UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

Various activities January – March 2022

2022-04-01

Cornelius Holtorf gave an invited keynote lecture on “Digitizing archives, urban heritage, and the needs of future generations” at the conference Digitizing Jerusalem Archives: Urban Heritage in the age of Digital Culture, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel (3 January 2022)

Cornelius Holtorf taught 11 students at Linnaeus University, during two 2-hour sessions, about “Global Cultural Policy,” including the history of UNESCO World Heritage and the significance for cultural heritage of the Agenda 2030, incl. climate change, and of futures thinking. The students are reading our programme on Cultural Heritage in Present and Future Societies (10 Jan 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf taught 12 students at Linnaeus University, during two 2-hour sessions, about “UNESCO World heritage,” including a history of the World Heritage Convention and its achievements and challenges. The students are reading our programme on Cultural Heritage in Present and Future Societies (21 Jan 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg attended the digital Second Plenary of the Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management of the Nuclear Energy Agency, OECD, Paris (1-3 Feb 2022).

Cornelius attended the Annual Policy Conversation “A Cultural Deal for Europe” arranged by Europa Nostra in collaboration with Culture Action Europe and the European Cultural Foundation (1 Feb 2022). It started with a video message by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Cornelius Holtorf contributed with a cautionary note describing The Climate-Heritage Paradox to a call by the Climate Heritage Network to submit ideas in the context of a consultation of the UN climate change agency UNFCCC regarding the development of a new Global Goal on Adaptation, as discussed in this decision taken at COP26 (1 Feb 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf lectured on “Is the World Heritage Convention Out of Date?” for 20+ attendants at the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, UK (9 February 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf opened a discussion on “Social relevance – threat or opportunity?” in the Salon FKH series, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Linnaeus University (15 February 2022)

Cornelius Holtorf attended Joanne Clarke’s Inaugural Lecture as Professor entitled “Archaeology, Heritage And Climate Change: How Recent Research Is Influencing International Policy Agendas” and held at the University of Est Anglia, UK (22 February 2022)

Cornelius Holtorf contributed with a presentation on “The War in Ukraine and Heritage Futures” to a panel debate, attended by almost 70 global participants, on Cultural Heritage in War: Making Ukraine’s Past and Future organised by the Cultural Heritage Studies Programme at Central European University (3 March 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf has been appointed to the Scientific Council of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum.
Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Archäologie (for the period 2022-2026). The RGZM was founded in 1852 and is an international research institute for Archaeology, based in Mainz, Germany.

Cornelius Holtorf presented a talk on “What is heritage futures and why does it matter?” at a research seminar on Critical Heritage and Place Consumption at the University of Lincoln, UK (9 March 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf lectured on Heritage Futures for 25 students in Design, reading a course on Design Processes and Methods focussing on Time at Linnaeus University (10 March 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in the World Heritage Council meeting for the World Heritage site “Agricultural Landscape Southern Öland”, representing Linnaeus University (11 March 2022).

Emily Hanscam gave a talk on “Constrained by the Classics: Legacies of Rome in the United States” to researchers at the Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University, Kalmar (22 March 2022).

Cornelius Holtorf attended a seminar by Riina Alatalu, ICOMOS Vice-President for Europe, organised as part of the Annual Meeting of ICOMOS Sweden. Alatulu holds a new UNESCO Chair on Cultural Heritage at the Estonian Academic of Arts. She reported among others that ICOMOS Belarus has been dissolved by the government of Belarus and about the internal discussions within ICOMOS International on a statement concerning the war in Ukraine. I reminded the cirka 20 participants of the fact that The World Heritage Site “Struve Geodetic Arc” actually runs through Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia (and some other contries) and asked how this site, once the war has ceased, could contribute to peace through ICOMOS (28 March 2022).

Världen behöver fred!

