The resonating past - Stephen Vitiello’s World Trade Center Recordings as a lieu de mémoire

• Main Author: Anette Vandsø
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Danish Library 2017-12-01
• Series: SoundEffects
• Online Access: https://www.soundeffects.dk/article/view/102925

Although many studies have focussed on the visual and textual media practices surrounding the cultural commemoration of 9/11, few have examined the audio media practices related to the event. As a response to this lack the article is an analysis of Stephen Vitiello’s World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd (1999) as it was installed at the MoMA PS1 memorial exhibition September 11 (2011) which explored the ‘enduring and far-reaching resonance’ of the attacks. The piece is analysed as what Pierre Nora calls a lieu de mémoire, with a specific focus on what we, in line with media archaeologist Wolfgang Ernst, may call the technical ‘chrono-poetical’ folding of time. The aim of the article is to show how Vitiello’s work, due to its media specific archival practices, addresses the events of 9/11.