(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

In the last twenty years, two trends have profoundly changed the design and implementation of events aimed at the enhancement of cultural heritage, both in the context of temporary and permanent exhibitions – the latter more related to museography -: the organisation of the contents offer (and consequently of the exhibition tools) to the concept of “narrative” (Den Oudsten 2012, Trocchianesi 2014, Atelier Brückner 2014 and 2018) and the experimentation of digital experiential modes. These two new horizons, especially where coexisting and integrated, are increasingly aimed at the construction of “phygital”, blended and cross reality (XR) experiences, i.e. based on the interaction of physical (analog) and digital environment, thanks to technologies that create hybrid and innovative communicative and interactive levels. The intersection of these new paradigms that privilege the experiential interaction (lead by storytelling design) to the purely technological one (based on mere instrumental implementation), is the focal point adopted by this proposal, which interprets the project of cultural heritage enhancement implemented through augmented and enabling digital experiences, according to a holistic and human-centered vision. These are verified in their ability not only to enhance the relationship between the visitor, the exhibition content, and its multiple meanings, but especially to generate, through these processes, a real innovative approach to the realization of unprecedented ways for the development of knowledge, as well as the construction of its memory, accessible and shared (Assmann 2002). but also, in their borderline condition of instruments that establish an exclusively additional communication and therefore without temporal and existential extension (Han 2015)