In November 2023 the Memorise group had its annual consortium meeting. This time, it was in Amsterdam, which was quite the experience, especially for me and the newest members, because it was an opportunity to meet everybody involved in the project for the first time in person instead of purely through online meetings.
The meeting itself was centered around getting everybody updated and on track about what had
conspired throughout the first year of development and how we could best move forward to
ascertain our overall goals of Memorise. Throughout the days we discussed everything from our
overall goals, how current political and international movements could affect the project, and how
we should handle these events, to more concrete assignments, such as workshops about user
testing and general prototyping.
We also had the fortune of having a talk by Anja Grebe from the Danube University about how we
could even further the vision of Memorise by integrating the exploration of prisoner artworks and
multimodal learning approaches into the project.
Most of the consortium meeting was held at the NIOD which is a culturally important building in Amsterdam that offers a rich backstory and aesthetic that created an inspiring working environment.
Besides being in Amsterdam we also went on a field excursion to Kamp Westerbork, a former WWII Nazi transit camp, where we were guided through its rich history and memories by Bas Kortholt.
This trip allowed ample opportunity to discuss how elements of the Memorise project could help improve visitors’ experiences at memorial sites to engage the audience even more.
It was also at Westerbork that the installation made by Chris Hall in collaboration with Westerbork was on display for the very first time to showcase, to the public, exactly what the Memorise project was all about.
For me, a relatively new team member, the consortium meeting was an extremely giving
experience that not only cemented the importance of the work that Memorise is involved in but also
created new connections that will help with the further development of MEMORISE.
By Niek Meffert
Niek Meffert is a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern Denmark and part of the MEMORISE team
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