Our nomadic journey of local memories starts here.
Tucked away in the heart of each of us are cultural memories about the land and time in which we live. Hidden away within the seemingly ordinary details of everyday life are profound and silent cultural genes. Employing the power of digital technology and community collaboration, Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank preserves Taiwan’s diverse cultural DNA and licenses it under the internationally recognized Creative Commons (CC) license, enabling cultural content to be freely used, adapted, and reimagined, allowing new possibilities for global exchange.
NMTH has promoted the Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank project since 2021, bringing the memory bank into real-life settings, connecting communities, groups, and creators across Taiwan to gather and document cultural memories unique to each locality through dialogue and action. The project encompasses cities, towns, villages, and tribal communities, chronicling cultural landscapes and the rhythm of life around the island. “Local Memories: A Nomadic Journey” is not merely a review of the achievements of this journey, it also represents a convergence of cultural energies across regions. Using multiple mediums, the exhibition showcases project accomplishments during this period, inviting visitors to explore cultural memories from different corners of the island and rediscover memories hidden just below the surface of daily life.
Lesson plan house
A lesson begins to take root from local stories.
Careful preservation has allowed us to draw upon cultural memories from the past and, with each retrieval, bring fragments of the cultural river back into our lives. Equipped with this “cultural circulation,” education empowers us to place the opportunity for transformation into the hands of young people.
Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank resources, combined with innovative teaching models, instill educators with the imagination to transcend learning boundaries of the past—bringing local stories into the classroom while carrying the outcomes of education back into the community. Everything from theater and design to guided tours and artificial intelligence can be used to demonstrate how local memories nurture education and creativity, transforming learning into an ongoing endeavor that connects culture with the land.
Tent of light and shadows
Perceiving the shapes of local memories between the light and shadows.
Today’s sophisticated imaging technology enables us to reconstruct memories into sensory three-dimensional visual records, allowing cultural memories of this island to unfold on the screen.
We brought back from our nomadic journey of culture, memories and stories from Daxi in Taoyuan, Xizhou in Changhua, and Doulan in Taitung—three completely distinct areas inhabited by very different ethnic groups, revealing vastly different life energies and cultural visions. Cuisines, for example, are deeply entrenched within collective memories and resonate across palates, yet there are often profound differences. Tracing roots back a century can allow us to catch a glimpse into cultural truths hidden away within the cracks of history.
As you sit here watching quietly for a moment, you might find yourself connecting with their spirit.
The corners of sound
Hear the place within sounds where memory echoes.
Sounds are an important means for recalling memories. Unforgettable utterances and stirring songs can etch themselves deeply into our minds. Here, sounds have become pathways for understanding local cultures. Put on a pair of headphones and hear the crisp sounds produced as life paths collide or go listen to the hubbub of the markets, the sound of footsteps in streets and lanes, the howl of the wind, the singing of birds—ethereal carriers of memories and the emotions of daily life.
The next chapter in the nomadic journey of memory
Describe the place you carry in your heart, and allow memory to keep moving.
Take up pen and paper and write down your own cultural memories.
They could be your impressions about this current exhibition, cultural recollection from your life, or a snippet from some corner of the city, something you heard that is buried deep within your heart…
Leave us a memory of yours, so that your visit with us will not be simply a viewing and listening experience, but rather an exhibition in which you are a fellow creator—a collective encounter of individual memories.