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Walter Benjamin focuses on the past in relation to the present and how they incorporate memories in his piece “Philosophy of History”. Benjamin examines how happiness can transcend the past and the present.  Building off of that notion, he discusses how a feeling such as happiness can link what happened in the past to what is occurring in the present. To put happiness into context with other feelings that happen in the past or the present, he states: “the past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.” (Benjamin 255) Happiness is a fleeting feeling that comes and goes regularly, and Benjamin is comparing happiness to memories that exist within our minds. Just as happiness is a feeling that is brought up by a cute puppy or something that brings you joy, memories are fleeting in that they are brought up randomly, and disappear when you least expect it.

Benjamin continues to discuss the ever present connection between the past and the present. The present cannot be what it is today without recognition of the past, and that is history’s job to remind the present with the lessons and memories of the past. In order to fully understand history we must put it into context with the now. Benjamin argues that you cannot have one without the other, and he states: “history is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogeneous, empty time, but time filled by the presence of the now.” (261) Here Benjamin continuing his argument by uncovering the truth behind what history is really made up of-which are moments in the present.

In conjunction with Benjamin’s argument about the connection between the past and the present, Gastón Gordillo discusses how the ruins of ships from the past have become meaningful artifacts in the present. Ruins that become monuments carry both historical and social weight within their communities, and they can grow to represent something larger than themselves. In the town of Rivadavia, the remains of old steamships bring back memories from the past. They are the portals into a different time, a more prosperous time for the small town in Argentina. Gordillo discusses how these ruins can impact the collective memory of the people of Rivadavia, and how “the memories of prosperity  are shaped by experiences of poverty and decline that people unambiguously trace back to the shift in the course of the Bermejo.” (Gordillo 152) These ruins bring back memories of a different time period in Rivadavia, and they represent the change that has occurred since the time of their existence.

After finishing both of these readings I was able to gain a better understanding of the Bethlehem Steel Stacks. I found the Steel Stacks to be interesting because they are not ruins, yet they bring us back to a completely different time. Another aspect I found interesting about the Steel Stacks is how it is a museum out of something that used to be so ordinary. When thinking about Benjamin and his argument I was able to think about the Steel Stacks and how it is now a structure that talks about the past while also incorporating the present. When I was at the Steel Stacks and walking along the Hoover Mason Trestle looking at all the old stacks I could not help but think about how the work that was done here affected our lives today.

I also thought about the ruins in Rivadavia and how the remains brought back memories of a different time. I think that the steel stacks here do just that. These structures are the epitome of industrialization and represent the height of Bethlehem’s prosperity and success. Although now they look old and beaten down, they still have the power to bring us back to a different time in America’s history.

In Professor Salas-Landa’s piece she discusses the tedious steps that are involved in the excavation and restoration of ancient ruins. By focusing on what these structures mean to the culture in which they exist, Salas-Landa looks into these roles and how they affect the processes of excavation.  These structures became monuments, and Salas-Landa states that “they have emphasized the roles that the monuments of pre-Hispanic past played in substantiating elite notions of nationhood” (Salas-Landa 48). These structures were important pieces of the pre-Hispanic past and the present. Due to this importance the process of excavation and or renovation must be highly stressed because the loss of these monuments would be a devastating blow to Mexico.

Throughout the piece Salas-Landa draws our attention to the meaning of the physical artifact itself. Although ideologically these structures play a very important role and carry a lot of weight in the history of Mexico, we must pay attention to what is right in front of us. Salas-Landa discusses the process of turning a structure into a monument, and how these ruins were found, recognized and monumentalized.

I enjoyed this reading and was able to connect it to many of the other readings we have done in class. I think the process of monumentalizing something is very interesting and to think about what it means to take an ordinary object and realize the weight of its’ presence is an important concept within our society. In this class we have discussed the importance of artifacts, how the space that they occupy can affect their perception of those around them. I found it interesting to consider the role of the pyramids in Tajín and the relationship that they had with the people and culture there.

In this piece by Sandra Rozental, collective memory and the many different ways of remembrance are discussed. In the village of Coatlinchan the natives worship a stone that represents the Aztec rain god Tlaloc. This stone is one of the ways in which the village of Coatlinchan actively works to remember their heritage and spread the message of their history. Since the time of the stone’s discovery it has come to carry a significant amount of weight within the community of Coatlinchan, one can even say that it represents Tlaloc himself in the present day. Rozental emphasizes the importance of a physical artifact within a community that is committed to reliving and remembering their past. Rozental then goes into detail about the issues and complications that arise when transporting an artifact of this size. She discusses how the material importance of an object can lead to complications of the rightful owner of an artifact that is important to a particular culture.

