Flash – Shared Memory.
A Communication Game
by Johanna Bölke
The game “Flash – Shared Memory“ enables conversations about personal memories using fragmentary picture and word cards, which can be chosen individually or together. The game can be used as a communication tool.
The game "Flash - Shared Memory. A Communication Game" deals with memories and talking about them. It serves as a means of communication and joint reflection on memories from the past, or about current situations. In doing so, the game takes on the role of a communication tool that enables people to talk about personal experiences and memories. The topic of "memory" and writing about remembering is dealt with not only theoretically but also in artistic-practical works. Thus, I refer to methods of artistic research as well as theoretical explorations of memory. Based on conversations, interviews, drawings and photographs, material was collected in the course of the seminar that provides the framework for the selected elements of the play.
Reflecting on my own memory and events from the past, I started to concentrate on the topic of "moving" and the memories of my/a home that are linked to it. The experiences of various family members are thus a part of the project. Based on my own biography, the play deals primarily with memories from youth in the 2000s and addresses the question of communication in family contexts.
The associative fragmentary images are in connection to the reflections of Annie Ernaux, who deals with the past through photographs, and they further take up the idea of the memory collage by the artists Thomas Eggerer and Amelie von Wulffen. The photo excerpts are deliberately kept ambiguous and thus allow the game to be used by different players. Associative word cards and fragmentary close-ups are used to evoke memories that can be shared in conversation. Players are encouraged to associate their own memories and expand the game at will for their own use.
About the Artist
Johanna Bölke is based in Berlin and currently studying European Media Studies at Potsdam University. They have a Bachelor‘s degree in art history from Leipzig University.