Fellows

[Digital Heirlooms: Click Anywhere to Return Home] - Ven Qiu

Ven Qiu ( United States )

At ZK/U, Ven Qiu was researching new modalities for the memento. Through the lens of oral history, Ven explored the memorial potential of server hosting, 3D environments, and audio/visual media. Ven’s research is particularly concerned with the role born-digital media has in oral history, and how record-keeping can exist in non-linear, multimedia frameworks. In a sentimental panic, Ven adds dimension to things they do not want to forget. Their research will culminate in examples of their own memory palaces, and a toolkit for the modern nostalgic.

Ven Qiu’s work is informed by tenets in archival, death doula work, media theory, diasporic longing, and a commitment to tech sovereignty. As digital and physical entangle in the present, Ven retroactively fuses them in the past, imbuing old heirlooms with new media contexts. Through this work, Ven hopes to create tools for others to build ancestral archives while untethering from platform capitalism and corporate memory management.