Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/975483
maltatoday SUNDAY 29 APRIL 2018 Interview 15 cameras had to be borrowed, and the film was expensive to develop (Super8 film had to be sent for de- velopment to the UK, for example) people were a lot more 'careful' about what they actually filmed. Whenever they pressed the 'record' button, they did it to document something very specific. We're finding that much of this type ma- terial is actually of very good qual- ity. Not a lot of sifting through has to be done at all... How does the 'Machine' part of 'Magna Zmien' actually work, though? There's a research aspect, and a preservation aspect. We're encour- aging people to come forward with their family histories... because, as populist or trivial as you might think they are, those records are actually valuable historical refer- ences. They're not as unimportant as you think. Your story, next to that person's story, and that other person's, is the story of the com- munity, the town, the village, the island, the country. Ultimately, the region: that's how important it is. As to what we're doing with the material: we have come up with five categories – 'Technology', 'Land- scape and environment'; 'Feasts and celebrations'; 'Extraordinary events and people'; and 'Music and dance'. We have set up a digitisation studio, with frame-by-frame conversions for different film formats; cassette and turntable converters for audio... and we're giving people a digital copy of their content, too. So bring us your marvellous memories: don't bring absolutely everything... be se- lective; choose things that are specif- ic, that have meaning to you. But we will also need a bit of context: what the story is, who the people are, etc. Another thing is that we will not be using any of the content for com- mercial purposes. We are, however, very interested in the artistic re- application: we want to create new worlds out of that material, and put it all together in a way that show- cases those beautiful images, those interesting recordings, in an artistic context... At the same time, however, we are talking about personal memories here... family histories... so how does this work from an intellectual property dimension? Do the owners retain rights over their own material? The material remains the property of its owner, but upon signing the consent form, people will be agree- ing to hand over both the content and the use of it, for at least a year, for the intents and purposes of the project. But we understand it's a sensitive issue: we're being very careful as to how people are shown, for instance. Ultimately, we will be condensing the material to short, edited clips to be woven into a pres- entation... But is the project geared towards a single cultural event? Isn't there a long-term intention to archive the material for posterity? Whatever we collect will be backed up on a server, and avail- able to national archives. So yes, there is the idea to preserve these memories for future generations. One other aspect is that all this material, apart from being histori- cally interesting in its own right, is also highly relevant to what is happening today. As we can all see, life is changing so fast that our memories are being lost. My par- ents, who are from Sliema, don't recognise Sliema anymore. Not just the physical place; they don't recognise the way they used to live, either. In such a small coun- try, with such a high level of fast- paced change, things are being buried under layer, upon layer, upon layer. Bury it, and move on. We forget, for instance, that so many people had to emigrate in the past. Those audio-reels are a reminder of what previous genera- tions went through. Another thing that emerges from old photos, especially, is how people used to interact with their environment. I've seen photos from the 1970s of people at the Neolithic temples: sitting around on the stones, hav- ing a picnic: sometimes dancing on the dolmen, or jumping from one stone to the other. Clearly, there are reasons to protect the temples from that sort of thing; I can un- derstand that. But it also made me think of how we used to live with what we today call 'Unesco World Heritage Sites', and cultural herit- age in general. In those days, sites were unprotected because they be- longed to the people. And people were there, living with and around them. I remember going into the Oratory of St John's Cathedral, and seeing Caravaggio's 'Behead- ing of St John'... why? Because it was too hot outside, and my father wanted to sit somewhere in the shade. It was part of our everyday life. Nobody gave a damn about Valletta, because it was a place to live. Like Birgu. Now, it's differ- ent. Unesco World Heritage sites no longer belong to people... un- less you pay. Every cultural site is rentable. If you have money, you have access. Otherwise, it's fenced off, with CCTV cameras... it's not 'ours' anymore. Why should the Maltese care about their cultural heritage? It's been packaged and sold. It's something for tourists. That, too is why we need refer- ences to our popular history. It's important to remember who we were, and how we lived... especial- ly when so much of it is vanishing. 'Magna Zmien' is a project aimed at researching, digitising and preserving Malta's endangered cultural memories. Artistic director ANDREW ALAMANGO walks us through the mechanics of this particular 'time machine'... and explains why those old family slideshows, audiotapes and footage buried in your attic cupboard might just be slightly more important than you think.. Your story, next to that person's story, and that other person's, is the story of the community, the town, the village, the island, the country. Ultimately, the region: that's how important it is FAMILY HISTORY memories