What to Conserve? Heritage, Memory, and Management of Meanings

This Paper explores and criticizes different theories and perceptions concerning ‘cultural heritage’ to explore the definitions of ‘heritage’ throughout history, and questions how the conflicts in considering and identifying ‘heritage’ might have affected the approaches to its conservation. In such process, the paper investigates the relation between ‘place’ and ‘memory’ and how place has been always the medium through which history was written, resulting in two inseparable faces, tangible and the intangible, forming the two-faced coin of ‘cultural heritage’. This research assists understanding the complex construct of heritage places; stressing the growing awareness of intangible heritage’s importance, which represents a remarkable turn in heritage conservation realm in the twenty-first century, and emphasizing the notion of heritage as a coefficient of society, which is understood through experience, learnt through performance, and represented through ‘activities’ formed in the present maintaining and developing the identity of place and preserving its spirit, rather than a past oriented vision that tends to ‘pickle’ images from the past in a picturesque manner that is only tourism-oriented

The tourist experience of heritage urban spaces : Valletta as a case study

This article provides an understanding of how tourists experience heritage urban spaces by investigating features that influence tourist experiences most. It is framed within urban design literature which refers to three elements of urban space namely physical setting (or form), activity, and meaning. These elements are used to explore how urban spaces are experienced by tourists. Its findings are derived from an in-depth qualitative analysis of interviews with tourists to Valletta, Malta. The research suggests that the intrinsic qualities of the space are relevant to the tourist experience but what is even more relevant are the interactions of the tourist with different elements within that space, namely interactions with surroundings, interactions with others, and interactions with self/meaning. Within this broad conceptual model, the research identifies important sub-themes. Some of these reinforce the findings of existing work on tourist experiences, but others are often under-estimated or neglected.peer-reviewe

Affinity spaces on Facebook: a quantitative discourse analysis towards intercultural dialogue

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Investigating situated cultural practices through cross-sectoral digital collaborations: policies, processes, insights

The (Belfast) Good Friday Agreement represents a major milestone in Northern Ireland's recent political history, with complex conditions allowing for formation of a ‘cross-community’ system of government enabling power sharing between parties representing Protestant/loyalist and Catholic/nationalist constituencies. This article examines the apparent flourishing of community-focused digital practices over the subsequent ‘post-conflict’ decade, galvanised by Northern Irish and EU policy initiatives armed with consolidating the peace process. Numerous digital heritage and storytelling projects have been catalysed within programmes aiming to foster social processes, community cohesion and cross-community exchange. The article outlines two projects—‘digital memory boxes’ and ‘interactive galleon’—developed during 2007–2008 within practice-led PhD enquiry conducted in collaboration with the Nerve Centre, a third-sector media education organisation. The article goes on to critically examine the processes involved in practically realising, and creatively and theoretically reconciling, community-engaged digital production in a particular socio-political context of academic-community collaboration

Mixed Reality for Historic Preservation

Digital technologies are becoming widely available to experts in the field of historic preservation. These tools equip experts with the capability to obtain high resolution and accurate information about cultural heritage, which can be accurately reproduced and rematerialized without coming into contact with the physical object itself. This preservation approach is described as non-contact, meaning that it is not invasive to the material integrity of an artifact. Since the turn of the century, stakeholders in the field have increasingly focused their attention on digital technologies for advancing the field. The motivation for experts to preserve cultural heritage with digital technologies starts with the idea of merging the two, and in recent years, innovations in high-resolution digital imaging, recording, processing, modeling and reproduction capabilities have fostered the integration of a virtual environment. Mixed Reality (MR), which the merging of digital and physical worlds, not only allows experts to expand possibilities for preservation interventions once all physical range of actions have been exhausted, but it also makes it possible for experts to intervene digitally before carrying out a preservation treatment. MR can be used as a tool to create hybrid environments for experts and researchers to better manage and understand cultural heritage, which in turn allows them to provide the public with a deeper understanding about cultural heritage. The traditionally object-centric nature of the historic preservation field favors MR over Virtual Reality, since the former engages with the physical site or artifact themselves. By allowing field experts and visitors to visualize scenes in situ from viewpoints that are impossible due to size, content or accessibility issues, the installation of MR’s formless aesthetics engages viewers of cultural heritage through new and innovative ways. The application of MR offers countless strategies for approaching conservation and interpretation projects in historic preservation. But, despite its capacity to enhance the practice of historic preservation, MR poses new technological and methodological questions for the field. As a burgeoning tool and constantly changing field, there have been very few studies conducted on the application of MR to the field of historic preservation. This thesis argues that, on the one hand, MR provides innovative strategies for approaching preservation problems; but on the other hand, the absence of standards, guidelines, and techniques make it difficult to evaluate and propose new projects in the field. As a response to this deficiency, I propose a framework to evaluate and use MR for the preservation of cultural heritage. This framework is first tested to evaluate three case studies, and next, to propose a unique MR strategy for the complex preservation case of the San Baudelio de Berlanga Hermitage in the province of Soria, Spain. This thesis aims to contribute a MR framework and methodology that provides a consistent conceptual approach to MR projects in the field

