UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

“Being at Linnaeus University has been a great experience!”

2023-07-05

INTERVIEW | When the Italian doctoral student Elena Maria Cautis had the opportunity to spend time at a foreign institution, her eyes fell on Linnaeus University. Or more precisely: The Centre for Applied Heritage and the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures. This was exactly in line with her own research on cultural heritage. 

In the spring of 2023, she left the University of Ferrara, where she normally works, and moved to Kalmar to spend three months of exploring heritage research. In addition, she discovered birdwatching and floorball.

What do you think of your time at Linnaeus University?
– Being at Linnaeus University has been a great experience! Besides the importance for my research, it also was a period of reflection for what kind of professional environment I would like to be part of in the future. Everyone was very friendly and attentive to my needs. The facilities at the campus were great, since I was able to work both from the office and the library, which holds relevant works for my research. I’ve also experienced playing “innebandy” (floorball) with colleagues, which was super fun!

– Overall, I think that when I will be looking back years from now, I will identify this period as a turning point for me. As a person and as a professional.

What made you decide for Linnaeus University?
– Within my PhD programme, we are encouraged to spend time at a foreign institution. Given this, I had been looking for some time at the Centre for Applied Heritage at Linnaeus University and at Anders Högberg’s and Cornelius Holtorf ’s work related to heritage futures. After some Zoom meetings with them, I understood that this environment would be a great opportunity for me to explore more in depth the idea of heritage as resource.

– The key components that transpired in the various research projects taking place, were enthusiasm and curiosity towards looking at heritage differently. This is precisely the kind of environment I wanted to be in at that stage of my research, since I was feeling a bit stuck and unmotivated. The main motivation for coming to Linnaeus was a perceived feeling of freedom of thought and enthusiasm for exploring what some might consider ”crazy ideas”. I think this is what innovative thinking is all about!

What did you do during your 3 months here?
What I mainly wanted to do was to meet with people and discuss some of the themes of my research. I had the opportunity to do this, within seminars and workshops. I was also able to get a glimpse at futures literacy within workshops by the UNESCO Chair. Aside from these activities, the most important was being in a continuous dialogue with Anders and Cornelius. They offered me all the assistance and motivation that I needed in my research.

What did you think about living in Sweden?
– This was my first time in Sweden, and was nice to see that people are open, friendly and really keen to support you. Kalmar was just lovely, although at the beginning I had a bit of a weather shock! Being there was a great opportunity to also get more in touch with nature. And after countless walks I decided I am forever hooked with birdwatching! The most important though, was that I felt secure. Although I only had a glimpse at how the Swedish society is, and that there might be issues here and there, the glimpse was that it’s a society where you can flourish.

What do you want to do after you have finished your PhD?
– I would like to continue doing research, while also offering consultancy for heritage projects and international bodies in the field. I am not sure exactly where. But I am sure that I would like to work in an environment similar to the one that at Linnaeus University.

Elena Maria Cautis

Elena Maria Cautis

Elena Maria Cautis at Linnaeus University in Kalmar

Listening – important skill for the future

2023-04-17

Listening as an essential skill for future heritage practices

Diana Policarpo, Ciguatera [Installation], The Soul Expanding Ocean #4 [Exhibition]. Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Ocean Space, Venice. Seen on 30.04.2022.

Diana Policarpo, Ciguatera [Installation], The Soul Expanding Ocean #4 [Exhibition]. Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Ocean Space, Venice. Seen on 30.04.2022.

Ever since the elaboration of the UN Agenda for 2030 and its SDgs, and even more so since the elaboration of ICOMOS’ International Policy Guidance, cultural heritage has been advocated as an essential asset for tackling issues related to the climate crisis, with social challenges identified as part of this process. The International Day for Monuments and Sites (IDMS) offers the ideal setting for reflecting on which types of values attached to official heritage are suitable for designing the futures envisioned within these strategies. Or else, which hidden values might offer equal if not better support in designing these futures.

This year’s theme of the IDMS reflects on Heritage Changes and alternative sources of knowledge for welcoming our uncertain futures. It emphasizes Indigenous and traditional knowledge systems as valuable sources for finding solutions for meeting the SDGs and encourages heritage experts and institutions to open up dialogues at all levels of society and with other sectors in order to ensure representation in decision making processes with regards to the environment. 

This is a theme widely explored through the Panorama Platform within its Panorama Nature-Culture Community, which shares examples of good practices which seek to enhance the linkages between human communities and other-than-human communities and find solutions of co-existence and possibly flourishing together. Most of the explorations into these solutions are based on collaborations with Indigenous, traditional and local communities and the co-production of ecosystem management strategies, for ensuring the wellbeing of all types of communities and the conservation of heritage. When scrolling through the diverse case studies on the platform, one can come across approaches which touch upon diverse narratives which are usually woven into the “heritage for climate action” discourse: from indigenous healers engaged into actions aimed at saving tree species, to greening itineraries which lead to world heritage sites, to convincing people of the values of the conservation of their homes as an act of sustainability (just to name a few). Although all of these offer examples of action and therefore they create a sense of hopefulness, the common assumptions that seems to surface from these approaches, as well as those employed in similar actions in general,  are that:

  • Nature is an isolated object from ourselves, a realm to which we do not belong, and in need of our intervention in order to save it.
  • Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities are inherently willing to remain as they are (or as they are imagined) and offer solutions for environmental damages produced so far.
  • Cultural and Natural Heritage are static objects, which at best could be changed by bringing them into a state in which they were before (a “before” which is difficult to locate in time, although some might say “before the industrial revolution”).

