Introduction
Abstract
“Contained Memory”, the first volume of the Memory Connection Journal, takes its title from a conference held in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2010.1 At the inception of the idea for the conference the question was asked: What is contained memory? Although there are distinct forms of memory containment, from the outset we acknowledged their capacity for porosity, enabling encounters between different expressions of memory. We proposed an (extensive) list of “knowledge sources” from where papers might originate, and listed broad themes to which presenters could respond. In doing so, we did not seek to delimit the possibilities of how contained memory could be understood by attempting to define the term we had coined; rather, our intention was to signal our aspiration for an expansive interpretation. We wanted potential participants to respond to contained memory from their own perspectives. In the end, it was the contributors to both the conference and the publication who have defined contained memory in these contexts.