The Virtual Museums of Caen : a case study on modes of representation of digital historical content

In the early 19th Century much of the Strath of Kildonan was cleared of its people who were replaced by sheep farming. This pattern was repeated across the Scottish Highlands. In 2013 Timespan, Helmsdale Heritage and Arts Centre, hosted a program of activities to mark the 200th anniversary of the Clearances. The centrepiece of these activities was a community excavation of the Caen township in the Strath of Kildonan. Based upon the evidence of that excavation a digital model of the township was created using the Virtual Time Travel Platform. The Virtual World of Caen can be explored as part of an installation in Timespans storytelling room. Visitors can experience what life would have been like in the Strath of Kildonan in 1813. This paper reports how the model has been deployed in different settings and on various digital platforms. These include showcasing the model at the Helmsdale Highland Games where visitors could explore the township of the past on stereo head mounted displays, or a Virtual Museum website that welcomes visitors from around the globe, as well as using Google Cardboard to allow visitors to explore Caen today, the virtual reconstruction of Caen simultaneously whilst on the site.Postprin

Temporal hybridity: Mixing live video footage with instant replay in real time

Copyright @ 2010 ACMIn this paper we explore the production of streaming media that involves live and recorded content. To examine this, we report on how the production practices and process are conducted through an empirical study of the production of live television, involving the use of live and non-live media under highly time critical conditions. In explaining how this process is managed both as an individual and collective activity, we develop the concept of temporal hybridity to explain the properties of these kinds of production system and show how temporally separated media are used, understood and coordinated. Our analysis is examined in the light of recent developments in computing technology and we present some design implications to support amateur video production.The research was partly made possible by a grant from the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems to the Mobile Life VinnExcellence Center, in partnership with SonyEricsson, Ericsson, Microsoft Research, Nokia Research, TeliaSonera and the City of Stockholm

'Immersive' heritage encounters

This article introduces and analyzes the immersive turn within museum and heritage contexts. Three immersive heritage encounters from the UK are introduced, which demonstrate practice being promoted and sold through the rhetoric of “immersion” and “experience;” Traces (2017), I Swear to Tell the Truth (2018), and The Lost Palace (2016). These case studies are used to test a definition of immersive heritage as story-led, audience and participation centered, multimodal, multisensory, and attuned to its environment. Although immersive heritage often interweaves digital and physical resources, its digitality, I argue, should not itself be understood as a defining feature. The article concludes by summarizing challenges for research and practice in the nascent field of immersive heritage going forward

Portmerion, Proportion and Perspective

The holiday village of Portmerion was created by Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883 1978) over a period of fifty-one years, starting in 1926. It was grade II listed in 1971. However, Portmerion has become a part of western popular culture rather than of mainstream architectural history. Its use as the setting for the cult 1967 television series “The Prisoner” ensures continued worldwide interest and a constant stream of visitors. Williams Ellis’ design methods were empirical, initial designs being adjusted by eye on site in close collaboration with trusted builders. This paper analyses the development of Portmerion as a gesamtkunstwerk; considering the experience of movement through the village as a dynamic composition of shifting vistas, focussing the visitor on a series of constructed views. Through this analysis, Portmerion is revealed as both a manifestation of the architecture of pleasure and an exercise in the pleasure of architecture