Memory privileges the private and the emotional, the subjective and the bodily. Against history’s rationality, memory rebels. Memory is malleable and subjective, allowing the person recalling an event to alter or even distort the situation for their own purposes. This idea can be seen in the Smithsonian website and Gordon Bennett’s artwork “Notes for Basquiat” , which both represent the event of 9/11 in vastly different ways. Personal and political bias can thus be seen in the interplay between historical factualism and collective, subjective memories.
The relationship between representation and texts can highlight how the nature of individual memory allows for the addition to collective memory, which thus enhances the establishment of historical
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William yeingst’s recount in the “collection story transcript” pop-up box in the collection pages of the website, uses active verbs which brings life to the event an reminds us that history can be enhanced with such narrative elements. Through these narrative devices history becomes a reflection of lived experience.
By archiving these particular stories, the Smithsonian is portraying the way in which history and memory share an equal value as a means of representing human experience. The conventions of each work together to provide a richer, more powerful, view of events….
The composer’s purpose and representation of historic events inevitably shapes our understanding of their value and meaning to our society. Gordon Bennet’s artwork is politically explosive in exposing the surreal truth. The layout of the written words in the painting is positioned deliberately as towers. The words are arranged to represent what western society stands for and how this has been destroyed. The colour scheme in the painting is also mainly red, white, and blue, the patriotic American colours. This contrasts to the event which for many Americans was merely black and white. The melting and shifting in the colour scheme in the paining emphasises the disintegration of American society. Gordon Bennet uses this painting to ultimately alter and distort the collective memory of 9/11 by exposing