This situation severely threatens digital progress in commemorating the Holocaust. Without comprehensive efforts to collect practice to-date, it is impossible to move beyond a fragmentary, experimental digital landscape of memory projects. Despite almost 30 years of digital development in Holocaust commemoration and education, there has not been enough systematic research exploring the range of projects or the experiences of those involved in them.
The Alfred Landecker Foundation’s purpose is to remember the Holocaust. This why the Foundation has partnered with the University of Sussex to establish the Landecker Digital Memory Lab, aiming to build a platform to consolidate existing digital projects and support digital innovation in the fields of Holocaust memory and education. The Lab will be one of the world’s largest research projects in the field of digital Holocaust memory. It will preserve, for example, recordings of digital projects dedicated to Holocaust memory, complemented by interviews with a variety of professionals involved in their development and use at Holocaust memorial sites (from programmers and designers to curators and educators). Through this, the Lab will serve as a 'living database,' offering Holocaust memory and education institutions valuable insights from historical digital practices by providing the first database of its kind.
Over the next five years, the Landecker Digital Memory Lab will focus its work specifically on Holocaust memory with the following objectives:
- Realign the international research field with the first major academic study to recognise digital Holocaust memory as a global and hyperconnective phenomenon.
- Ensure digital work in this field develops upon existing practice by developing an accumulative collection of projects and experiences. This so-called ‘living database’ aims to be a unique resource for academics, memory professionals, and tech and creative professionals developing memory content.
- Enhance interdisciplinary and inter-sector dialogue about digital memory through the creation of an online journal and a series of networking events.
- Improve digital literacies and capacities within the Holocaust memorial sector specifically through the development of a series of co-creation innovative initiatives and a complementary suite of free training and consultancy activities designed for those working in Holocaust and other memory institutions.
The Lab’s team will also run a series of innovation initiatives across Europe, bringing together heritage, creative and tech professionals, and academics to design digital solutions to sector-wide challenges, and will host three international conferences.
The research and activities of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab will connect knowledge about digital Holocaust memory projects, enable innovation in the field and ensure that memorial sites, museums and archives are better equipped for the digital age.