2022-03-25

Gemensamt yttrande av Mörbylånga kommun, Länsstyrelsen Kalmar län, Region Kalmar, Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund, Kalmar läns museum och Linnéuniversitetets Unescoprofessur om kulturarv och framtiden:

”Eftersom krigen har sitt ursprung i människornas sinnen, måste försvaret av freden också byggas upp i människornas sinnen”, står det i Unescos stadgar.

Unesco är FN:s organisation för utbildning, vetenskap och kultur och har idag 193 medlemsländer. Unesco verkar för fred och säkerhet i världen, bland annat via världsarvskonventionen. Med anledning av kriget i Ukraina och andra krig som pågår vill vi uppmana alla beslutsfattare att göra sitt yttersta för att uppnå fred.

Rapsfält i Gräsgård i Unesco Världsarv Södra Ölands odlingslandskap. Foto: Annika Gustavsson

Vi anser att världsarven kan bidra till en fredligare värld genom att öka förståelse och respekt mellan människor.

Idag vill vi berätta om Ukrainas sju världsarv:

  1. Sofiakatedralen i Kyiv och relaterade klosterbyggnader Kyiv-Petjersk Lavra
    Sofiakatedralen och dess närliggande klosterbyggnader Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra anses vara två enastående exempel på kulturarvsbyggnader från medeltiden och den tidigmoderna perioden (1500-1800). Världsarven berättar om vilka unika platser människan kan skapa.
  2. Lviv – stadens historiska centrum 
    Lviv är en stad i västra Ukraina som grundades under medeltiden. Lviv är ett kulturvärldsarv tack vare sin unika blandning av traditioner i stadens utformning från Östeuropa, Italien och Tyskland. Lviv är ett världsarv där människor från många olika kulturer kunde leva tillsammans och utöva sina traditioner sida vid sida, redan under medeltiden.
  3. Struves meridianbåge
    I Ukraina är fyra av Struves meridianbåges mätpunkter klassade som världsarv. Dessa fyra ingår i en total av 265 mätpunkter som går genom flertalet länder i Europa, däribland Sverige. Mätpunkterna användes för att mäta meridianen och på så sätt även kunna återge storleken och formen på vår planet. Struves är ett unikt exempel på världsarv som visar vad som kan uppnås när människor i många olika länder arbetar tillsammans.
  4. Bokurskogarna i Karpaterna och andra europeiska regioner
    Bokurskogarna berättar om hur ett ekosystem har återhämtat sig och utvecklats sen den senaste istiden. Detta är Ukrainas enda naturvärldsarv och med sin unika natur är detta världsarv något som behövs bevaras och skyddas.
  5. Bukovinska och Dalmatiska metropoliternas residens
    Detta enorma byggnadskomplex nära staden Chernivtsi i sydvästra Ukraina, visar på många olika byggnadskulturella influenser samt ett starkt inslag av ortodoxa traditioner. Idag används byggnaderna som ett universitet. Det är genom kunskap och lärandet som gör att vi kan utvecklas, att kunna se saker annorlunda. Residenset visar att världsarv kan bidra på olika sätt för fred.
  6. Forntida tauriska staden Chersonesos och dess chora
    Detta är kvarlämningarna av en stad grundad av greker runt 500 f. kr på sydvästra Krimhalvön. Staden vittnar om en fysisk kontakt mellan olika kulturer norr om, och runt Svarta havet. Världsarvet kan påminna människorna i regionen att man har haft fredliga relationer till varandra trots olika kulturer. Det är viktigt att världsarven finns kvar och kan både påminna och skapa en känsla av samhörighet människor emellan.
  7. Träkyrkorna i Karpatiska regionen i Polen och Ukraina
    I östkanten av central Europa ligger 16 träkyrkor (tserkvas). I Ukraina ligger 8 av kyrkorna, nära gränsen till Polen. Träkyrkorna byggdes mellan 1500-1800 av olika ortodoxa och katolska samhällen.

