http://vectors.usc.edu/issues Summer 2012 Volume 3 2
It has been more than twenty years since Ronald Reagan delivered his farewell address to the nation after two terms in office. In his speech, Reagan warned against losing our collective memory, and with it, our sense of national identity. "If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit." Reagan's call for national pride and unity seemed anachronistic even 20 years ago but he pulled it off with an avuncular wink that would have been unimaginable from any of his successors. The world seemed closer to apocalypse in those days but it's hard not to look around and feel that things have only gotten so very much worse.

Like our own century's George Bush, Reagan's immediate successor had been in office only a short time when the bombardment of Iraq began. The elder Bush characterized the war in terms of healing the national psyche, "By God, we are going to kick the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." By "Vietnam Syndrome," he meant the nation's aversion to wars in far-off lands with dubious goals and no viable exit strategy, not the human toll of post-traumatic stress taken on a generation of this nation's youth. Of course, the first Gulf War resulted in its own syndrome, a combination of chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, headaches, dizziness, and yes, memory loss. As the death toll continues to rise in the middle east, the illusion that we are simply watching a more expensive but less competently produced sequel have given way to painful reminders of Vietnam. The mendacious revenge narrative of 9/11, it seems, has finally worn thin. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought the Vietnam syndrome full-circle as those memories "lost" in the first Gulf War come back to the surface with a vengeance. A lesson, perhaps, that is worth remembering.

This issue of Vectors spins uneasily around the conjoined axis of memory and history without attempting the impossible - and arguably undesirable - task of reconciling the two. What draws the projects in this issue together is the interplay between objects of study that are both concrete and ephemeral and investigations that bleed across disciplinary bounds to explore the relevance of memory to questions of time, media, narrative, politics and space. More so than for many Vectors themes, Memory seems to have inspired a range of formal and methodological experiments that stretch our comfortable definitions of scholarly practice. This issue of the journal also includes a final project designed by Vectors' longtime Creative Director, Raegan Kelly, who worked with Mark Hansen on shi jian: time. Her very first project for Vectors was Alice Gambrell's Stolen Time Archive, a prototype that sought to prove the concept behind Vectors, and which has rarely been surpassed as an exemplar of what we hope to achieve in terms of depth, nuance and genuine collaboration between designer and scholar. Throughout her five-year association with Vectors, Raegan brought passion, intellect and rigor to every aspect of the design process. Her influence on Vectors has been incalculable, and we continue to miss her in ways that are impossible to express. Finally, it should be noted that many of these projects were completed some time ago (as the clever reader will note as she reads the project introductions.) The delay in taking this issue live reflects the effort of the Vectors' team on other fronts, as we continue to build new spaces for scholarly interaction with digital platforms that extend the lessons learned producing these projects.

In the mean time, history has continued to move forward, with new historical narratives and new firsts yet to be recorded; memories will continue to be conjured, contested, scripted and contained. Personal memories will grow entangled with cultural ones and the past will increasingly seem to explain the inevitability of the present. We will remind our now seven-year-old daughter that the first (and practically only) time she saw live television was in 2008 when Barack Obama accepted his party's nomination for President. No matter how clearly etched this moment may become in her mind, it is not the event itself she will remember, but our retelling of it, inextricably woven with her own imagination and the narratives of anticipation, however fleeting, that allow us to keep looking forward as well as back.]]> Vectors site represents a long, continuing collaboration among many people and institutions. The site design was orchestrated by Raegan Kelly and Erik Loyer, with input from the editors. The site was built by Erik, Raegan and Craig Dietrich with continuing support from IML Systems Administrator Willy Paredes.

Ongoing support has been provided by USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy and, originally, by the Annenberg Center for Communication, and we would particularly like to thank Elizabeth Daley, Anne Balsamo, Holly Willis, Mark Kann, Bruce Zuckerman and the staffs at IML and ACC. Various other colleagues have also offered valuable advice and support, including Scott Fisher, Marsha Kinder and the Labyrinth team, John Seely Brown, Joe Hellige, Cathy Davidson, Jeffrey Schnapp, Kathy Woodward, and David Theo Goldberg, as well as members of our Editorial Board and readers, reviewers and contributors from across the growing fields of the digital humanities.]]> The Vectors site represents a long, continuing collaboration among many people and institutions. The site design was orchestrated by our Creative Directors, Raegan Kelly and Erik Loyer, with input from the editors. The site was built by Erik, Raegan and Craig Dietrich with assistance from Chris Wittenberg, Chris Hanson, Kevin Tanaka, Steve Fong, and expert "behind the scenes" support from Willy Paredes (IML Systems Administrator). Additional syndication oversight provided by Greg Smith.

Ongoing support has been provided by USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy and, originally, by the Annenberg Center for Communication, and we would particularly like to thank Elizabeth Daley, Anne Balsamo, Stephanie Barish, Mark Kann, and Bruce Zuckerman, and the staffs at IML and ACC, especially Vanessa Lee, Shahril Ibrahim, Roberto Gomez, Stacy Patterson, Shelley Cooke, Dave Lopez, Elizabeth Harmon, John Zollinger, Josie Acosta, Rich Edwards, and Steve Adcook.

Various other colleagues have also offered valuable advice and support, including Scott Fisher, Marsha Kinder and the Labyrinth team, John Seely Brown, Joe Hellige, Cathy Davidson, Jeffrey Schnapp, Kathy Woodward, and David Theo Goldberg, as well as members of our Editorial Board and attendees at an early brainstorming session for the journal in summer, 2003. Alex Ceglia and the Stamen team came aboard in the final push to launch in 2005. We're thankful for their vision and hard work.

Vectors is especially grateful for the ongoing support of HASTAC and the recent support of Digital Promise.]]> common/images/memory_logo.gif 0 0 Vectors. Andrea Foster writes, "ThoughtMesh is a Web site that tags open-access scholarly papers with key words. Visitors can jump to passages in papers that contain those words. And they can see others' papers, throughout academe, tagged with the same words. A "cloud" of tagged words hovers above each paper."]]> Vectors, "Blue Velvet" enables users to submerge themselves in a poetic wordscape describing the contours of American racial politics post-Katrina.]]> Vectors' fellow Kim Christen was recently interviewed on the BBC's Digital Planet about her continued work developing innovative archives with indigenous peoples.

Kim's Vectors' project, "Digital Dynamics Across Cultures" (in the Ephemera issue), was an early effort in this regard. She has gone on to receive numerous grants and to continue to work with Vectors' team member, Craig Deitrich.]]> Vectors' Perception issue, explores issues of women's incarceration.

As a festival for art and digital culture, transmediale presents advanced artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural impact of new technologies. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that try to shape the way in which we think about and experience these technologies. transmediale understands media technologies as cultural techniques which need to be embraced in order to comprehend, critique, and shape our contemporary society.]]> Congratulations to Vectors Fellow Sharon Daniel and Co-Creative Director, Erik Loyer!

Vectors has received a Webby Honoree Award in the Activism category for their piece, "Public Secrets". The piece, a sophisticated and powerful exploration of the incarceration of women in California, is part of the latest issue of Vectors on the theme of "Perception" and was created as part of the Vectors Fellowship Competition.

The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to work that scores in the top 15% of all work entered into the Webby Awards. With over 8,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for Sharon and Erik.]]>