REMATERIALIZING MEMORY
CO-CONSTRUCTING THE MULTISENSORY MEMORIES OF ASIAN THIRD CULTURE KIDS (TCKs)
2022-2023
Winner of OCAD University Medal (Digital Futures) and President's Award
Rematerializing Memory is a research project that explores themes of memory, identity, loss and belonging within Third Culture Kids (TCKs) in Toronto's Asian Diaspora. Having been identified as global nomads or cultural chameleons, the lived experiences of these individuals have often been characterised by mobility and transiency. As an inevitable by-product of these experiences, feelings of unresolved grief and loss begin to arise as their insider-outsider relationship with culture continues to challenge their sense of belonging and connections to their cultural identity. Using miniature models to recreate the memories of its participants, in conjunction with a multisensory approach, this immersive installation aims to answer the project's research question on whether the co-construction of memories can be used to bring healing and reconciliation when addressing feelings of unresolved loss and grief. Approaching the project from a position of cultural preservation and reconnection, the project aims to create space for these voices and stories that are often unheard. Highlighting these memories—however mundane—as valuable pieces of an individual’s culture and identity. Through this, the project invites others to share in these experiences, creating nodes of connection and empathy with those who share the land that we live on.
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The definition of a TCK as paraphrased from Van Reken and Pollock in their book: Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds is that Third Culture Kids (TCKs) refer to individuals who have accompanied their parents to live most, if not all, of their childhoods and developmental years outside of the country from which they hold a passport. It is the definition that has been used throughout my thesis document as well as when I explain my project to those who are engaging with it. But, when looking specifically at the feelings of loss and grief over my own fragmented self-identity as a TCK, it became clear that the void that was left necessitated a creation of space where I and others in my community could safely share our memories that tether us to our cultural identities. It was important to me that this project extends beyond my own personal experience of loss and grief as a TCK, and instead becomes a space that invites those both within and outside of the community to engage with these questions of self-identity, loss, culture, and spatial memory.
Programs & Materials Used: Laser Cutting and Etching, 3D Printing, Manual Fabrication, Birch Plywood, Clear and Mirrored Acrylic, Reflective Mylar, Glycerin, Natural Aromatic Ingredients, TouchDesigner, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Adobe Photoshop.
Prototype One
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The project’s initial prototypes utilised my own memory, the one that initiated the formation of this research project, and explored methods of storytelling that included the engaging of multiple senses. In my own story, the main sense being targeted was sound, and so, various audio clips were layered to help build out the atmosphere and depth of the memory being shared. Initially, I expected to do a large-scale installation, and so in this first prototype, I created a miniature space to act as the set within which the memory would unfold. This set representing a life-size room, its miniature scale used primarily for ease of transport and experimentation. Â
Prototype Two
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This first prototype changed the course of this project, as it deviated from a full-scale installation, to instead feature several macquettes each embedded with a memory to share. To experiment with this, I created my second prototype. Still working with my initial memory, I explored how space could be manipulated to tell a story, the inaccuracies and unlikeliness of these built environments lending towards the surreal nature of memory. Â
Through co-creation and implementing a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology, I worked alongside 3 participants, Tiffany, Esther and Unni, to reconstruct their memories within present space. Tiffany's memory revolved around her family's tradition of visiting a restaurant in Hong Kong called Ho Choi during celebratory moments, Esther's was of the frequent pitstops at snack stalls during their family road trips in Kerala, especially to get a drink of naranga vellam (a sweet lime soda), and Unni's was of his visits to the Ayappa Temple in Perumbavoor, Kerala. Working with miniatures was a decision that was made as the project developed, and I think, in doing so, allowed for greater detail and attention to be made on certain aspects of the memory maquettes. What was most interesting for me as the main constructer of the physical model was the interplay between real and imagined, in that there was a certain level of imagined memory that was shared by my participants, but beyond that, I also exerted some of my own imagination when trying to represent details of their memory in ways that made sense to me. And so, the final product, becomes this new world that is a combination of my participants real vs imagined that come together with my own real and imagined to finally create this whole other space that is different in many ways to the original but is still able to evoke the feelings of nostalgia and connection that was intended.
Some of the ways that the real and surreal worked together was these specific artifacts from their memory that was incorporated within the exhibit: namely, the turntable in Tiffany’s memory, the rainwater in Unni’s, and the soda bottles in Esther’s. To delve deeper into Esther’s artifact, she had specifically identified the soda bottles with a lime on it that would sit atop the metal counters of these snack stalls. And while they wouldn’t typically be hung the way that it is in the project, it references the ways that other snacks like chips or chocolates would be hung as display in these snack stalls. This further adds towards my involvement with the real and imagined, in that, myself being from Southern Indian state of Kerala and frequenting these kinds of stalls, I have the context within which these drinks and other snacks are sold, and so can start to play on those memories to create this new type of artifact that is unique, surreal, but is based on the existing, real.
This then takes me to the use of scents and aromas as methods of grounding the memory maquettes into reality. Each of the scents that were reproduced in the exhibition were identified by the participant as important aspects of their memory – Unni for example expressing the overpowering scent of sesame oil in the air by the time he would visit the temple in the evenings. To recreate these scents, were important in being able to create a fuller representation of the emotions and feelings of this memory. Throughout this project, I was continually reminded by how strong our senses are in relation to our memories, and the power they can have in connecting us to moments of our pasts. The scents created were as follows: soaps made of sesame oil, jasmine tea, and a combination of chilli, ginger and soy sauce for Tiffany. A 3D printed oil lamp was coated in sesame oil for Unni, and a bottle of naranga vellam (lime soda) was hung beside Esther's model.
The final sensorial aspect to this project was sound. When I was working on the sound files for the project, I actually created two versions for each participant – one with just pure narration, and the other with additional sounds to facilitate the narrative. When playing it back, however, I realised that the power of this story was it being told in their voice. Adding in the background audio was taking reference from my initial prototypes and while I think it worked for those ones which was based on a more sound-heavy memory, these ones didn’t require the background sounds to build the story out. There was something so beautiful to just listen to their voice as they told their story, with their own pauses, interruptions and occasional chuckles setting the scene and atmosphere of the memory. This research project began because of a conversation between a friend of mine and myself, and so these audio narrations felt like it was building off of that where you were engaged in a conversation with a friend who was sharing their story, and ultimately, I decided that this was more in line with the purpose of this project where a specific space and time is carved out for their voice to be heard, with no distractions.
