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They came out with their wings packed down like furled parachutes, like crumpled letters.
– Rebecca Solnit, 'A Field Guide to Getting Lost' (2005)

MEMORIA is an independent publication that, as of October 2024, has entered the 'cocoon' phase. It's not quite clear yet what it will look like, but the metamorphosis has begun. The core drives are focused around the mechanics of memory, its loss or gain across time, in the context of our so-called 'mis-, dis-, and malinformation' societ(ies), especially in relation to technology, human rights & open justice issues, and the state of journalism. Beyond the 'known knowns' and the 'unknown unknowns', MEMORIA is rather preoccupied with lurking in memory holes, the 'unknown knowns', the knowns that we – or rather, they (but "who is They?") – don’t want (us) to know. Perhaps you are, too?

MEMORIA tumbled out of some wordplay and, shall we say, mnemonic seeds: 'an old memoria' in Nirvana's "Come As You Are"; the mines of Moria in Tolkien's Middle Earth, where 'moria' in one of his fictional Elvish languages means 'the black pit/ chasm', which immediately connected in my associative memory with Orwell's classic 'memory holes' (also, can't forget the comedy of the great-and-powerful Gandalf deciding to primitively 'follow his nose' after racking his wizard brain for hours trying to remember directions); finally, the concept of memoria as rhetorical canon, and the debate (from Old Man Yells At Cloud's great-great-great grandfather?) about whether writing and other supposed memoria technica strengthen or weaken our memory.

The homepage background image is a photograph of Armenian artist Arev Petrosyan's stained-glass "Power of Unity" (2013) piece that is exhibited inside Palais de l'Europe, Strasbourg.

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