Spatialising Ritual: Acts of Remembrance in Contemporary Memorial Design

  • Russell Rodrigo University of New South Wales

Abstract


This paper examines the processes of ritual performance and ritualisation in contemporary memorial design, and argues that through their design, creation, and use, memorials have the capacity to invoke ritual action that is akin to those associated with sacred space. Spatialising ritual is thereby achieved by consciously allowing for the possibility of ritual action, where memory, rather than an end product, is reframed as remembrance, a process.

Author Biography

Russell Rodrigo, University of New South Wales

Dr. Russell Rodrigo is an architect and academic with an interest in the architecture and philosophy of memory and place.  His research is focused on the spatialisation of memory in the built environment, specifically the relationship between cultural memory, trauma and public space and its relationship with interiority at the scale of the both the public and the private.

Published
06-Dec-2013
How to Cite
Rodrigo, Russell. 2013. “Spatialising Ritual: Acts of Remembrance in Contemporary Memorial Design”. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & The Arts, no. 17 (December). https://doi.org/10.2218/forum.17.682.
Section
Guest Contributions