This is not to say that such approaches are not useful in defining new models of interacting with our environments. Rather, these approaches touch upon the surface of the problem which lays at the heart of the current multiple crises we are experiencing. For tackling these, more powerful tools are needed which are able to decisively influence our very ways of envisioning ourselves as species within a broader context of an array of environments. Multispecies studies for example look at the multiple entanglements of livelihoods and of diverse communities of species and how these interact and influence each other, drawing also from Indigenous philosophies in this way. This might be an appropriate starting point for envisioning heritage practices as part of a management process of ecosystems and therefore bear in mind the impacts that our decisions related to heritage management have not just on humans but on other-than-humans as well. 

This becomes all the more important if we are to consider the power of heritage in shaping human values and behaviors and in defining our place in the world. In this case the following question arises: what is it that we bring with ourselves from our pasts that we would like to carry with us in the future? Reflecting upon the past in this case becomes not a nostalgic reflex, but rather identifying what it is that we’ve been carrying with us as societies. And in this sense, and keeping in mind the futures we envision for ourselves and for future generations, what is it that we might perhaps shed off as it will not be useful in these envisioned futures any longer? These are relevant reflections as we must acknowledge that, despite admirable efforts to slow down the rapid changes our worlds are undergoing, these changes in one form or another will happen and therefore the best we can do is to actually prepare. This means taking precautions, of course, but it also means that our very ways of relating to change, to uncertainty, to  our environments, must be steered towards acceptance and foresight equally. 

As much as we like to believe it, traditional knowledge is not static either. Surely if one were to document a traditional community across decades, they will notice changes in ways of perceiving and relating to the world, unless these lived completely isolated from other human communities (but even so might be influenced by changes in the rest of the environment). Too much tokenism has been expressed by outsiders in relation to Indigenous, traditional or local communities, and therefore when entering such a domain there is a need to proceed not just ethically, but also in attempts to establish genuine relationships in order to understand the other intimately. Too often, the sounding of these communities as sources of valuable knowledge for tackling the challenges we encounter is similar to that of careless extraction of resources from the rest of the environment. The first thing to keep in mind when seeking advice in such a context could be as simple as asking ourselves if these communities want to have anything to do with our actions. For this, heritage experts need to leave behind their desire to persuade people into values and actions and rather just listen.

Perhaps it all comes down to the simple act of listening carefully, to human worlds and other-than-human worlds as well. Not for replying, not for finding solutions, but just for the sake of listening. This is an act which heritage experts will need to acquire if they want to be prepared both for the changes within our worlds, and for the changing of the heritage sector as well. After all, when imagining diverse futures, we are in a position of envisioning different ways of relating to the past as well. 

Elena Maria Cautis

Elena Maria Cautis, PhD student

Elena Maria Cautis, PhD student with the Centre for Applied Heritage and the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University.

International Day for Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS

18 April is the International Day for Monuments and Sites, coordinated by ICOMOS. This year the theme is “Heritage Changes”.

WOW! The Future is Calling! 

Artist, teacher and curator Pernilla Frid guided a group of university administrators in Kalmar on the 30 March 2023, to talk about the art at Linnaeus University. The guided tour ended at the exhibition Back to the Future in the Knowledge Cube in Kalmar. The basis of the exhibition is the research conducted within the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, and one part of the exhibition is devoted to the picture book WOW! The Future is Calling!

Pernilla showed us her contribution to the exhibition and talked enthusiastically about the characters, If, Wow and Try. She wanted us to understand that parts of these character traits can be found in all of us.

She explained to us that she when she was invited to apply her skills, she was immediately attracted to work in this context and with innovative concepts. The point is to convey the variety and richness in which we can engage with the future. The book behind gives many examples, both in the way the main characters act, representing three different ways of relating to the future, and in the many details, which surround them.

Thank you Pernilla for a lovely afternoon!

The book is available here https://issuu.com/lnu12/docs/wow 

Copyright © 2021. Text & illustrations: Pernilla Frid & Cornelius Holtorf. All rights reserved.

Pernilla Frid

Artist Pernilla Frid at the exhibition Back to the Future in the Knowledge Cube, Kalmar, Sweden.

 

Exploring Visual Literacy – Imag(in)ing

2023-03-30

After starting off the spring semester at the University, it was time for a Visual Literacy Workshop on Imag(in)ing the Future, run by Vicky Karaiskou, UNESCO Chair on Visual Anticipation and Futures Literacy, based at the Open University of Cyprus.

