VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

The cultural identity of a city is defined through layers of interactions, representations and practices, inscribed in the spaces and interstices between its architectural structures. Intangible cultural heritage highlights cultural – sometimes everyday – practices associated with and defining a particular place. Far from being intangible, such cultural practices are lived in and through human interaction, tangible since they emerge from materiality, presence and sensory experience (urban space as sensorium). Arguably, the augmented experience of a city or object made possible through digitisation of heritage can also elicit a yearning for hands-on, human and physical participation in, say, a ritual, festival, ordinary act, inextricably rooted in a place. This paper focuses on food and culinary traditions recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage and considers the extent to which they constitute a cultural past and shape an urban future. As a key component of remembering is taste and smell, activities such as food festivals, markets and the culture of street food serve to embody a sense of place and create the experience of the whole (David Sutton, Remembrance of Repasts). Drawing on cultural geography, cultural studies and architectural theory, the paper will explore selected culinary practices and visual representations of `food as heritage’ in urban spaces.