Digital cultural heritage: Some critical reflections

Abstract

Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations (UNESCO, 2021). Covering natural, cultural, and industrial domains, the heritage concept refers to a comprehensive discourse that evolved throughout history (Harvey, 2001: 320). The cultural heritage concept initially focused solely on historical and artistic values and late included parameters like cultural value, identity, and capacity of the object to interact with memory (Vecco, 2010). With all these evolutions, the authorized heritage discourse that prevailed over a certain period has also lost its validity today. According to the said discourse, heritage refers to heritage sites, buildings, and objects with identifiable, mappable, measured, and searchable borders. This discourse argues that the heritage built by the authorities is passively consumed by the audience (Smith, 2006: 29-34). However, the audience of postmodern consumers in the postmodern period rejects this phenomenon, attaching importance to abstract heritage as much as tangible heritage. Hence, digitization emerges as both an extension and a prerequisite of this new heritage discourse in line with postmodern consumers' trends.