Cultural Heritage and Wellbeing

2022-03-24

 

As part of the EUniWell Open Lecture Series, Prof. Cornelius Holtorf presented on 24 March 2022 on

“Cultural Heritage, Well-being and the Future”

ABSTRACT

Cultural heritage is often assumed to be of timeless value. But over recent decades, cultural heritage has been fundamentally reconceptualised in global policies. Whereas for about two centuries, cultural heritage was usually appreciated as a tangible token of collective histories, usually connected to ideas linked to Romantic Nationalism, now we see a different paradigm gradually taken over: cultural heritage is increasingly valued in relation to the intangible impacts and uses it has for specific communities. In this context, the concept of wellbeing has become central, and I will give a few concrete examples what that means for cultural heritage. Taking this development even further, cultural heritage in global contexts is today most commonly addressed within the framework of sustainable development. Yet political bodies such as the UN and national governments (even those embracing wellbeing) are still locked into older perceptions and often fail to embrace fully the ‘new’ cultural heritage. The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures is contributing to changing this by focusing on how cultural heritage can best benefit future generations.

The lecture was recorded and will be available online soon.

Travelling to the year 2062

2022-03-23

“Det är onsdag eftermiddag i mars 2062, på teamet Vård & Välmående på företaget HemFrisk i Kalmarsunds kommun. Veckans team samlas för gemensam genomgång av veckan som kommer. Egentligen är det inget konstigt, så gör de varje vecka. Men denna vecka är det också något nytt på gång, … “

This is the situation to which almost 20 participants travelled this afternoon, to experience a lively discussion about the introduction of a digital Doctor, steered by artifical intelligence. The participants were mostly from the elderly care sector on southern Öland. All enjoyed the role play and found it very educational as the scenario became very real and the complexity of the issues very apparent.

The event was an outcome of the future time travel concept originally initiated by our Chair on Heritage Futures in collaboration with Kalmar County Museum, and a current co-project by the museum and the University’s eHealth institute.

Heritage for the future

2022-03-15

Under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Foundation for Heritage Science organised the symposium ‘Heritage for the Future, Science for Heritage: A European Adventure for Research and Innovation’. The hybrid event was accessible physically in Paris as well as digitally (15-16 March 2022).

Claudio Pescatore participated physically and will soon report about his impressions on this blog.

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg participated digitally. They also had a short paper accepted entitled “Why cultural heritage needs foresight“. In that paper, they argue that the cultural heritage sector, including Heritage Science, needs to address an inherent lack of capability in futures thinking by enhancing foresight and ‘futures literacy’. The sector ought to take seriously the consequences of the insight that the uses and values of cultural heritage in future societies will be different from those in the present and in the past. Foresight and futures literacy will allow the cultural heritage sector to respond to climate change and other global developments, risks and challenges anticipated by futurists




Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

2022-02-23

Nicklas Larsen at Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies did an interview with me exploring the concepts of heritage futures and futures literacy, about decolonisation, and about digitalisation.

My conclusion at the end:

The point is to promote and provoke thinking in different ways. That we become aware of our baggage, the things we take for granted because we were born at a particular time and place. Many people have difficulties with that, as they feel passionate about certain traditions that are considered so important that they seemingly need to continue forever. But they might not, at least not in the way they are perceived today, and another strategy may be asked for in the future. To me, futures literacy is that kind of liberating skill where you increasingly become aware of these limitations in your thinking.

 

Heritage as Reuse

2022-02-21

For two days in February 2022, I contributed to a workshop at the Italian Politecnico di Torino, entitled “Designing the future of the past” and discussing contemporary theories of conservation. The participants were some 15 PhD students in Architecture and Design. The responsible organizer was Matteo Robiglio, founding director in 2017 of the University’s Future Urban Legacy Lab. Robiglio is an architect interested in adaptive reuse. Among others, he authored the book, RE-USA: 20 American Stories of Adaptive Reuse. A Toolkit for Post-Industrial Cities (Jovis, 2017).

