Food for talk : phototalk in the context of sharing a meal

Photographic mementos are important signifiers of our personal memories. Rather than simply passive representations of memories to "preserved" memories, these photos of the past are actively displayed and consumed in the context of everyday behaviour and social practices. Within the context of these settings, these mementos are invoked in particular ways in order to mobilise particular social relations in the present. Taking this perspective, we explore how photo mementos come to be used in the everyday social setting of sharing meal providing a resource that can be mobilised for particular social relations in these settings. Rather than a simple concern with nutritional consumption, the shared meal is a social event and important cultural site in the organisation of family and social life with culturally specific rhythms, norms, rights and responsibilities. We present a system - 4 Photos - that situates photo mementos within the social concerns of these settings. The system collates photo mementos from those attending the meal and displays them at the dining table to be interacted with by all. Through a fieldwork deployment of the system we explore the social work performed by invoking these personal memory resources in the context of real world settings of shared eating. We highlight particular features of the system that enable this social work to be achieved.