Drawn from Memory: reminiscing, narrative and the visual image

A brief review of Marcel Proust's views on art, photography and memory, as expressed in his A la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927), sets the scene for a discussion of the value of photographs for reminiscing in the context of computer-based visual narratives. The paper examines three video interviews produced by the author for interactive flexible narrative programmes: 'NM2: new media for a new millennium' (Wright, 2007) and 'The Drogheda Viaduct' a Fusion Irish cross-border digital media project. The clips demonstrate different approaches to reminiscing including personal reminiscences, social memory and a diachronic method of relating the past. The discussion considers how personal memory relates to cultural memory, how the 'objects of memory' can be drawn upon and how they are recounted. Thus, the function of photographic-based images as memory aids, or as stimuli for reminiscing, is placed in the context of the narratives that can be constructed around the image.