The Memory Matrix is a monument that explores the possibilities for future heritage creation, employing new fabrication techniques and transcultural workshops. The Matrix is made of border fences carrying over 20,000 small fluorescent Plexiglas elements or "pixels." These elements are laser cut with holes outlining vanished and threatened heritage from different parts of the world. The larger matrix of pixels reveals an image of the recently destroyed Arch of Triumph from the ancient city of Palmyra, now only visible through the movement of light and wind.

English / Free

Azra Akšamija is an artist and designer from Sarajevo based in Boston, where she is Associate Professor at the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology. She received degrees from the Technical University Graz, Princeton, and MIT. Her current work investigates transcultural aesthetics, cultural mobility, and ways in which art and architecture respond to conflict and crisis. Her work was showcased at the Generali Foundation Vienna, Valencia Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Sculpture Center New York, Secession Vienna, and the Royal Academy of Arts London. She received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2013.

The MIT Program in Art, Culture & Technology (ACT) is an academic program and hub of critical art practice and discourse within the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. Headed by distinguished artist-professors and supported by a dynamic cast of graduate students and staff, artist-lecturers, and affiliates, its integrated approach to pedagogy anchors in a community of artist-thinkers exploring art’s complex conjunctions with culture and technology. The program’s mission is to promote leadership in critical artistic practice, developing art as a vital means of experimenting with new registers of knowledge and new modes of valuation and expression.

• Website: www.azraaksamija.net
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