(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Definitions of authenticity have become increasingly diverse and contested. Authenticity can be considered as the immutable attribute of an original object, or a quality that emerges through people-object relationships. Digital practices have added further complexity to this field – whether it be the digital artefacts themselves which are the authentic thing, or a replica which substitutes for a physical object. My research has been designed to shed light on this complex field. I propose to make the case for authenticities, and demonstrate how digital practices can extend and supplement the authentic characteristics of historic artefacts, drawing out and amplifying intangible qualities the original artefact cannot do for itself. Meaning and significance, I suggest, emerges from the relationships between original object and digital representations. In my research at the Roman Baths and Abbey in the city of Bath, I have used projection and photogrammetry to preserve elements of historic surfaces on the cusp of permanent change. While the changes in both these heritage sites have been necessary, the conservation works have arguably caused a loss in authenticity – a loss I have attempted to reclaim through digital practice. My work includes the creation of virtual and printed replicas which embody, I suggest, characteristics and qualities which the conserved surfaces no longer embody; authenticity, then, becomes shared between the original (changed) artefact and the digital record. The digital resource is, however, only a partial record, telling part of a story though not all of it. My work references theories of heritage, authenticity and agency, and I consider the work of Sian Jones, Cornelius Holtorf, Jane Bennett and Bruno Latour. Jones has asked, for example, whether authenticity can be said to migrate from object to replica; I suggest, instead, that authenticity might be considered as more of a murmuration, shifting between states and objects, dependent on the perspective of the observer.