Walk of Memory

Mojca Kamnik, Umetniški klub 101, Tomislav Gangl Production

Sprehod spomina, or Walk of Memory is a virtual simulation of a walk through the most populated streets of Ptuj from the period between 1955 and 1960. The walk includes a visual perspective, which covers both the architecture and urban peculiarities of the period, as well as the appearance and rituals of the people on the street, along with an audio perspective. The latter is built on the supposed soundscape of the time: from street dialogues, popular and folk songs of that time to birds singing along the Drava River.

The original purpose of the project is to bring people with dementia from Ptuj and the surrounding area closer to the time of their youth. In this way, the authors want to offer them a form of relaxation and stimulation, which would ideally reduce the use of medication which are, due to the nature of the disease, their daily constant. Meanwhile, the project can offer the people with dementia the chance to relive memories with more of their senses.

The project is a form of re-creation of a certain period, or a fictitious replica of time, which is still most alive in the memories of the current third generation and today manifests itself in various forms of retro. In this way, “Time travel” is possible for a few minutes.

The project combines many fields: from cultural heritage, sociology and psychology, ethnology, medicine to 3D modeling and 3D sound, and represents a thread of the past which is woven into the future and one of the possibilities of the way of working with people with dementia in the future.

RUK pilot project