LIVING MEMORIALS {Re}vitalize digital history!

Description

Over the next two years (March 2024 - February 2026), with our pedagogical and artistic director Roman Kroke, we will develop and test a digital tool (mobile application). Trilingual approach: French, English, German. Through this application, the project aims to create connections between the real world and the digital world, between historical experiences and the challenges of our contemporary societies. It will enable work to be done at historical and memorial sites in: - Leverkusen (DE): the new memorial inaugurated by the pharmaceutical and biotechnological multinational BAYER in May 2023 to commemorate the victims of forced labor in the IG Farben company that preceded it; - Villeneuve d'Ascq (FR): the Ascq 1944 Memorial, a memorial to the massacre of 86 civilians killed by members of the SS Hitlerjugend in 1944. Based on this historical context, the project will then address contemporary forms of discrimination and racism in the digital world ("online hate speech" and "cyberviolence" = online hate and violence incitement). The application will stand out through an innovative methodology using art as a medium for interdisciplinary teaching. At the end of the application development process, we will organize training sessions (in French and German) that will provide guidelines on how to integrate this tool into educational practice. The application will then be made freely available to all interested educators. The video below will give you a vivid impression of how the medium of art can strengthen and revitalize the relationship of young generations with a historical event resonating with a memorial site: https://www.youtube.com/@RomanKroke/videos