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Digital Heritage: What Happens When We Digitize Everything? Harold Thwaites

Abstract Research that targets the re-presentation of culture and heritage using tools and techniques of digitization continues to develop worldwide. This chapter discusses digital heritage and what happens when we digitize everything. Society has acknowledged the urgency to capture heritage content in its various forms and the sites it is found in. At the same time, it begs the questions of what the impact of all this digitization will be and how useful or long-lived the results. A focus is placed on the audience, those who receive and experience the resulting digital output such as in a museum or gallery, website, interactive exhibit or any form of mediated digital heritage content. The concept of eternal themes is introduced along with human values related to digital heritage. The impact of digital heritage is discussed in relation to the mobilization of heritage content for diverse audiences. The vanishing virtual and considerations for the future of digital heritage are presented with some key points for conservation.











Keywords Digital heritage Culture Virtuality Audience Values Information chain Communication Multimedia technology Cyberception







17.1 Introduction This chapter presents an overview of Digital Heritage (DH) from the side of the audience, receiver, viewer and the creators of the content. It brings together the various concerns of members of the heritage community; the archaeologists, H. Thwaites (&) Centre for Creative Content and Digital Innovation, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia e-mail: [email protected] H. Thwaites University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK E. Ch0 ng et al. (eds.), Visual Heritage in the Digital Age, Springer Series on Cultural Computing, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-5535-5_17,  Springer-Verlag London 2013

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technicians, historians, curators and media content specialists and it reflects on what it means and what are the implications for humanity and the cultural record when we digitize everything. The chapter begins with a framework for digital heritage, presents an outline of shifting cultures and the technologies affording digitization. Eternal themes are discussed from a humanities point of view leading into human values and digital heritage. Concerns about the vanishing virtual are presented ending up with smart heritage and cultural futures, concluding with implications and suggestions for conservation and archiving. The following discussion is based on a very early paper (Thwaites 2001) wherein I outlined the impact that virtual heritage has on an audience or viewer, or user. It seemed fitting, after 12 years, that I revisit that work in light of the current focus on digital heritage around the world and an increasing focus on the digital heritage audience. The title of this chapter derives from a talk given by Philip Rosedale (2006), the founder and creator of the Second Life on-line virtual world. In his presentation he posed the quest