Vicky asked us to send her an image of the future before the workshop.

I did not know the purpose, was it to fire us all up before the workshop? Was I expected to talk about the image I had chosen? I decided to dive into the workshop with open eyes. I mean, what can go wrong?

We met on zoom on 13 March, almost all members of the Chair and some invited students and researchers. After some introductions, Vicky introduced us to the workshop.

Each of us presented one or two images of what the future meant to us. This was so interesting! So many different views, some about crossroads, some urban environments, some landscapes, and water, even cartoons and illustrations from children’s literature were there.

Vicky: You wake up in 2123. You have only one question you can ask to make sense of that strange world around you. Τhe question can only be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. What would you ask? — Many of us asked basic questions like what I can eat, where is the toilet but questions of language, are we still human, which planet are we on, were also raised.

Vicky: Depict how you predict 2123 will look. Observe what is around you: how is the environment? How do cities & buildings look; what institutions exist; what about social relationships; behaviours; people’s looks; works; activities (what people do); values; ideologies; dominant trends? — This part of the workshop made us realize that we all have different expectations about the future, some negative, some positive.

When we had come this far in the workshop, I realized what we were doing. Vicky asked us to explore our underlying assumptions and emotions! The idea was to make us question and investigate these assumptions and emotions through the images and understand how the assumptions and emotions affect us.

At the end, we were asked to create a new question about the future starting with What if…? The questions were humble and included approaching other audiences, working globally, and expressing future visions through art. Before finishing the workshop, we were all asked to complete individually a sentence which started with the words: “In 2123, the future will mean…”.

The aim of the workshop was to open up new ideas. It certainly did!

After finishing, Vicky sent all of us a summary of our individual contributions. Her Chair partner, Sebastian Plate, used AI to summarize our contributions. Based on the answer to the last question and the input during the workshop, he made the AI capture this on my contribution:

Workshop Visual Literacy

Thank you, Vicky, for opening my eyes and for a creative workshop!

Helena Rydén, Assistant to the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

ChatGPT missar kulturarvets komplexitet

“Framtidens teknologi sitter inne med gammal kunskap. När chattroboten ChatGPT fick frågor om vad kulturarv är och varför det är viktigt, gav den svar som inte inkluderar nya forskningsresultat.” Det skriver Anders Högberg, professor i arkeologi och medlem i forskningsteamet kring Unescoprofessuren vid Linnéuniversitetet. Läs artikeln i Magasin K*:

ChatGPT missar kulturarvets komplexitet | Magasin K

 

Anders Högberg

Anders Högberg, Professor of Archaeology UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

* Magasin K är en digital tidning för den som jobbar, studerar eller är intresserad av branscherna kultur, kommunikation och kreativ sektor.

How can we engage with temporal interculturalities?

2022-12-07

Cornelius Holtorf organized and chaired a roundtable entitled “How can we engage with temporal interculturalities?” attended by an audience of 30+ participating in the Bi-annual conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies held at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago de Chile (5 Dec 2022).

https://www.achs2022santiago.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Round-Table-2.pdf

Bi-annual conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies held at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago de Chile (5 Dec 2022)

Bi-annual conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies held at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago de Chile (5 Dec 2022)

Speakers: Qian Gao, Sarah May, Luz Endere, Dante Angelo

Coordinator: Cornelius Holtorf
Bi-annual conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies held at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago de Chile (5 Dec 2022)

World Futures Day 2 December 2022

2022-12-02

Let the future begin today – the importance of futures literacy is highlighted on the new international day “World Futures Day”

Today, December 2, the international day “World Futures Day” is celebrated for the first time. The day has been instituted by UNESCO to draw attention to an area that is growing in importance – futures literacy. Read the interview with Cornelius Holtorf (In Swedish) at the website of the Swedish National Commission of UNESCO here

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UNESCO Chair Symposium

2022-11-24

On 24 November, Anders Högberg, Professor of Archaeology and member of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures, represented our Chair in a Global Symposium arranged by Ted Fuller at the UNESCO Chair on Responsible Foresight for Sustainable Development at University of Lincoln. The symposium was arranged ahead of UNESCO World Futures Day 2022.

Presentations were made by researchers from all over the world, dealing with aspects on social entrepreneurship, sustainability and futures literacy. It was interesting to see researchers from various academic disciplines can coming together to discuss future related topics.

Anders Högberg

Anders Högberg, Professor of Archaeology UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures

EU´s heritage work and policies

2022-11-16

Anders Högberg participated at “Höstmötet”, an annual conference arranged by the Swedish National Heritage Board https://www.raa.se/evenemang-och-upplevelser/hostmotet/program/

Anders was invited to present and discuss at a workshop on EU´s heritage work and policies and how it can change to accommodate new knowledge and actions needed for future social sustainability.

Anders Högberg

Anders Högberg, Professor of Archaeology, UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures