Digital Heritage

Digital heritage augments, transforms, preserves and communicates the cultural significance and value of real-world heritage. Despite impressive recent advances and increasingly accessible software and hardware, the digital heritage field faces critical challenges. For example, digital heritage experts have noted even large and expensive projects can suddenly vanish or become inoperable and obsolete; a phenomenon they termed the “vanishing virtual.” In this course, we will review the advances and challenges of the digital (virtual, interactive, mobile, wearable and immersive technologies) applied to cultural heritage, in Australia and internationally. We will explore recent trends in digital collections, digital media, and digital archives; creative AI; extended reality (AR, MR, VR; cyberculture, virtual worlds, and the metaverse.  

This course introduces students to the theories, practices and implications of digital heritage, examining how cultural materials, histories, and ecosystems are created, curated and circulated in digital environments and interact with material cultural heritage, institutions and projects. Students will develop critical, practical and analytical skills to engage with digital collections, platforms, and tools, while critically evaluating issues of representation, access, ethics, and evaluation in the digitisation and mediation of heritage.