The Black Museum of “Black Mirror”: image, conservation and crisis of memory

Abstract

The last instalment (the sixth of the fourth season) of Black Mirror, the lucky TV series by Netflix broadcasted since 2011, is probably the node to which the multiple themes of the present anthology converge. Indeed, the noir in its broader sense shrouds every episode in a dark vision; a dystopic, yes, but not improbable hyper technological future. It is maybe not a coincidence that the single stories, each independent yet ideally bound to the others, finally lie in a strange museum, located in the most remote corner of the desert and close to a solitary – and apparently abandoned – petrol station. If we read between the lines (or look beyond the panes of this exhibition), it is interesting to observe that the series present a projection which involves not only the relationship between man and technology (in a time where even emotions will be controlled via smartphone apps), but also – in this case – the future of the very ‘museum’ idea, as well as the conservation logics. The moral of the story appears to be that technologies themselves are not good or bad: rather, it is the way they are used that determines their corruption and, consequently, their destructive effects on society. In the case of Black Museum, this degeneration has a name: Rolo Haynes, director of the permanent exhibition. Partly host, partly director and partly unscrupulous speculator, Haynes moved from his past life failures to managing a sort of memorial of horrors: a museum which, similarly to the Black Museums of the most famous world police forces, gathers material evidences of bloodcurdling crimes.