Rozental also comments on the properties of a physical artifact within a culture. Because this stone was so large and needed to be moved elsewhere, it made sense for a replica to be made. Rozental discusses the issues that can arise when a replica is created. There are many problems that arise from creating a replica of an artifact, “but the transformation does not only concern the object’s discursive cosubstantiality with its’ original.” (Rozental 350) The people of Coatlinchan are concerned with this issue as well. As we saw in the movie in class on Monday, the natives of Coatlinchan are heavily concerned with losing the original message and story of Tlaloc in translation when it is transported and converted into different languages to show tourists.

After reading this piece I thought of the many ways in which societies can remember. I first thought of the power of touch, and how an object itself can represent a diety to a community. This stone represents many things within the smaller Coatlinchan community. It represents the living and dead personality of Tlaloc, and it constantly helps these people work to remember their heritage.

 

After Monday’s reading, this reading built off of the argument that dead bodies have political weight in our society. In this case, the dead body is used as a source of evidence rather than as propaganda. Josef Mengele is a man who was wanted dead by thousands of people, so his dead body was going to be a very sought after object. In order to avenge all the crimes that he committed, it was imperative that his remains be found and properly identified so that they could represent Josef Mengele and all that he did.

Throughout the entire piece Keenan and Weizman draw our attention to the fact that when observing an individual’s bones, it is imperative that we imagine the living human and think about how this body once functioned with a human soul. Because the bones of Josef Mengele were being used as evidence in a case that prosecuted Mengele and his war crimes, the bones became artifacts that belonged to a man that was once alive. These bones represent “the blurring of life and death, objects and subjects, which manifests itself everywhere within the discourse of and around forensic anthropology” (Keenan and Weizman 65). In this case, it is not Mengele’s body but his bones that represented Mengele throughout the entire prosecution. Although bones are a part of an individual’s dead body, they function very differently when it comes to remembering that person. In this piece the bones of Mengele simply acted as pieces to the larger puzzle that was his identity.

I found this piece to be interesting because I have never truly thought of bones in relation to the person whom they belonged to. This differentiates heavily when you are looking at a corpse in a casket for example. The corpse still appears to be the person, representing all that he or she stood for. However, the bones of that person represent something different. I believe that bones represent the history of that person, and their perception rather than their actual identity.

 

I found these readings to be very interesting because I had never thought about the power a dead body could carry, especially in a political sense. Both Yurchack and Verdery discuss how the bodies of certain people, such as leaders, can be heavily symbolic within a society and even go so far as to act as propaganda. In Russia especially, the body of Vladimir Lenin was used to live on his legacy and continue the message of his cult throughout Russian society. Yurchack states that Lenin’s body is “suspended between the two modes of art and biology” (Yurchack 136) . Here the dead body of Lenin is seen as a sculpture, a work of art that will forever be untouched by time. I found this interesting because a human body is the epitome of something that is constantly ravaged by time, and ultimately destroyed because of it. But when looking at dead bodies through this lens you are ultimately preserving it forever, which will continue to spread the same message as it did when it was alive.

To build off of the idea that dead bodies continue a certain message, Katherine Verdery discusses how dead bodies can be perceived by a general group of people. If dead bodies are symbols, just as a monument or a plaque, then the power of the dead body is open to interpretation by whoever chooses to use its’ power. Dead bodies have properties greater than living ones, and Verdery argues that “a body’s symbolic effectiveness does not depend on its standing for one particular thing, however, for among the most important properties of bodies, especially dead ones, is their ambiguity, multivocality, or polysemy.” (Verdery 28) Dead bodies have the ability to transcend the levels of humanness and artifacts, because they are both at the same time.

After reading both of these pieces I thought back to the 9/11 memorial. In the museum there is a huge wall with the words of Virgil placed on it saying:
“No day shall erase you from the memory of time” and behind that wall are the corpses of the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In this instance, these bodies are meant to represent the lives lost on this day, and to encourage us to remember and preserve their memory. Here the power of dead bodies are being showcased, and I found that to be extremely moving. The absence of life within a body does not necessarily mean that its’ existence and legend are simultaneously erased, if anything, it installs its’ memory forever.

I was able to go to the 9/11 with my mom today after the group went to the memorial. On the way to the memorial I was thinking about the terrorist attacks and the effect that they had on New York City. 9/11 has been an event that has always been present in my life, but I had never truly thought about the event itself, just the feeling of pain that it had left on the United States. Growing up outside of New York City with family members and parents who had worked in the city allowed for me to feel a connection the memorial. I had actually found out from my mom today that my aunt worked on the 108th floor of the North Tower, and on September 11th she had a doctor’s appointment so she did not come into work. To this day my aunt has refused to come back to Ground Zero or to walk through the memorial or the new World Trade Center.

