(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

The contemporary prevalence of digital media and -culture can be seen to have significantly altered the ways in which we choose to access and interact with the lived world. The proliferation of digital platforms, interfaces, and algorithms has opened multiple alternate ways in which to think about the objects and environments around us. The mediums through which we choose to experience such culture present an unsettling paradox between the flat, texture-less surface of the screen and the entirely three-dimensional, tangible spaces which are represented. These offer simultaneous contradiction between the edited digital world and the intrusion of context which erodes the once discernible distinction between the digital and physical realm. Unlike the lived world, the digital environment exists as a panoramic lens, distorting our perception of the ‘real’ to the extent whereby it is no longer temporally, situationally, or contextually bound. Further, digital media has dramatically altered the ways in which we locate, collect, and organize imagery: search engine optimization and image-based algorithms influence our understanding of places in ways that can entirely dissociate them from their original context. In the digital world therefore, images exist in a perpetually liminal state, often devoid of any accompanying frame or text, and delaminated from the context in which they were captured. This paper aims to investigate the perceived interchangeability of environments with their images, how these representations alter our expectations of the lived world, and to what extent the future of the built environment will be influenced by attempts to capture the multiplicity, ideological diversity, and aesthetic pluralism of the digital age. The study will engage with case studies, image boards and comprehensive data collection through rapid evidence assessment, alongside the development of imaginative tools that re-structure and re-imagine the lived world through intervention with the state and context of existing imagery.