Materiality and Memory: Chemical and Social Bonds

Materials can embody the passage of time and hold memory in their shape, structure, and social lives. Physically, materials can erode or melt. Chemically, they can rust or rot. Lacquer, for example, a resin-derived substance used to coat wooden objects, dries and hardens slowly over the course of years as molecules polymerize into a three-dimensional structure. These objects mark time in their bonds, but they also hold human memories and stories. Many antiques and works of art are valuable not only for their age and artistry but for their cultural significance. Heirlooms, too, hold personal and family meanings. In this talk, the articulations of materiality and memory were expansively conceived. This included a discussion of how memory is materialized on Mount Holyoke, a mountain in western Massachusetts. Through investigating the materials of the past functioning as memory in the present, like collected memorabilia and the wooden structure of a 200-year-old Summit House, this talk explored the role of materiality in resisting both the erasure and institutionalization of memory.