UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA GRADUATE SCHOOL ...

the contrary, they are often overly engaged and affective in relation to the audiovisual stories that
on many occasions seem to strike a very delicate note with the visitor. And in case of Yugoslavia,
and the interested visitors, it is indeed a delicate topic that this storytelling is taking as its subject.
Hence, the memorials themselves are bound to fuel, as the ones discussed do, (also) affective
reactions.
In the co-creation of digital memorials two aspects are important: the maker‘s and the visitor‘s
points of view, both intrinsically related to identity performance. The former may indeed
externalise memory in the sense that she creates a digital narrative in which music, photos and
video (and text) are employed to convey her own historical statement. This externalisation is
conditioned on two levels. First, the digital memorial is incomplete unless co-created
(acknowledged) by the users who visit it, comment on it and/or share it in their networks. It is only
then that the memorial, albeit technically already public, attracts public attention (however
limited). Second, and just as crucial, is the phenomenon of the ‗jukebox metaphor.‘ With the
jukebox metaphor I refer to the relatively limited number of objects available to be used in digital
memorials (scanned photographs and songs) which become recognisable and widely used through
repetitive use and reproduction. Consequently they become understood as ‗the‘ representations of
a particular topic. For instance, among a large number of photographs of Tito that exist, there is a
certain assortment of those most often used, hence most ‗representative‘; postcard motives (often
used in digital storytelling, although not discussed here) representing Mostar Bridge, Lake Bled,
republic‘s capitals, etc. The jukebox principle, in principle, implies that an individual can only
choose from among a pre-determined collection of objects, images, songs, ideas ... much like in a
jukebox. The trick is in that every choice is usually understood as ‗free choice,‘ and the ―from
among a ready-made selection‖ part is often obscured.
This phenomenon is characteristic for both the maker and the visitor who tend to take the video
and its constituent audiovisual parts as a given. Or if not so, not questionable in terms of accuracy.
This is particularly apparent in the absence of any observation of the fact that in many memorials
the images used are stripped of all referentiality. Thus the visitor is in no position to establish
whether a person depicted in a photograph is ‗real,‘ or is it from a feature film, the locations are
often unidentifiable, sometimes it is even hard to tell if a person in a low-resolution video is a
partisan or a Nazi. All in all this seems to play no significant role. To the contrary, the storytelling
in DME works along the principle of suspension of disbelief, 319 yet it also invites a consideration
319 See for instance ―Suspension of Disbelief,‖ Mediacolelge.com,
http://www.mediacollege.com/glossary/s/suspension-of-disbelief.html.
163