Tradition (re)visited

Nodem2010

c.vanden.akker@let.vu.nl

thesis

In our present day we first and foremost relate ourselves to tradition by representing it, whereas before we first and foremost related ourselves to tradition by remembering it.

Places of memory are exchanged for the presence of representation in a culture driven by information technology.

Digitalization is part of a larger cultural transformation.

framework:

• there are three ways we can relate ourselves to tradition

• concepts: authenticity, memory, history & consciousness

• the framework helps us to surpass binary oppositions such as ‘’real – virtual’’, ‘’material – immaterial’’ & ‘’original – copy’’

1. Environment of original use value- tradition

2. Environment of preservation- archeological site, museum,

memorial, monument

3. Environment of documentation & representation- description, photograph- reproduction, reconstruction - representative object- visualization (image, video,

reconstruction, 3D model, GIS & simulation), tags, search engines, (meta)data

source: www.lascaux.culture.fr/

authenticity

1. Environment of original use value: the domain of tradition

- authenticity = the object’s accumulated history

2. Environment of conservation: the domain of preservation

- authenticity of domain 1 is preserved

3. Environment of documentation: the domain of representation

- authenticity = the object’s documentation

authenticity & binary oppositions

1. Domain of tradition

- authenticity = the object’s accumulated history

- real, material & unique

2. Domain of preservation

- preserving authentic, real, material and unique objects

3. Domain of representation & documentation

- authenticity = the object’s documentation

- virtual, immaterial & reproduction/copy

1. Domain of tradition

- habits, gestures skills

- natural memory

- being in time

- consciousness and tradition are one

2. Domain of preservation

- archeological site, museum, memorial, monument

- site of memory

- what has been and is no longer

- first consciousness and tradition separate and become opposites

- then the opposition is overcome and preserved in self-consciousness: the object reminds us of what we are no longer

3. Domain of representation & documentation

- description, photograph, reproduction, reconstruction

- visualization (image, video, reconstruction, 3D model, GIS & simulation), tags, search engines, (meta)data

- stored memory

- about time: as if being in time/showing what it was like

- consciousness and tradition are one

thesis

Digitalization is part of a larger cultural transformation.

In our present day we first and foremost relate ourselves to tradition by representing it, whereas before we first and foremost related ourselves to tradition by remembering it.

Places of memory are exchanged for the presence of representation in a culture driven by information technology.

“A generalized critical history would no doubt preserve some museums, some medallions and monuments (...) but it would empty them of what, to us, would make them lieux de mémoire. In the end, a society living wholly under the sign of history could not, any more than could a traditional society, conceive such sites for anchoring its memory.”

Nora “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire” Representations 26

(1989) pp. 7-24, there p. 9

thesis

Digitalization is part of a larger cultural transformation.

In our present day we first and foremost relate ourselves to tradition by representing it, whereas before we first and foremost related ourselves to tradition by remembering it.

Places of memory are exchanged for the presence of representation in a culture driven by information technology.

but…..

Local environment projects

Augmented Reality

Source: C. van Aart, B. Wielinga, and W. van Hage “Mobile cultural heritage guide:location-aware semantic search’’ EKAW 2010

Source: http://www.localprojects.net

Source: http://www.localprojects.net

conclusions

• the virtual museum is a documentation-museum

• today we relate ourselves to tradition by representing it instead of by remembering it

• therefore we can only be critical towards tradition and tradition cannot be critical towards our present

• we can be conscious of tradition but tradition cannot be part of our self-consciousness

• local environment projects and augmented reality are counter initiatives to this cultural transformation

When will places of memory be exchanged for the presence of representation?

Time will not tell, for only places can

Thank You

c.vanden.akker@let.vu.nl