ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the interstices between a consciously designed heritage space and spontaneous memory ecology. The German term Industrienatur, which forms the backbone of the case study, recognizes the specific ecological conditions in post-industrial, anthropogenic settings and identifies some key characteristics of environments that are formed by humans and yet continue to transform beyond human control. Industrial decline engenders a range of long-term political affects that spread far and wide, and in the ambiguous memory terrain, the ecological focus may be seen as politically dubious and shallow – a greenwashed industrial heritage which engenders forgetfulness. The value and challenge of recent work in the tradition of media ecology in relation to heritage and cultural memory, is that it conceives of media in the broadest possible sense as relays that engender connections, contract forces and channels energies. Categorized as mural vegetation, wall-rue commonly occurs in heritage contexts, both on fairly recent brick wall buildings and on old chalky, stone walls.
