The politics of heritage authorship : the case of digital heritage collections

Digital heritage, as with heritage until recently, has been seen largely untouched by a critical discourse. What is deemed to be digital heritage is seen as unproblematic. To this end, I develop a critical discourse, and argue that digital heritage is a deeply political concept and practice. The ascription of heritage metaphors to cultural materials in a digital format means that digital media has become embedded in the cycle of heritage value and consumption, and in the broader heritage complex, an institutionalised culture of practices and ideas. These legacies, I argue, are shaping the way cultural materials in a digital format are defined and known, how they are produced and consumed and what gets to count as being significant within institutional frameworks. First, I seek to define digital heritage as a subgroup of heritage products and unsettle some of the assumptions embedded in the concept by critiquing the philosophies, discourses and political assumptions that have been at the heart of debates about the meaning of heritage. I then critically analyze systems of value and significance and their technologies of production such as the idea of materiality, authenticity and aura. By drawing on Foucault's technologies of domination (1977) and technologies of self (1988), I examine the tensions between institutionalised forms of heritage ascription and ways communities are defining the meaning, value and significance of these objects on their own terms. I conclude by suggesting new ways that institutions might think about and engage cultural objects in a digital format.