University of Sussex

The Inaugural Connective Holocaust Commemoration Expo 2025

By Mel Poluck We built a games arcade, an exhibitor hall, set up various exhibitions and VR suites, ran a mini project hack, showcased work-in-progress, learnt new skills through workshops, engaged in debates and discussions, networked, hosted ‘let's play’ sessions and went to the beach together. This was the inaugural Connective Holocaust Commemoration Expo 2025. Why did we do it? One of the overarching aims of the Landecker Digital memory Lab is to create a community of individuals and organisations working in the field of digital memory that cuts across traditional silos, nationalities and disciplines. To this end, we are convening a series of three international events, starting with the Connective Holocaust Commemoration Expo 2025, held at University of Sussex last month. After months of intense planning and preparing, on Tuesday 24 June, as delegates began streaming through the doors of the Jubilee building to the registration desk, it was heartening to see attendees arrive from so many affiliations and countries. There were representatives from more than 30 countries among Expo participants, including student ambassadors, from across the Middle East, from Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia. https://youtube.com/shorts/v4dRS_Jc5Zo Setting the tone We wanted to create an event that [...]

Building the Lab – Part 3: Our Official Launch

by Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden, Director, Landecker Digital Memory Lab The Landecker Digital Memory has officially launched. To mark the pivotal moment, we held an event in London in front of a distinguished audience of academics, policymakers, Holocaust memorial sites and museums, educators, journalists, filmmakers, digital media creatives, politicians and Holocaust survivors and their descendants. After months of hard work establishing our team, aims, values, and starting to build the initiatives we are launching in 2025 and beyond, the Landecker Digital Memory Lab officially launched this week at the Imperial War Museum in London. We felt a real buzz in the room as attendees enjoyed a drinks reception, an exclusive review of our forthcoming policy guidance on AI and Holocaust memory, and had the opportunity to preview some of our walkthrough videos ahead of the launch next year of our living database-archive. All of our guests were invited to an ‘after hours’ private viewing of the Imperial War Museum’s award-winning Holocaust Galleries, following a fascinating introduction by its curator and the Museum’s Head of Public History, Dr James Bulgin. As I introduced our plans for the next five years, we were joined by an audience of more than 150 people [...]