The Construction Of Collective Memory In The Mediaspace Of Monumental Public Art

The development process of public art in China has continued to move forward,and the practice of public art has emerged as a distinctive phase in the development of urban society.This study is based on the diversity of media types and thus traces the historical evolution of public art dissemination in China,with monumental public art becoming a key category in examining the early stages of development.The practice of commemorative public art in China plays a key role in carrying forward the past and the present,and is the local practice of public art as a foreign product introduced to China,which,while serving as a medium to connect all sectors of society,exhibits a special function of commemoration.The public nature of commemorative public art often takes into account the fact that they unite the collective memory of a people as a community.The Monument to the People’s Heroes,a work of monumental public art,is highly representative and historically significant among a host of monumental public art,and is the largest urban public art project since the founding of New China.The Monument to the People’s Heroes was created,developed and disseminated in the process of media change,rooted in the emotional demand for national identity,and associated with and constructing the content of the public’s collective memory.This paper examines the process of constructing collective memory through the media space generated by the Monument to the People’s Heroes as a case study of its participation in media practices.Based on Nick Coudry’s theory of ’media space’,this study proposes the media space generated by the intertwining of monumental public art with media,namely the physical space mediated by the physical presence of the Monument to the People’s Heroes,the narrative space constructed by the reproduction of the Monument to the People’s Heroes by mass media,and the ritual space produced by the monument in the digital platform.It is in the process of generating such a temporal and continuous media space that the significance of the media space of the Monument to the People’s Heroes emerges a way of constructing,shaping and reinforcing the content of the public’s collective memory.This study uses literature collection and field research to obtain a wealth of empirical material,which is further interpreted through textual and narrative analysis,and the following findings are obtained:firstly,the materiality of the People’s Heroes Monument as a medium is transformed in the reproduction of digital media,creating a state of reconciliation of multiple media practices;secondly,the monument is influenced by the technological conditions of geographical media Secondly,under the influence of the technological conditions of geographical media,the monument activates the linkage effect between virtual and real space,thus generating new relations of interaction;thirdly,the logic of interaction between the media rituals of monumental public art on digital platformis highlights the nested form of its ritual space;finally,the media space of the Monument to the People’s Heroes not only constructs collective memory,but also strengthens its "social penetration" as monumental public art."Finally,the media space of the People’s Heroes Monument not only constructs collective memory,but also strengthens its ’social penetration’ as a commemorative public art,gaining a constant ’growing’ vitality in the media practice of the present era.