An analysis of the Instagram hashtag #museunacionalvive as a collective memorial
Giselle Beiguelman and Natalia Lavigne
Abstract:
This article examines visual content shared on Instagram about the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro after the fire that destroyed almost its entire collection on September 2, 2018. Analyzing the hashtag #museunacionalvive (“the National Museum lives”), and focusing on the first year after the tragedy, we discuss how this archive without a museum (Foster, 1996) can be understood as a diffuse memorial created by collective memories shared online. We also offer propositions about the remediation of an archive that no longer exists following the material loss of most of its 20 million items, through the ghostly images that survive as traces. We further argue that this involuntary memorial, emerging spontaneously through the sharing of personal archival images and other kinds of images, also compensates for the lack of public programs addressing memory and heritage preservation in Brazil. In this sense, we analyze a variety of these images and possible categorizations of this imaginary memorial museum shared by the public under the hashtag #museunacionalvive.
Keywords:
National Museum of Rio de Janeiro; Museu Nacional Vive; Digital memorial; Instagram; Imaginary museums
Abstract:
This article examines visual content shared on Instagram about the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro after the fire that destroyed almost its entire collection on September 2, 2018. Analyzing the hashtag #museunacionalvive (“the National Museum lives”), and focusing on the first year after the tragedy, we discuss how this archive without a museum (Foster, 1996) can be understood as a diffuse memorial created by collective memories shared online. We also offer propositions about the remediation of an archive that no longer exists following the material loss of most of its 20 million items, through the ghostly images that survive as traces. We further argue that this involuntary memorial, emerging spontaneously through the sharing of personal archival images and other kinds of images, also compensates for the lack of public programs addressing memory and heritage preservation in Brazil. In this sense, we analyze a variety of these images and possible categorizations of this imaginary memorial museum shared by the public under the hashtag #museunacionalvive.
Keywords:
National Museum of Rio de Janeiro; Museu Nacional Vive; Digital memorial; Instagram; Imaginary museums
Abstract:
This article examines visual content shared on Instagram about the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro after the fire that destroyed almost its entire collection on September 2, 2018. Analyzing the hashtag #museunacionalvive (“the National Museum lives”), and focusing on the first year after the tragedy, we discuss how this archive without a museum (Foster, 1996) can be understood as a diffuse memorial created by collective memories shared online. We also offer propositions about the remediation of an archive that no longer exists following the material loss of most of its 20 million items, through the ghostly images that survive as traces. We further argue that this involuntary memorial, emerging spontaneously through the sharing of personal archival images and other kinds of images, also compensates for the lack of public programs addressing memory and heritage preservation in Brazil. In this sense, we analyze a variety of these images and possible categorizations of this imaginary memorial museum shared by the public under the hashtag #museunacionalvive.
Keywords:
National Museum of Rio de Janeiro; Museu Nacional Vive; Digital memorial; Instagram; Imaginary museums
Article: https://www.academia.edu/45057018/Memento_Mori_Museu_Nacional_e_o_arquivo_sem_museu
Beiguelman, G., & Lavigne, N. (2020). Memento mori: Museu Nacional e o arquivo sem museu. Contemporânea – Revista do PPGART/UFSM, 3(6), e4. doi:https://doi.org/10.5902/2595523363395