ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by looking at the role of Utøya in the commemoration processes. It examines how practices of commemoration and witnessing played a role in changing the affective ecology of Utøya from a place of love, joy, and political enthusiasm to a haunted place. Grassroots memorials serve as momentary manifestations that appear in the aftermath of a violent event causing sudden death to citizens. Based on Paul Ricœur"s theory of the witness, and adding theoretical perspectives from new media scholarship on memory, witnessing can be said to possess three fundamental features. Britta Timm Knudsen's encounter with the island was therefore formed through the testimony of this survivor and his witnessing body, as well as through the grassroots memorials. Millions of people forming silent crowds of mourning populate the streets of Paris, all over France, in solidarity marches in Europe, and in the rest of the Western world.
