Making sense of Australia's war memorials

War memorials are an important part of the Australian landscape and culture. This essay suggests five possible explanations for this: a) imperial loyalty, at least initially; b) the warrior cult; c) guilt at the loss of so many young people in a seemingly senseless fashion; d) the demise of formal religion, and; e) the insecure nature of Australian nationalism.

Community buildings as war memorials.

Mode of access: Internet.

Side-by-side memorials and Australian Vietnam War remembrance

This thesis argues that side-by-side memorials, built by Vietnamese and Australian Vietnam veterans, are a unique theme in Australia's memorial landscape wherein Australian soldier statues generally stand alone. It provides understanding of how these memorials emerged, and discusses the significance of this new theme for Australian Vietnam War remembrance.

The relationship between Australians and the overseas graves of the First World War

The purpose of this thesis is to outline the relationship that existed in the past and exists in the present, between Australians and the War Graves and Memorials to the Missing. commemorations of Australians who died during the First World War. Their final resting places are scattered all over the world and provide a tangible record of the sacrifice of men and women in the war, and represent the final result by Official Agencies such as the Imperial, and later, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and its agency representative, the Office of Australian War Graves, of an attempt to appropriately commemorate them. The study follows the path of history from the event of death of an individual in the First World War, through their burial; temporary grave or memorial commemoration; the permanent commemoration; the family and public reaction to the deaths; how the Official Agencies of related Commonwealth Governments dealt with the dead; and finally, how the Australian dead are represented on the battlefields of the world in the 21st century. Australia.s war dead of the First World War are scattered around the globe in more than 40 countries and are represented in war cemeteries and civil cemeteries; and listed on large „Memorials to the Missing., which commemorate the individuals devoid of a known graves or final resting place.

Documentary as history, memory, dream and film

A century ago, as the Western world embarked on a period of traumatic change, the visual realism of photography and documentary film brought print and radio news to life. The vision that these new mediums threw into stark relief was one of intense social and political upheaval: the birth of modernity fired and tempered in the crucible of the Great War. As millions died in this fiery chamber and the influenza pandemic that followed, lines of empires staggered to their fall, and new geo-political boundaries were scored in the raw, red flesh of Europe. The decade of 1910 to 1919 also heralded a prolific period of artistic experimentation. It marked the beginning of the social and artistic age of modernity and, with it, the nascent beginnings of a new art form: film. We still live in the shadow of this violent, traumatic and fertile age; haunted by the ghosts of Flanders and Gallipoli and its ripples of innovation and creativity. Something happened here, but to understand how and why is not easy; for the documentary images we carry with us in our collective cultural memory have become what Baudrillard refers to as simulacra. Detached from their referents, they have become referents themselves, to underscore other, grand narratives in television and Hollywood films. The personal histories of the individuals they represent so graphically–and their hope, love and loss–are folded into a national story that serves, like war memorials and national holidays, to buttress social myths and values. And, as filmic images cross-pollinate, with each iteration offering a new catharsis, events that must have been terrifying or wondrous are abstracted. In this paper we first discuss this transformation through reference to theories of documentary and memory–this will form a conceptual framework for a subsequent discussion of the short film Anmer. Produced by the first author in 2010, Anmer is a visual essay on documentary, simulacra and the symbolic narratives of history. Its form, structure and aesthetic speak of the confluence of documentary, history, memory and dream. Located in the first decade of the twentieth century, its non-linear narratives of personal tragedy and poetic dreamscapes are an evocative reminder of the distance between intimate experience, grand narratives, and the mythologies of popular films. This transformation of documentary sources not only played out in the processes of the film’s production, but also came to form its theme.

Hautamuistomerkki elämän ja kuoleman tulkitsijana : Heikki Häiväojan, Kain Tapperin ja Matti Peltokankaan tekemät hautamuistomerkit 1952-2002

