Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age
Digital technologies can help us preserve our cultural heritage, but there are challenges. Even so, it's important.
We’re all from somewhere. By that I mean that much of our personal identities comes from our ancestry and the cultural practices that make meaning of ourselves, communities and social structures. We mostly take a deep pride in our cultural heritage. So how do we preserve our cultural heritage in a time when cultures are mixing, mingling and intertwining in new and dynamic ways?
Some fear that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could disrupt our cultural heritage by suppressing smaller and minority cultures. Some fear the same has or will happen as aspects of their culture like music, art and design get subsumed into larger cultures. These are long standing fears and such travesties have happened.
But it may be that this becomes less likely to happen and that we may well be able to preserve cultural heritages unlike ever before. This would mean our ability to explore the world’s tapestry of cultures in new and exciting ways. Preservation of cultures could help us find common ground and defuse conflicts.
Already, there are efforts to preserve dying languages. Online learning services like Dualingo and Babel enable people to learn faster and easier, almost any language they like. Now, with AI tools like ChatPT4o which just released, we are able to translate languages by voice almost instantly.
The Canadian government has several programs to not just revitalize Indigenous peoples languages, but to digitally preserve them. Other governments are doing the same. In decades past, this never would have happened. We can hardly know just how many languages have been lost.
Museums, governments and non-profits around the world are exploring ways of digitizing artefacts and materials, architecture and ancient sites with 3D modelling, creating Digital Twins. These can be accessed through websites and using Augmented and Virtual Reality devices.
UNSESCO, the division in the United Nations that focuses on the aesthetic elements of culture (language, arts, architecture, music, design) is working to find ways of preservation for global cultures, especially those at risk of fading away.
In the area of crime, technologies such as blockchain can play a role in ensuring the provenance of artefacts that may be stolen and sold on black markets. Even some DNA technologies can be used to register and identify items.
Cultural preservation through the use of digital technologies also becomes important due to climate change catastrophes. Fires that devastate entire regions, massive floods and landslides.
And while technologies can achieve much to preserve our culture, it can be complicated. Local cultural property rights need to be considered. The method of preservation must be respectful of the cultural elements being copied. These are intangible cultural heritage practices. How the preserved elements are then distributed, managed and guarded against commercial exploitation must also be taken into account.
One really interesting project of not just preserving cultural heritage, but enabling those of a culture to explore new forms and ideas of expression is Kër Thiossane in Dakar, Senegal. The centre combines cultural heritage, knowledge and expression all in one place.
Another significant challenge into the future is storing all those zeroes and ones, the masses of data. Printed books last longer than any current digital storage medium. Storage technologies are evolving and improving, but it means old data needs to be translated to new formats. That is not easy and can result in some loss of quality.
Then of course, who stores all that data? If data is stored in a country that suffers a war and it taken over by another country, will that heritage data be protected? Could we build a massive global data centre that resides deep in the mountains of Switzerland, a neutral country? Who then funds it? thw UN or some sort of social fund, an Non-Governmental Organisation formed just for that purpose?
Preserving our cultures is important not just to be able to see, hear and experience them, but to better understand who we are as human beings. What it means to be human. Culture is part of history and when we can capture it, preserve it, we can learn.