UNESCO

The American artist and philosopher Jonathon Keats has been creating an ingenious little camera that documents the flow and passage of time over a century or a millennium. It is a simple device that involves black paper gradually bleaching in response to the light let in through a pinhole and thus producing something like a single-frame movie.

Keats explains:

“Anything that stays in place will look sharp. Anything moving quickly, like cars and people, won’t show up at all. And anything that changes slowly, like a growing tree, will be ghostly. You’ll also be able to see bigger changes, like the ghost of a house that’s been knocked down haunting the apartment building that takes its place.”

There are many reasons why this camera may not work but the camera is cheap to build and an exhibition of each camera’s picture is already set to be opened in 3015 at the Art Museums of Arizona State University. Keats knows that “[m]ost likely it will take multiple attempts, spanning tens of thousands of years, to get the exposure right.” But this prospect does not daunt him:

“The ongoing iterative process of trying to perfect this technology can provide countless generations with a sense of connection and collective purpose.”

On 21 November 2019 we welcomed to Kalmar four delegates from the National University of Cultural Heritage KNUCH in Korea. They were on an official visit to Sweden and spent one day in Kalmar to investigate joint areas for co-operation between our UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures and their UNESCO Chair on Capacity-Building for the Preservation and Restoration of the Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage. Participants included

• Prof. Soochul KIM (Department of Conservation Science/research focusing on wooden material conservation)
• Prof. Youngjae KIM (Department of Conservation and Restoration/major in architecture and urbanism/holder of UNESCO Chair on Capacity-Building for the Preservation and Restoration of the Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage)
• Mr. Kihong LEE (KNUCH administrative staff in the Academic Affairs Department)
• Mr. Seungtae NAM (KNUCH administrative staff, in charge international exchange and cooperation)

Prof. Soochul KIM, Mr. Seungtae NAM, Helena Rydén, Assistant to the UNESCO Chair at LNU, Cornelius Holtorf, Professor of Archaeology, UNESCO Chair holder at LNU, Prof. Youngjae KIM holder of UNESCO Chair at KNUCH and Mr. Kihong LEE

Prof. Anders Högberg, UNESCO Chair at LNU, participated by link from South Africa. Bodil Petersson, Associate Professor in Archaeology gave a presentation on our “Cultural Heritage in Present and Future Societies” Degree Programme.
Linda Liedström from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities gave an introducution to internationalisation and student exchange.

The delegation also visited Kalmar County Museum.

Our second progress report, period: 09/2018-08/2019 , made by the entire team over our second year of activities!

Progress Report 09/2018-08/2019

Over its first two years, the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University has been engaging in an extensive programme of national and international collaboration in research and training. We presented our work and agenda on many occasions in Sweden and around the world. We established contacts to various programmes and activities in UNESCO, to the Swedish Delegation to UNESCO, the Swedish UNESCO Commission, and began collaboration with other UNESCO Chairs in Sweden and internationally. Over the past year we co-organized two large events in Stockholm and in Amsterdam. In this report, we document the progress made by the entire team over our second year of activities.

Conference Report of the ICOMOS University Forum “Thinking and Planning the Future in Heritage Management” in Amsterdam, 11-14 June 2019.

View the report 

Download the Report

The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University, in collaboration with the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM), ICOMOS International, ICOMOS Netherlands, and the City of Amsterdam, organized an ICOMOS University Forum held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 11-14 June 2019. The Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) hosted the meeting, which aimed at promoting thinking and planning the future in heritage management.

Thinking and Planning the Future in Heritage Management, Amstedam 11-14 June 2019

The main questions that were discussed during the meeting were:
• How do we perceive of the future?
• Which future and future generations do heritage professionals work for?
• What heritage will be needed in the future (and how do we know)?
• How can we build capacity in future thinking among heritage professionals worldwide?

The conference participants included scholars and heritage managers, both young and established, from different parts of the world. All in all, the ICOMOS University Forum brought together about 50 global heritage specialists from academia and professional practice, representing not only many European countries but also Australia, Brazil, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and the USA. During the meeting, participants enriched the discussion with their multicultural and multidisciplinary expertise.

For the first time, Sweden has adopted a World Heritage Strategy, for 2020-2030 (not available in English yet). Earlier this year, the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures had submitted comments on a draft text.

The Strategy emphasises that the underlying idea and aim of World Heritage is the promotion of peace, international collaboration and human rights, and that all who work with World Heritage need to keep this in mind in everything they do. The Strategy also states that additional capacity needs to be built in understanding how World Heritage can contribute to societal development and to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.

Background information is provided by the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO (in Swedish): https://www.unesco.se/sveriges-forsta-varldsarvsstrategi-ska-starka-de-svenska-varldsarven/

Today, the Cultural Heritage Network has been launched, both in Edinburgh and with remote participation from around the world.

The Climate Heritage Network (CHN) is a voluntary, mutual support network. Despite profound connections between climate change and culture, today there are thousands of arts, culture and heritage actors and advocates whose talents have not yet been mobilized on climate change issues. The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures recently joined this network.

Cornelius Holtorf submitted the following suggestion for future work of the CHN: “Don’t forget the power of research and help us at the Universities to find resources to advance our understanding of climate change in relation to heritage.”

The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University is growing. Dr Annalisa Bolin will research the significance of cultural heritage in international relations, with focus on Rwanda, East Africa. She will spend two years at Linnaeus University.

Read more here.