Mothballs and Memory

The potent scent of mothballs penetrates my mind into an overbearing disembodiment, leading me instantaneously back to my grandmother’s untouched mid-century home, and further back into infinite webs of connecting thought and memory. The power of memory to ignite knowledge is fueled within the library. It is a space in which memory spreads out in all directions, curiously absorbing and reflecting the physicality of time and space that lines the walls. The temporality of the library experience, discovery, touch, scent, holds this phenomenon of recollection. But can this fade in flat, digital fields of information? Like Walter Benjamin notes in his book, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, authenticity is lost through the technologically reproduced image. Through digitization, the true essence of a book and photograph is pixelated. Does this refract into our mind, blurring the line between memory and knowledge?

One Reply

  • Thanks, James, for acknowledging that memory and knowledge are multisensory — and that our physical experiences in the library can trigger those mnemonic and epistemological experiences. You and several of your classmates have asked this week if these experiences are replicable in the digital realm. I’m sure we’ll discuss this tomorrow!

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