Tangible Memories

Capturing stories around objects in care homes.

Abstract

Bringing together an interdisciplinary team including digital artists and makers, learning researchers, computer scientists, social historians, older people themselves and those who work with them we are co-producing a set of new digital tools that will address some of the key societal challenges concerning the care and well-being of older people and the legacy of the memories and stories that they leave for future generations. We are exploring the way that tangible technologies might be developed in both historical research and in democratic community building. The main goal of the project is to help improve the quality of life for residents in care homes by building a sense of community and shared experience through a cooperative exploration of their life history stories. Rather than put these stories on a website, the project seeks to find creative ways to attach stories to objects that are personally meaningful to participants so that they can remind themselves of important memories and share them with others if they choose.  In addition to helping project participants create memory objects they can keep and share, we hope to develop resources for use in other care homes. Project homepage: www.tangible-memories.com

Publications

Videos