9 - Voices from the Past: Memories in a Digital Space: The Case of AppRecuerdos in Santiago, Chile

Summary

Abstract

In this paper I analyse an ‘imagined space’, based on an application – AppRecuerdos – that involves installations in the centre of Santiago, Chile. The application contains 129 recordings of short narratives in the first person, told by someone directly involved in episodes referring to the years of Pinochet's dictatorship. Once it is downloaded on a smartphone, the app is automatically activated when the user passes a location where the narrative was originally recorded. In this way, the location is simultaneously the place of a past event from the dictatorship, the place of its enunciation and the place where it is listened to. AppRecuerdos is a political and memorial creation that re-signifies urban space, and is a testament to the capacity of digital devices for political engagement.

Keywords: Chile; Pinochet Dictatorship; Digital Device; Enunciation; Imagined Space.

Memory, Space and Technology

What happens when new technologies allow us to construct a virtual space in our imagination that is somehow suspended between the past and the present? When places literally start to speak their various embedded memories thanks to digital devices? When technology allows contrasting narratives from the past to reach our present, involving our senses and shaping our movements in the public space, forcing us to confront unexpected narratives?

These are among the many questions raised by AppRecuerdos in Santiago, a work that is at once an artistic installation, an anthropological experiment, an unusual archive of ‘minor memories’, both personal and anonymous, and a challenging proposal for a new way to imagine and explore an urban landscape.

From a technical point of view, AppRecuerdos is an application that can be downloaded onto any smartphone without the need to connect to the internet. The app contains 129 recorded files – 33 songs and official speeches, and 96 short personal but anonymous narratives – that can be listened to once the app has been downloaded. Every narrative is recorded in a specific location in the centre of Santiago, and is automatically activated as the user passes by with the app turned on. All the recordings are represented on a map that shows the locations where they can be listened to.

The recordings last a maximum of 15 minutes and can be listened to within a few metres from the source. Outside that area, the recording cannot be heard anymore; a new recording can be listened to when the user approaches a new transmitting position.