Digital break-up souvenirs sought for Museum of Broken Relationships
Published On Mon 19 Mar 2018 by Grant Hill
- The museum of Broken Relationship in Croatia is home to physical souvenirs from romantic break up, gathered from across the world
- For the first time digital souvenirs are now being collected in partnership with University of Dundee’s interdisciplinary Living Digital group
- The momentos sought might include unanswered texts, ominous email subject lines, Facebook messages, terrible Tinder profiles, Snapchat screengrabs or emotional photographs
Not so long ago, the souvenirs of a romantic relationship involved mixtapes, letters, jewellery, photographs and items of clothing. After a breakup, perhaps they were tucked away in a drawer and taken out occasionally to reminisce over. With the new wave of social media and digital technologies has led to the emergence of a whole host of digital momentos.
Daniel Herron and Professor Wendy Moncur, researchers in the interdisciplinary Living Digital group at the University of Dundee, are exploring what ‘digital souvenirs’ people keep after a breakup, and how and why they do so. In ‘Digital Separations’, an international collaboration with the Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia, they are carrying out a world-wide exercise to collect those mementos.
It is hoped that the exercise will give people a greater awareness of the permanence their romantic communications online, encouraging them to actively consider the digital footprint they are creating during a relationship.
The team have begun to collect these digital souvenirs as part of their research, which include: ‘Not breakup text’, an unanswered text between high school sweethearts who were in a struggling long-distance relationship; ‘Email Title Said It All’, an emotional break-up email with the ominous subject line, ‘The End; and ‘Santo Antônio kept me alive’, a photograph of pet dog that helped heal the hurt after an abusive and emotional break-up.
The Museum is already home to a collection of the physical souvenirs from romantic break up, gathered from across the globe. The digital souvenirs collected by the Museum and the University will be added to this permanent collection.
Daniel, Researcher and PhD student at University, explained, “So much of our lives, including significant parts of our relationships, are lived online now. People meet online, they share information through social media, make and share playlists, keep photos on their smartphones.
“Much of this digital content persists after a break up and needs to be dealt with in some way. Material generated as part of a romantic entanglement can linger online long after the actual relationship has ended. This material can give us significant insights into how people can treat breakups, remember relationships, and move on positively in a modern, digital world.”
So, whether you’re cut up in Canada, depressed in Dublin, or euphoric in Europe, share your digital souvenirs of romantic breakup through the Museum, and the stories attached to those souvenirs. Happy, sad, or hair-raising – anything that is digital and that tells a story that is important to you about your breakup.
If you have been through a break up and want to share your experiences by donating a digital souvenir to the Museum of Broken Relationships, visit https://brokenships.com/visit?open=contribute.
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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
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Email: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk