Earth to Generative Nostalgia…
Where can you find “generative nostalgia“?
Certainly, we can do better than ask AI to make something for us.
For NOSTAGAIN, generative nostalgia has a different meaning: it is the creative and communal use of nostalgia that produces things — relationships, reinterpretations, and critiques. We chose the term generative to differentiate from the still popular belief that nostalgia is a regressive and past-based emotion. We go into a little more depth about ‘the generativity’ here.
With the goal to search for generative nostalgia, our founding members, Derek Pasborg, Rowena Chodkowski, & Richy Srirachanikorn created a LIVE webseries so that they can reach out and talk to new nostalgic works, artists, scholars.
Why memorabilia.mp4?
The nostalgic name is Rowena’s idea. In a nutshell:
- memorabilia speaks to material forms of nostalgia that is not immediately identifiable (versus “commodities” or “collectibles”). Things of “memorabilia” can be highly personal but also culturally meaningful in a given context.
- .mp4 alludes to the role of digital technology in nostalgia today. We do not only rely on digital files or machines to hold onto what we find nostalgic; the machines, files, and design have become nostalgic objects themselves!
What can I expect?
Hosted by Derek (a cultural anthropologist) and Rowena (a multimedia artist & writer), memorabilia.mp4 dives into the sociocultural and aesthetic explorations of generative nostalgia.
Over the summer, they will interview people who have tried to convey the idea of nostalgia through game development, documentary-making, VR interactive art, and media scholarship. Here is the list of our summer speakers:
- Smriti Mehra, University of Arts London – video art, home, textiles
- Jonathan Lessard, Concordia University – game design, life, card games
- Debora Alana & Bora Bodur, Artists & Educators – VR art, folklore
- Matthew Horrigan, Alexander College – AI, sound, hauntology
We have a live component where audiences can interact with the speakers, as well as a recorded portion on our YouTube channel.
Check out our upcoming and past recordings of memorabilia.mp4 here.
Contact Information
Derek Pasborg, Memorabilia.mp4 Outreach
nostagain@gmail.com
THENOSTAGAINNETWORK
Released: June 19th, 2025
Updated: June 19th, 2025
Leave a Reply