Beyond technology. Digital opportunities for cultural heritage
Nowadays, technological advancements have become a vital part of our everyday lives. Indeed, even our approach to the reality which surrounds us is altered by these.
Cultural heritage, as well as other disciplines, has been completely overwhelmed by the increase of technological innovations that can be applied to its field over the last few years.
Although these technological advances are useful, their artificial intelligence systems have also been biased. For this reason, it is on the current debates whether we can trust in technology or we must avoid it (Cameron and Kenderdine 2007).
I don’t want to get into the debate between technophobes and technophiles but take a step further by shedding light on the digital opportunities for cultural heritage.
The digitization processes, the digital culture, and the digital cultural heritage are some of the main topics on the political agenda today.
Nevertheless, a framework for its preservation was established by UNESCO in 2003, during the 32nd session of the General Conference, where the Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage was approved. In the same year, the National Library of Australia wrote the Guidelines for the preservation of digital heritage. These documents proved the interest in the preservation of digital memory.
The Charter describes digital heritage as
resources of human knowledge or expression, whether cultural, educational, scientific and administrative, or embracing technical, legal, medical and other kinds of information, are increasingly created digitally, or converted into digital form from existing analog resources (UNESCO 2003a).
When resources are “born digital”, there is no other format but the digital original, including text, databases, still and animated images, audiotapes, photos, software, and web pages.
It also describes
the purpose of preserving the digital heritage is to ensure that it remains accessible to the public (UNESCO 2003a).
and declares that
Member states may wish to cooperate with relevant organizations and institutions in encouraging a legal and practical environment which will maximize the accessibility of the digital heritage (UNESCO 2003a).
The principle of accessibility is related to cultural heritage in its universal character. In the digital heritage domain, it follows the work from organizations like Creative Commons or social movements like Open Access as pioneers of the open public data standards.
In the European case, the European Commission on 27th October 2011 adopted a recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation (2011/711/UE).
It boosted the general access to digital cultural heritage, encouraged new work opportunities, and supported some initiatives like the European platform for the digital cultural heritage, Europeana.
Through this legal framework, the digital cultural heritage also benefits from a new change of paradigm. In this new perspective, it promotes local initiatives, international networks, citizen participation, innovation in the cultural sector, sustainability, education in values, diversity of cultural heritage, and its democratization (i.e. RICHES project, 2016)
For example, some initiatives from the Open Access or Wikimedia movements show how to share open public data is not a loss of privacy or quality but also generates a scalable process to empower new ideas. In cultural heritage, the OpenGLAM movement stimulated the development of Heritage — Wiki Loves Monuments, a database, and API of built heritage data from around the World.
In the European context, the Europeana Foundation through aggregators like Hispana and its professional network association shows the opportunities for the future of the digital cultural heritage domain.
In Spain, some projects are working towards the future. For example, the augmented reality APP for IOS and Android called “Castillo de San Vicente de la Sonsierra”, was awarded the Premio Hispania Nostra a las buenas prácticas en la conservación del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural 2020, for its work on the dissemination of cultural heritage using new technologies.
As an educational initiative, the experience on Animal Crossing: New Horizons from Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is really powerful. It lets users build digital experiences from artworks.
As it can be seen, there are a lot of opportunities to use digital cultural heritage. If we do not use technological innovations, our sector would not be so competitive in the cultural field.
For this reason, we need a framework for action in order to benefit significantly from these advancements to open the doors for the future.
Bibliography
- Cameron, F. and S. Kenderdine, eds. (2007): Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A Critical Discourse. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
- European Comission (2011): Commission recommendation of 27 October 2011 on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation. Available on “https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32011H0711&from=EN” [Viewed: 15 February 2021].
- RICHES project (2016): D6.1 Access, Participation, Learning: Digital strategies for audience engagement with cultural heritage in museums and libraries. Available on “https://resources.riches-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/RICHES-D6.1-Access-Participation-Learning-Digital-strategies-for-audience-engagement-with-cultural-heritage-in-museums-and-libraries_public.pdf”[Viewed: 15 February 2021].
- UNESCO (2003a): Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage. Available on “https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000179529.page=2” [Viewed: 15 February 2021].
- UNESCO (2003b): Guidelines for the preservation of digital heritage [en línea]. Available on “https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000130071” [Viewed: 15 February 2021].
A Spanish version of this essay was published on 5 February 2021 at the Hispania Nostra blog ‘Totum Revolutum’
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