Tourists of History: Souvenirs, Architecture and the Kitschification of Memory

Abstract

Technologies of memory take many forms, from photographs to architectural designs, from docudramas to memorials, from talismans to souvenirs, from diaries to the body itself. The aesthetic styles and designs of these memory technologies can span a broad range of taste categories and stylistic intents, from the sentimental object of loss and mourning to the angry political statement of an AIDS quilt panel. Such distinctions of taste are, of course, deeply tied to class-based notions of what constitutes appropriate taste in relation to memory and loss. They are also crucial to understanding the relationship of memory and politics. It is the case that the aesthetics and forms of cultural memory both enable and limit the memories that circulate through them. The aesthetics of technologies of memory are thus deeply political.