The Hybrid Memorial

Holocaust memorials and museums use digital technologies for expanded knowledge acquisition as well as intensified emotional engagement through augmented and virtual media installations at the physical sites of difficult heritage as well as from afar by means of online portals, archives and even social media. This presentation analyses such modes of augmented, virtual and hybrid commemoration in light of previous practices of expanded memory by means of analogue media and multimodal exhibition curation. It explores a variety of online and onsite configurations of expanded memory that use technologies of augmented, virtual and hybrid experiences. In doing so, the presentation offers a holistic approach to the phenomenon of digital memory culture by integrating approaches from different disciplines (social science, memory studies, media studies) and bringing together “old” and “new” media configurations and qualitative analysis of media experiences with mixed methods reception research. Furthermore, it investigates the human-memory-media interface and interrelates and maps different digital approaches towards Holocaust memory.