Defining the Problem of Tomorrow’s Memory: The Time of Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age

Theories of cultural and collective memory are now well-established in academic scholarship, and in contemporary cultural heritage debates. While the interconnectedness of cultural and technical memorial forms has often been highlighted, the vast literature on memory studies has seldom been channelled into an extended investigation of this relationship in the wake of digital technologies. The thesis seeks to develop insights from media memory studies for a discussion of digital cultural heritage projects, exploring how conceptions of memory are interwoven with conceptions of communication and technology in that context. The methodology for the thesis is informed by Michel Foucault’s writings on governmentality and approaches from the field of utopian studies. Utopia is important, both historically and structurally, shedding light on the construction of heritage discourses in the modern period and providing a means of locating the hopes and fears implicit in current debates. This critical method allows for an examination of memory from the standpoint of European heritage, world heritage and what is tentatively staged as ‘cultural information’ in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. The memory practices through which heritage operates are analysed and then considered in relation to the kinds of discourses emerging out of developments in digital technology. The thesis also addresses broader philosophical concerns about collective memory and temporality, and reflects on the implications for cultural heritage.