Cite this article
Özer, I., Kaymaz, S. (2025) ‘On memorability of place and installation’, Architecture Papers of the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU, 30(4), pp. 10-19. https://www.doi.org/10.2478/alfa-2025-0020
SUMMARY
Installation art can be defined as the arrangement and placement of some objects in a space. Location of the objects, the reasons to locate them to that specific place and the relationship between existing other objects are some of the important issues to consider when it comes to installation art. Artists consider a lot of things while creating an installation so it can be said that the creation process is a complex work. Besides, aims and wishes of the artists are very important parts of this process and one of them is to create an artwork that can leave a long-lasting effect on visitors’ memories. People experience many things every day, however, not every single experience can be remembered afterwards. Some stay longer in the memory while other might be forgotten easily. Since every experience is personal and related to physical environment, perception and feelings; the degree of memorability is different for everyone, too. At this point some questions arise such as: ‘Can a temporary installation remain memorable for visitors?’ or ‘Which features of installations and place affect visitors?’. Main goal of this study is to understand the memorability of installations and place with the guidance of these questions. In this study, memorability can be understood as long-term recall and emotional impact in the context of installation art and exhibition space. Memorability of an installation and place can change according to various factors such as placements of the object, atmosphere of the place, topic or physical features of the installation. Following a literature review, five parameters that might influence memorability were defined. These parameters are: “being site-specific”, “presentation of the art and how it materialises”, “content of the art and its emotional impact on the viewer”, “degree of the viewer’s involvement”, and “collective experience”.
This study focuses on an installation named “Brain Forest Quipu” and it was exhibited between the dates of 11 October 2022 and 16 April 2023 in the Turbine Hall which is a part of the Tate Modern Museum in London. The installation was created by Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña in collaboration with local Latin American communities and the work takes its name from “quipu”, which is a record and communication system used by the Quechua people living in the Andean mountains. Quipus contain long textile part, ropes, natural materials and nodes. Vicuña works on this tradition and quipus for a long time, and it is possible to see some different knotting techniques in her other works as well. Her purpose is to express the importance of forests and natural environments and to increase the awareness about how these natural environments disappear by time.
The method used in this study consists of two steps. In the first step, five parameters that were mentioned before are defined as a result of the literature review about memorability of installations and place. The second step involves the analysis of visitor comments on social media. Social media comments were searched and examined to understand the thoughts and impressions of visitors who experienced this installation and place. Only English comments which were containing information about how people think, feel, and experience this exhibition were gathered and other comments were not considered in this study. Therefore, 23 visitor comments were collected, and they were analysed while using content analysis method. For the data analysis, MAXQDA 2020 Analytics Pro, a software suitable for qualitative data analysis, was used. Words focusing on the descriptions of visitors about the installation and place were grouped under the description category, while words that express the emotional responses and the impressions were included in the interpretation category.
Finally, it can be said that installation had an impact on the visitors because of its topic and the representation. However, it is significant to express that this study has some limitations, such as a small number of comments, lack of demographic information about visitors and bias about only presenting digitally active visitors. Nevertheless, social media usage as a data pool might be seen as an opportunity. Future memory studies can adopt the perspective of using social media data with the integration of other traditional and scientific methods like survey, interview, eye tracking and galvanic skin response. Also, curators and architects can benefit from such studies while designing exhibition space. Some important data might be obtained from visitors while using the methods mentioned above in the process of artwork selection, to understand the suitability of circulation or which exhibition techniques to use for more effective and influential exhibitions. A triangulation of social media usage, traditional, and scientific methods can increase the amount of data and render more layered results. This point of view encourages and opens more space to interdisciplinary research.