It was harder than I thought to go through this memorial with my mom. Today I also found out that my mother had worked on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center, and it was particularly difficult for her to walk around the area where she had once worked. She talked about how amazing the towers were, and what it was like in New York City when they stood looming over the city’s skyline. As an adult who experienced the immediate effects of 9/11, she said she had been avoiding going to the memorial. Something that I found particularly interesting is that throughout the entire day, my mom kept remembering more and more about that day and what it had meant to her in the moment. This made me think back to Maurice Halbwachs and his notion of collective memory and how it can apply to the individual. By looking at photos and the old news reels that were present within the museum, my mom remembered the complete disbelief that was felt on that day.

As I walked down the stairs in the museum, I was presented with a quote from Virgil: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time”. I found this to be one of the most powerful messages throughout the entire memorial. Not only does this quote pertain to the aspect of collective memory, but I also was reminded about the notion of what it means to commemorate and memorialize. This memorial was created in order to remember those who were lost and to create their place in history. As a child growing up in a post 9/11 world, I usually blanket the actual day just as “September 11th” or “9/11”. This memorial made me think of the day itself, and instead of the pain that was felt afterward I learned fully about the pain that experienced while these events were occurring. This quote made me think about what it really means to remember, and the many ways that we can and do remember the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th.

I found this trip to be extremely moving and educational. I learned more than I could have imagined about this day. Words cannot describe the feeling that I felt when I entered the hallway that featured the before and after 9/11 pieces. When looking at newspaper issues on September 11th, 2001, it is strange to think that everyone woke up on a Tuesday thinking it was like any other Tuesday. But from now on, September 11th will remain one of the biggest days in American history.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the sound walk, which  I felt added to the overall experience of the memorial. I felt that it helped me to really imagine what it must have been like to experience these events first hand. I felt the pain and suffering of those who lost loved ones on this terrible day. One of the most moving parts of this sound walk was the dad who was talking about losing his son who worked 38 floors above his office on the 105th floor. This father talked about the hatred he had for the al-Qaeda members who committed the attacks, and how he was unable to live with the anger and pain that they had caused him. I found this to be particularly powerful because there was one part of the museum that focused on the hunt for al-Qaeda after 9/11 and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. It is hard to discuss 9/11 and not think about Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, but when we are remembering 9/11 it is imperative that we think about the good and the bad. Although I did not personally lose a loved one in these attacks, I agreed with this father when he was discussing his feelings of anger and hate towards those who took his son’s life.

I think that this is an important piece of remembering 9/11. In our world, because of the media and our interconnectedness it is impossible to stop thinking about those who took 3,000 American lives on September 11th. Although we might want to focus on those who died instead of those who did the killing, the perception of 9/11 in American society to this day heavily focuses on al-Qaeda and the terror that they caused.

Throughout the entire museum you are constantly faced with the people who lost their lives on September 11th. This mode of remembrance is almost being forced down our throats, and as I walked through the museum I was thinking about the decision to present the memories of those fallen in that way. Andreas Huyssen states that “is it the fear of forgetting that triggers the desire to remeber, or is it perhaps the other way around?” (Huyssen 431) This made me think of what this museum is trying to accomplish. Obviously we are trying to remember- but for what reasons?

I am writing about 9/11 for my final research project and I found that this museum was extremely helpful in learning more about how our country reacted to this terrible event. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of listening to the sound walk and walking through the museum.

For this assignment, I watched the interview with Derrek Brooks, Charlie Brooks Jr.’s son. After talking with Gabriel and reading about the project’s mission, I expected these interviews to be extremely emotional and painful as family members relive the injustice of someone they loved. Although Derrek was emotional at points, overall he was calm and collected throughout the entire interview, which I found surprising because he was talking about the unfair death of his father. To me it appeared that Derrek was discussing his father’s death as something that just happened that he had no control or anger over.

As the interview went on, I found out that he was at a place in his life where he had accepted what had happened to his dad. Derrek stated that his family had suppressed the story of Charlie, and just thought of it plainly as a death in a family rather than a terrible tragedy. Derrek stated that until the Texas After Violence Project had contacted him, he hadn’t spoken about his father in a long time. To get to this point it took time for Derrek and his brother Keith to settle down and process what had happened to them and their father. I was surprised at Derrek’s interview because I expected for him to speak more to the injustice that his father experienced, rather than the memory he currently has of the story and of Charlie.