Grave sculpture as interpreter of life and death. Grave sculptures done by Heikki Häiväoja, Kain Tapper and Matti Peltokangas 1952-2002. The thoughts of Philippe Ariès and Erwin Panofsky on western funeral art constitute the starting point of this study. These scholars speak about the 20th century as a period of decline regarding western funeral art. The reason for this situation lies, according to them, in the fact that death has been rejected and become a private affair in modern society. Especially Panofsky sees an important reason for the decay of funeral art also in the separation of death from religion. In this study, I approach the view of Ariès and Panofsky from the angle of Finnish funeral art. The subject of the study is grave sculptures of three Finnish sculptors: Heikki Häiväoja, Kain Tapper and Matti Peltokangas, from 1952 to 2002. (The analysis of the grave sculptures has been performed with the Iconology of Erwin Panofsky. The analysis has been deepened by the ideas of a graveyard as a semiotic text according to Werner Enninger and Christa Schwens. In order to confirm their argumentation, they analyse the graveyard text with the model of communicative functions of Roman Jakobson and verify that the graveyard is a cultural text according to Juri Lotman.) Results of the study In the grave sculptures of the sculptors, different worldviews appear alongside Christian thoughts indicating a new stage in the tradition of funeral art. In the grave sculptures characterised as Christian, the view of life after death is included. In these memorials the direction of life is prospective, pointing to the life beyond. Death is a border, beyond which one is unable to see. Nevertheless the border is open or marked by the cross. On this open border, death is absence of pain, glory and new unity. In memorials with different worldviews, the life beyond is a possibility which is not excluded. Memorials interpret life retrospectively; life is a precious memory which wakens grief and longing. Many memorials have metaphysical and mystic features. In spite of democratization the order and valuation of social classes appear in some memorials. The old order also materializes in the war memorials relating the same destiny of the deceased. Different burial places, nevertheless, do not indicate social inequality but are rather signs of diversity. The sculptors' abstract means of modern funeral art deepen the handling of the subject matter of death and reveal the mystery of it. Grave sculptures are a part of Finnish and sacral modern art, and there is an interaction between funeral art and modern art. Modern art acquires a new dimension, when grave sculptures become a part of its field. Grave sculptures offer an alternative to anonymous burying. The memorial is a sign of the end of life; it gives death significance and publicity and creates a relation to the past of the society. In this way, grave sculptures are a part of the chain of memory of the western funeral art, which extends throughout Antiquity until ancient Egypt. (In this study I have spoken of funeral art as a chain of memory using the thoughts of Danièle Hervieu-Léger.) There are no signs of decay in the grave sculptures, on the contrary the tradition of funeral art continues in them as a search for the meaning of life and death and as an intuitive interpretation of death. As such, grave sculptures are part of the Finnish discussion of death.

Reinventar un héroe: narrativas sobre los soldados rasos de la Guerra de Corea

Esta investigación se pregunta sobre las diferentes narrativas históricas que se han construido sobre la figura de los soldados rasos de la guerra de Corea, y por cómo ellos han generado estrategias en su relato que se ajustan a unos procesos históricos determinados.

La memoria de Malvinas y la "batalla por la marca" : Bahía Blanca, la guerra de Malvinas, y la refundación nacional (1982-2012)

El presente artículo pretende analizar los significados y representaciones condensados en los emprendimientos para establecer lugares de la memoria de Malvinas en Bahía Blanca desde 1982 hasta el 2012, contextualizándolos en las luchas por la memoria de la guerra a nivel local y nacional. Hace foco en tres iniciativas para construir memoriales de Malvinas en esta ciudad del sudoeste bonaerense -que se imaginó históricamente como la "Capital del sur argentino" y "Puerta de la Patagonia"-, haciendo hincapié en los actores que se involucraron en las "batallas por la marca", sus objetivos y proyectos, así como en las coyunturas de activación memorial.

La memoria de Malvinas y la "batalla por la marca" : Bahía Blanca, la guerra de Malvinas, y la refundación nacional (1982-2012)

El presente artículo pretende analizar los significados y representaciones condensados en los emprendimientos para establecer lugares de la memoria de Malvinas en Bahía Blanca desde 1982 hasta el 2012, contextualizándolos en las luchas por la memoria de la guerra a nivel local y nacional. Hace foco en tres iniciativas para construir memoriales de Malvinas en esta ciudad del sudoeste bonaerense -que se imaginó históricamente como la "Capital del sur argentino" y "Puerta de la Patagonia"-, haciendo hincapié en los actores que se involucraron en las "batallas por la marca", sus objetivos y proyectos, así como en las coyunturas de activación memorial.

La memoria de Malvinas y la "batalla por la marca" : Bahía Blanca, la guerra de Malvinas, y la refundación nacional (1982-2012)

El presente artículo pretende analizar los significados y representaciones condensados en los emprendimientos para establecer lugares de la memoria de Malvinas en Bahía Blanca desde 1982 hasta el 2012, contextualizándolos en las luchas por la memoria de la guerra a nivel local y nacional. Hace foco en tres iniciativas para construir memoriales de Malvinas en esta ciudad del sudoeste bonaerense -que se imaginó históricamente como la "Capital del sur argentino" y "Puerta de la Patagonia"-, haciendo hincapié en los actores que se involucraron en las "batallas por la marca", sus objetivos y proyectos, así como en las coyunturas de activación memorial.

La memoria de Malvinas y la "batalla por la marca" : Bahía Blanca, la guerra de Malvinas, y la refundación nacional (1982-2012)

El presente artículo pretende analizar los significados y representaciones condensados en los emprendimientos para establecer lugares de la memoria de Malvinas en Bahía Blanca desde 1982 hasta el 2012, contextualizándolos en las luchas por la memoria de la guerra a nivel local y nacional. Hace foco en tres iniciativas para construir memoriales de Malvinas en esta ciudad del sudoeste bonaerense -que se imaginó históricamente como la "Capital del sur argentino" y "Puerta de la Patagonia"-, haciendo hincapié en los actores que se involucraron en las "batallas por la marca", sus objetivos y proyectos, así como en las coyunturas de activación memorial.

Phoenix Memorial Project 3/5

Ford Nuclear Reactor UM Nuclear engineering students attend class at the Ford Nuclear Reactor. Charles Ricker, instructor in Nuclear Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, and Reactor Operator, describes the oepration of the control panel. Michigan Memorial Phoenix project started in 1948 to find peacetime applications for atomic energy.