Analyse the ways history and memory generate compelling and unexpected insights. In your response, you must make detailed reference to your prescribed text and at least one other related text.
Through history, documented evidence of past events, and memory, personal recollections of the past, a representation is conveyed. The perspective of the representation of the history and memory of events ultimately shapes the responder’s understanding of the event. This is evident on the Smithsonian website of American History, ‘Bearing Witness to History’ and Richard Drew’s photograph, ‘The Falling Man’, where the responders are exposed to different language forms and features that generate compelling and unexpected insights into the events of September 11.
The Smithsonian website of American History, ‘Bearing Witness to History’, allows the responders to develop compelling and unexpected insights into the events of September 11 through a perspective built on American values. The homepage of the website adopts a muted and neutral colour scheme, creating a sensitive atmosphere to memorialise those who lost their lives. The respect created for those affected suggests that even now, more than a decade later after the event, individuals are still suffering and the pain and anguish created by the event is enduring. The title of the website September 11: Bearing Witness to History’ is in present tense, which implies that the history of this specific event is an ongoing process that is still being recorded. The dynamic nature of history and memory is unexpected as our perceptions of these aspects are subverted in this site. The hyperlink ‘Tell Your Story’, invites the responder to personally reflect on the events of September 11, this may trigger many emotional traumas that the event has caused on many individuals and the submission of their memory contributes to the history of the event. The documentation of these memories allows those who seek for knowledge of the event on the website to be exposed to what happened and the human suffering the event caused, resulting in the development of compelling insights. The ‘Tell Your Story’ option encourages the involvement of every individual to promote various insights of September 11. Individuals are further encouraged to develop compelling insights by the rhetorical question ‘What does September 11 2001 mean to you?’ where the reader is subjected to their own interpretation of the event where memory ultimately affects the development of compelling insights. This demonstrates the effect of history and memory on an individual’s understanding of September 11 2001.
The ‘September 11: Bearing Witness to History’ website has been carefully constructed to influence insights that are developed. Specific artefacts, objects and stories displayed on the homepage were carefully selected to represent the event as a whole and simultaneously evoke nationalism and patriotism as well as feelings of remorse and reflection. The artefacts consist mainly of damaged US service objects, objects of workers and American symbols such as the American flag and bald eagle. The ‘American flag recovered from the World Trade Centre’ and a broken ‘scorched eagle finial from an office flagpole’ are included as they represent American society, although damaged they remain resilient and united, generating compelling insights of the comradeship amongst many Americans. The recovered artefacts are accompanied with a context paragraph, detailing the story and individuals related to the object. This allows the concept of memory to develop compelling insights of this event as individuals are again engaged with the history of the ‘attacks that fateful day’ because as Michelle Delaney, collections manager of the photographic history collection states in her curator story, ‘photography is how we all remember that day’, further emphasising the effect of history and memory on an individual’s insight of 9/11. Additionally, the individual has been granted the freedom of navigating the site to their own accord however due to the specific construction of the website, individuals are influenced to eventually follow the curator’s agenda. This develops unexpected insights as the individual questions the event as they are aware of the selective representation of the event on the website. The careful construction of the website therefore influences the insights that are developed.
The Smithsonian website of American History “September 11: Bearing Witness to History” ultimately offers an American representation of an American event. The Smithsonian mission statement provides an awareness of intent, where their ‘mission’ is ‘the increase and diffusion of knowledge’. However the knowledge provided by the website is based on American value which ultimately affects history and memory and the compelling and unexpected insights developed. This is because the concept of history is observed as an objective factual perspective of past events, however on the history on the website is created from memories and personal experiences which are subjective and biased. This results in the development of unexpected insights. As stated on the homepage of the ‘September 11: Bearing Witness to History’ website, their aim is to ‘give visitors an intimate experience that will help make this historic day more real in their memories,’ but this affects history and memory and results in unexpected insights. The mission statement of Second Story states that the collection included in their web design ‘represents its efforts to collect “history as it is happening,”’ encouraging the development of unexpected insights as the individual’s perspective of history and memory are subdued on the website. Compelling insights are generated by the ‘purposely minimal and subdued’ design to ‘allow visitors to bring their own memories and interpretations to their experience of the site.’ The comforting and supportive environment of the website created by the design and ‘Tell Your Story, a collaborative digital archive’ promotes compelling insights as individuals are enabled ‘to share their own stories of September 11 and to read the experiences of others.’ The selective representation of September 11 affects history and memory and the development of compelling and unexpected insights.
Richard Drew’s controversial photograph, ‘The Falling Man’ generates compelling and unexpected insights through its context. At fifteen seconds after 9:41 a.m., on September 11, 2001, a photographer named Richard Drew took a picture of a man falling through the sky, falling through time as well as through space. The picture went all around the world, and then disappeared, as it was rejected by the people of America and the rest of the world. The photograph consists of a symmetrical, two-toned background and a man aligned, bisecting the tower in the foreground. This symbolises the concept of two worlds, the world before September 11 and the world after. To many, the world was never the same when September 11 occurred, and the photograph demonstrates the transition from one world to another, evoking an emotional response and generating a compelling insight as the photograph triggers the traumatising and distressing memories of individuals. The small figure of ‘The Falling Man’ juxtaposed against the enormous towers in the background symbolised the enormity of the event. The photograph subverts American values as it depicts weakness and is a portrait of resignation. It is a negative representation of the painful event of September 11 2001. This generates an unexpected insight as the individual is forced to question the exclusion of the photograph of a man who ‘chose’ his way of death from either suffocation from smoke and debris or suicide by jumping from the building. The distress and trauma recreated influences the selectivity and construction of history, thus affecting history and memory and the development of compelling and unexpected insights.
Therefore, the dynamic nature of history and memory are both able to generate compelling and unexpected insights of emotional trauma and human suffering through the selective representation of an event such as September 11 2001 on the Smithsonian website of American History, “September 11: Bearing Witness to History and Richard Drew’s photograph, ‘The Falling Man.’