Repurposing intangible heritage: convergence, creativity and community empowerment post Covid-19

Περίληψη

In a recent report following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, UNESCO urged its member states to ‘take advantage of digital technologies to increase the visibility and understanding of living heritage’. Drawing on the growing dialogue about new media technologies and cultural heritage, the paper examines the repurposing of intangible heritage from an initial framework of safeguarding anxiety to more recent calls for sustainable development, cultural creativity and community empowerment. Through a discussion and analysis of three community-based and ethically-driven non-profit initiatives of community art archives, digital storytelling and data visualisation from the Western Balkans, Greece and Palestine, the paper argues that the convergence of science and technology with cultural heritage can offer new ways for engaging and transmitting living heritage, along the themes of impermanence, difficult heritage, reuse and citizen empowerment.