This is a topic close to my own interests. For one thing, my own Doctoral research project was about reuse of megalithic architecture in the distant past (adaptive or not). For another, I would be inclined to argue that designated cultural heritage constitutes in itself a form of creative reuse of objects inherited from the past. And this is where Robiglio disagrees – why?

In RE-USA (pp. 177-8, 192-3, 203, 214-5, 219), Robiglio contrasts people creatively re-using inherited structures in any suitable way with others who are carefully documenting and meticulously conserving a fragmented heritage of the historic past. Whereas the former, for Robiglio (inspired, among others, by Viollet-Le-Duc and Halbwachs and in contrast to Ruskin and Morris), is an expression of living traditions pragmatically creating something for their own time, the latter is an ever-growing aberration that led to the sanitization and commodification of the ‘heritage industry’. He goes on to state that whereas in heritage preservation, locality is inherited and must be preserved, in adaptive reuse, a new form of locality is being produced within the same spatial frame. Overall, Robiglio ends up with a dichotomy that looks about like this:


I would argue that the left column becomes nothing but a caricature as soon as heritage is recognised for what it is: a particular response to older structures that emerged at a certain time in modern history and is connected with a body of creative ideas linked to notions such as National Romanticism. Since then, the authorised heritage discourse has been changing continuously, incorporating ideals of education, development, and community engagement, among others. Indeed, there is a discernible transition from an initial focus in heritage management on safeguarding tangible remains to one on negotiating multiple societal values and now increasingly to ensuring important uses for communities. Heritage, too, constitutes a creative change from how the remains of the past were seen before, and it has brought about various hybrids between past and present, incorporating new ideas and meanings, often fairly pragmatically, and with a noticeable agenda for a future to come.

I suspect that Robiglio presented a different analysis in RE-USA first and foremost as a pragmatic move to establish a creative contrast between conservation and reuse, benefitting his agenda of promoting adaptive reuse. The concept of heritage futures recognizes that heritage, too, contributes to future-making. This is now increasingly becoming explicit, e.g. in the Foresight Initiative of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) exploring how to apply strategic foresight for thinking about cultural heritage and the contribution it can make to people’s lives in the decades to come.

Indeed, the past is becoming an active force for shaping the future – which is what Robiglio’s PhD workshop in Torino explored. I am looking forward to more collaboration!

Designing the Future of the Past

2022-02-17

Cornelius Holtorf was invited as a keynote speaker and presented on “Futures Literacy: How to Bring World Heritage Up To Date” for more than 20 participants in the international Doctoral student seminar entitled Designing the Future of the Past held at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy (17-18 February 2022). – His first trip after the pandemic to meet colleagues and students abroad!

The agenda of the seminar was very exciting indeed. It involved to present

the contemporary discourse in the conservation field across the emerging theories of Critical Heritage Studies, Counterpreservation, Curated Decay, Negative Legacies, and Ruination. Such novel theories challenge an unquestioned relationship between design practice and preservation, considering the past as an active force for shaping the future, and opening new options for intervention (or not) on preexistences.

Heritage and Foresight

2022-02-03

Since 2021, I have been advising the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in their Heritage Foresight initiative.

This is why foresight matters to ICCROM:

The events of the last few years have demonstrated time and again that the world is rapidly changing, and with it, the cultural heritage sector. Out of mounting global uncertainties rises an urgent need to reconsider how strategic planning can help us better prepare for the future. Within this context, we explore the concept of strategic foresight and highlight ICCROM’s recent investigation into the future of cultural heritage.

We see enormous value in applying strategic foresight to how we think about cultural heritage and the contribution it can make to people’s lives in the decades to come if properly safeguarded. As an organization charged with promoting conservation in all corners of the globe, we have an obligation to proactively identify external forces and address their potential impacts, and also put forward a compelling vision for a future in which the benefits of cultural heritage are fully harnessed. Through foresight, we can begin to form this bigger picture.

Here is ICCROM’s short explanation of strategic foresight (on youtube):