Me, myself and my cultural heritage

The influence of digitization on the switch from community based to individually based cultural heritage 

Cultural heritage is increasingly being influenced by globalization and the use of digital media as a form of heritage mediation. This has led to a shift in the way in which cultural heritage is being mediated as social and digital media have shifted the (im)balance from a collective memory decided through a top-down process (which tends to be based on the opinions of individual experts) to a process that allows increasing autonomy to engage other opinions and emploring a bottom-up way of understanding cultural heritage.

When we think about cultural heritage, we often relate it to old and static monuments or musea. It has a negative image of preserving artefacts which are not useful or meaningful to us in our present lives. Shortly said, they are perceived, at least by the younger generations, as boring. Nowadays, with the inception of the digital age, cultural heritage has transformed to an increasingly more dynamic platform. Where heritage used to be a top-down project, social media are now providing the opportunity for everyone to engage in the digital memory making process. So, the difference is that we can now actively participate in the creation of cultural heritage ourselves rather than be an ‘audience of predigested heritage’. By voicing our own opinions online, we can create online communities and pose a reaction to ‘official’ heritage narratives. Through this kind of ‘performative memory’, we feel less distanced from traditions as we can take part in an ongoing conversation of relating the past to the present.

So, our World Wide Web has evolved from being a platform for solely gaining knowledge into an increasingly participatory principle. This new aspect of the internet is characterized by the use of the term ‘’Web 2.0’’. Users of ‘’Web 1.0’’ were simply acting as consumers of content, while websites that use the ‘’Web 2.0’’ principle emphasize user-generated content and enable increased participation. The principle of ‘’Web 2.0’’ can be used in different fields, for example when it comes to reaching and engaging with new audiences in museums. Technological advances can make a ‘’Museum 2.0’’ possible, in which museums can share their knowledge more easily than before. However, in the process of museums digitizing, the standardizing of an expert to ensure universal access strips objects of their multiple meanings and perspectives. These are nonetheless voiced in the different educational performances in the museum, think of students expressing their opinion about a work of art during a school tour, but these opinions never make their way into the museum documentation process. This process is always dominated by the experts view.

In the Netherlands there is the DEN, (Dutch Knowledge Institute on Digital Heritage), it is the national institution for digitalisation of the cultural sector. DEN supports the production of culture and maintenance of heritage organisations, to have an active contribution to today's information society on the basis of digital collections, documenting and giving support. Through the digitalization of heritage and cultural collections, the organisations can reach a broader audience and give an easy access to researchers. This is done by creating the digital heritage network. On the DEN website, you can find a registration with an overview of all organisations that are using DEN’s network. Organizations like Asian pottery, Dutch windmills and Caribbean newspapers. The amount of organizations linked to the digital heritage network has increased in the last view years. The last numbers from 2012 show that from 2010 to 2011 the growth was even 68%, currently (April 2018) there are 346 organisations connected². Organisations have to contact DEN themselves, to start the digitization procedure. To give every organisation the opportunity to have their collection digitized for the public, DEN offers a guide for receiving several grants from different institutes. By participating in the digital heritage network everyone can now see the collections online from the comfort of their own home.


Table 1: Growth of connected organizations to the digital heritage network

What do you think of this digitization of cultural heritage through the use of the digital heritage network? Does it allow different perspectives to be encompassed in the mediation of cultural heritage?

To know more about the digital heritage network and DEN watch the video:

Sources:
1.Srinivasan, Ramesh et al.: “Digital Museum and Diverse Cultural Knowledges: Moving Past the Traditional Catalogue,” in The Information Society, 25, no. 4 (2009): 265-278.
2. http://www.den.nl/instellingen
3. Silberman, Neil & Purser, Margaret. “Collective Memory as Affirmation: People-Centered Cultural Heritage in a Digital Age,” inHeritage and Social Media : Understanding heritage in a participatory culture, edited by Elisa Giaccardi, 13-29. London: Routledge, 2012.