Watching Derrek discuss the memory of his father and how he thought of his father’s death at the time of it happening made me think of Maurice Halbwachs. Halbwachs discusses the notion of collective memory and discusses how the events in our past and the way we remember them can impact and affect our current selves, and our current perceptions of events that occurred in the past. This relates directly to Derrek’s interview about his late father. Throughout the entire interview, Derrek is constantly stating that his feelings reflect the way he thought about his father’s death at the real time of his death. Halbwachs believed that placing someone back in the place where the memory exists we can understand their viewpoints and opinions on the subject at hand. Derrek stated that his family chose to not discuss or think about Charlie’s death often because it brought up a world of pain, however this interview places Derrek back in that world where he is forced to rethink how he viewed his father’s trial and death. Taking Halbwachs argument into consideration when assessing this interview explained the way that Derrek discussed this traumatic event.

I felt that these three readings paired well with our previous discussions on photography. Although sound is a completely separate entity from photos, it still can provide a deeper look into many societies, and reflect on group memories. Sound and language are very interesting concepts, and I appreciated how the authors discussed their importance within cultures and the roles they play especially when it comes to resistance. These pieces also probed me to think more about sound and its’ place within our daily lives.

When ripping sound from a visual, it sometimes can be hard to get a feel for the environment that the sounds are coming from. In the transcript of “un viaje un omnibus” I found it difficult to place myself within the scene that this transcript was being derived. I think here is the fundamental difference between image and sound. In my opinion, images are stuck the way that they were created, whereas sound is something that is always active and moving. Bronfman and Ehrick state that sounds “offer new ways to think about the body, urban space, memory, the production of knowledge, and modes of resistance” (Bronfman and Ehrick 212). This made me think about how sound is constantly changing with us, depending on where you are, who you are or what you are doing. I found this quote to be stimulating because it made me think about the ways in which sound can function in our lives, especially in terms of memory.

I believe that sound has an important relationship with social memory. During these readings I could not help but think of post traumatic stress disorder and how sounds act as triggers for those suffering with that disorder. Then I thought about how I hear sounds every day that bring me back to a different point in time, and back to a particular memory.

 

At first glance of this image, one would see wedding pictures of the bride and groom on their wedding day. Taking a closer look, you see their straight faces and the lack of happiness displayed in the room. It is a close up shot, so we are unable to see the rest of the room but the three people that are present in the photograph have solemn looks on their faces.

I found this to be intriguing because it is unusual to appear unhappy on their wedding day. Then it made me think about marriage in their culture, and how it may differ than it does in American culture. By looking deeper into the setting of the image, I was able to determine that weddings may not be that important or as lavish as a celebration as they are in western culture because this wedding is being hosted in a structure with dirt floors and minimal decorations. Taking a step back and looking at the overall feel of the photo, it does have a dark gloomy air about it. The only light part about the image is the clothes on the people featured in the picture, but other than that the rest of the image is dark. This gloomy air matches the facial expressions of subjects of the photo.

As we have seen from other readings, photographs and cameras are ways of producing and using power within a society. Both Sontag and Azoulay discuss the power of the photograph and how the camera itself has power to relive certain atrocities. Although this picture is not showing an image from war, the faces of the people in the photograph can lead the viewer to determine that something has happened in order to create those solemn faces. This then lead me to think about who was taking the photograph, and who made the decision to have this event photographed in the first place. It lead me to a string of questions that concerned the reason of the photograph, the photographer, and the intended purpose of the photograph. Azoulay and Sontag bring up these questions in their work as well, all of which relate back to the power that photography can carry in any given society.

I found both of the readings for class today to be extremely powerful.  After Barthes’ reading I became aware of the power of photography and how photographs can touch individuals on multiple different levels. Although photos merely represent something that happened in the past, it is clear that they can still heavily influence their observants. This was brought to light in both Sontag and Azoulay’s pieces for today. Both women bring to light the pain and suffering photographs uncover when depicting images of war. These photos are simply documenting the slaughter that occurs, and as Azoulay states, they “restore the atrocity” (Azoulay). Azoulay engages with the viewer and states that the spectator becomes involved with recreating the disaster that these war images are displaying.  Sontag and Azoulay make claims that photographs of war can be just as criminal as war itself, because of the power that these images carry.

From these pieces I came to the understanding that war photographs force us to relive what was happening at the time. Sontag states that “people believed that if the horror could be made vivid enough, most people would finally take in the most outrageous insanity of war.” (Sontag 7) It is through photographs that these horrors are made vivid. These pieces are also in conversation with Barthes claim that photography is death, because war photographs display the deep pain and suffering that occurs during a time of war.

When reading both of these pieces I immediately thought of World War II and the Holocaust specifically. When I think of war images, I think of men and women in concentration camps staring blankly into the camera behind a barbed wire fence. I then thought of the power of war time photos and how they are used heavily as propaganda. Although photos can make people relive the horror of war, I believe that they can also urge people to create horrors as well, just as some of these photos did in Europe during World War II.