory try to resolve tensions between showing and hiding, remembering and forgetting.

We all can hear a song and remember and event in our lives, or a certain time of our lives—songs of our childhood, teenage years, or songs from a wedding, funeral, or movie. DJ Spooky’s c.d. from Rhythm Science features sampling from old films and songs. Such sampling is not just about sound but is about sampling the past itself. Original audiences of the sampled clips mix memories of the original with the experience of listening to the new composition. Think how much films and television have affected our memories, not only of visuals, but of sound. I wonder how much new media will contribute, such as YouTube. Can it be that out of the thousands of videos containing pet-tricks and angst-filled diaries, something might emerge that writes the script of public and cultural memory?

Sturken, M. (2004). The wall, the screen, and the image: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In C. Handa (Ed.), Visual rhetoric in a digital world: A critical sourcebook. Boston: Bedford.

Prelli, L. (2006). Rhetorics of display. Introduction. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

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