The Anthropocene Memorial:

Recording Climate Change on The Banks of the Potomac River in Washington D.C

Authors

  • Clara de Massol

Abstract

 

At the intersection of environmental humanities and memory studies, this article addresses the memorial response to the Anthropocene in an attempt to understand how climate change is and could be displayed and remembered in a public space. Through an examination of Climate Chronograph, a climate change memorial project, the article contextualises commemorative practices within interconnecting social, cultural and environmental realms. Climate Chronograph is a memorial project designed by architects Erik Jensen and Rebecca Sunter. On the banks of the Potomac river in Washington D.C, a sloped park of cherry trees will gradually be submerged in the rising river creating a visual record of climate change. The memorial allows its visitors to imagine a future past of the Anthropocene, an anticipated decaying and drowned future memory. This article explores the specificity of memorial sites in the Anthropocene, how they underline the transcultural dimension of climate change and the meaning-making dimension of memory.

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Author Biography

Clara de Massol

Clara de Massol is a PhD candidate at King’s College London in the department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries. She is funded by LAHP (London Arts and Humanities Partnership), an AHRC doctoral training partnership supporting PhD studies in arts and humanities. Her research is informed by her postgraduate background in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. Looking at the intersections of memory studies and environmental humanities, Clara investigates how memorial practices and new modes of remembrance are formulated in the Anthropocene. Her research explores what happens when environmental literary criticism is applied to non-literary forms, to demonstrate the value of the humanities in increasing our collective ecological consciousness.

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Published

2021-11-08

How to Cite

Massol, C. de. (2021). The Anthropocene Memorial: : Recording Climate Change on The Banks of the Potomac River in Washington D.C. Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry, 5(2), 5–18. Retrieved from http://sanglap-journal.in/index.php/sanglap/article/view/104