Does memory need a fixed place to exist? Does memory need archives to exist? And if it needs, what kind of files it needs? Although one can say that memory has never been defined from a fixed location, I think that the very definition of the concept is marked by idea of a place, a registry which is capable to show this memory. Even if it is related to the imaginary, or to instable elements, there is a tension associated with a search for a location to/for memory. The aim of this article is discuss how metadata can produce other logics to create cultural memories in programmable environment. These logics suggest other concepts to delimitate memories, which mixes fixed places with networked places, invention and discovery, politics and poetics, cultural memories and communicative memories. We consider metadata as elements capable to operate passages indicated above. We analyze “The Whale Hunt” project seeking to understand how such narrative appropriates the metadata in a poetic way, creating imaginary places of memory.
cultural memory; communicative memory; metadata; programmable environments; archives
