Digital Memory: The Visual Recording of Mass Grave Exhumations in Contemporary Spain

Exhumations of the victims of Franco's repressive policies are cultural practices of tremendous heuristic value and allow for the analysis of the public emergence, circulation and consumption of traumatic memory in local contexts. The use of visual media to capture social action in the surround...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ferrándiz Martín, Francisco, Baer Mieses, Alejandro
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2008
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/21474
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/21474
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Social memory
Exhumations
Photography
Visual methods
Audiovisual testimony
Civil War (1936-1939)
Spain (history)
Franco dictatorship
ddc:900
ddc:300
http://metadata.un.org/sdg/16
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Collective memory
Description
Summary:Exhumations of the victims of Franco's repressive policies are cultural practices of tremendous heuristic value and allow for the analysis of the public emergence, circulation and consumption of traumatic memory in local contexts. The use of visual media to capture social action in the surroundings of the exhumations serves as both a recording and as a triggering device for this emerging social memory. In the first part of this article we shall reflect on the different forms of visual and audiovisual interventions by different social actors that shape around mass grave exhumations. In the second part we will focus on the visual methods used by social scientists, particularly the recording of video-testimony of survivors and witnesses.