The Importance of World Heritage Preservation: Should We Reassess Our Approach?

While it isn’t very often that we stop and think about the things we will leave behind, I myself think it is an underrated activity. When you come to think of it, most of what we study in life is about history, whether directly or indirectly. Even when you’re studying Economics or Biology you are still being taught what has been discovered and proven by those before you, so whether you like it or not all day long you’re actually being submerged in the wealth of information others have provided. When you’re coming up with a new scientific theory, making art, films, music, writing books, you’re contributing to this wealth on Earth, you’re already leaving something behind. I am of the opinion that our generation is very much about moving forward with neck-breaking speed, even if it often means abandoning the notion of learning and drawing from predecessors, we know how to do things better and we seem to need no help. While it is valuable to make our own history, I can’t think but wonder what are we missing out on by not fighting harder to remember humanity’s heritage? 

In order to understand the importance of preservation, you first have to comprehend the amount of information and heritage which we have at hand. Think about what information you have accumulated in your lifetime. Start with the memories, think about the achievements, the stuff you learned in school, your family history, religion and the biggest of all - your emotional intelligence. Think about genealogy, multiply it by all the humans in the world. Think about what is around you, the nature, the buildings, the architecture. Think about how long it took us to discover space, history of humankind, the iPhone you’re holding in your hand. Electricity, cars, infrastructure, you have it around you, you exist within them, and while they manifest themselves in different ways they are all wonders of creativity, perseverance and curiosity. 

There is a magnetic shock, fire, bomb, pandemic, the world as we know it is no longer. All of the information that just accumulated in your mind - boom! Gone. We don’t stop to think about it, and perhaps for the better, if you contemplate it for too long you might go crazy. Though I may sound like it at times, I am not trying to smuggle a conspiracy theory about world destruction, but let’s entertain it for a moment. 

How many times have you sat in history or art class and the professor said there is no more information on that place/family/painting/sculpture because it got lost during the WWII? The topic begins with art and culture, but it runs so much deeper. Religions and spiritual traditions have been wiped out in the past - why couldn’t it happen now? More than that, we have tried to eliminate nations in their entirety and while we enjoy a Long Peace, the events of the last years have shown us that it doesn’t take all that much to shake the balance. Family heritage, traditions and local customs become less accessible the more years pass and it happens very often that with the passing of people the history gets buried as well, especially in the countries where war, chaos and terror burned down the remaining physical evidence. With the pandemic roaring weren’t we encouraged to go back to basics? To embrace the most important things in life and remember what is important? How are we supposed to learn from the past when it will no longer be available? Recognizing diverse heritage is immensely important, embracing different cultures and traditions and constantly learning about them can bring us unimaginable benefits, both individually and as a society. How can we do that without brining attention to the need of protection of intangible heritage, especially in the regions where infrastructure and technology is not greatly developed.

When you hear heritage you think UNESCO, a specialized organization devoted "to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information”, which contributed immensely over it’s course of existence to preserving both tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the world (I invite you to watch this short video about World Heritage and read about a philosophical approach in this paper by Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy). We’ve all been to a heritage site on a trip or looked for one in our own proximity, but with the amount of incoming and growing information my fear is that we need to reassess the approach to preserving the data to one, which is systemic and recognizes the preciousness of all the information we managed to create. While many large scale organisations may have security systems in place, it is written in many different formats, recorded on multiple mediums and it is scattered around the world. Nevertheless, I am not naive, I realize we cannot realistically put everything we collectively know as humanity and put it in one place, as it would create a threat.  

The creation of the World Seed Bank does exactly what I’m talking about - prepares us for the inevitable reality of losing (or driving into extinction) something which just existed on this Earth. Now it is time to legitimize a bank for data and as a matter of fact there has been created a place perfect for that - the Arctic World Archive on the Svalbard Island. Providing perfect conditions of temperature and safety through its remote location it seems as the perfect candidate for an international data vault. Supported by advanced technology of Piql (read about it below) it is already a home to a digitized collection of Edward Munch paintings from the Norwegian National Museum, along with a UNICEF DNA Deposit (link) and information from some of the most prestigious institutions of the world. 

For the first time in history our technology is advanced enough to take on this challenge, companies such as CyArk, Piql or even General Public have proven that there is capacity to think about this issue and take it seriously. I came across CyArk while doing an online course in Arts and Heritage Management from Bocconi University, the CEO was doing a TED talk in which he explained the technology he developed - 3D mapping of UNESCO cultural heritage sites (among other projects of course). Even if the sight gets destroyed, it can be rebuilt or visited in VR through his models. Piql is a technological company which developed a chemically modified film, proven to last for many centuries, preserved in a way which allows future reading of the information through an instruction in the beginning of every film roll even if there is a change in formats. As each roll holds 120 GB, it can be used to store pictures, texts, audio and video files. It is also Piql is currently  working with institutions such as the Vatican Library and European Space Agency and expanding their portfolio of services in order to provide a more holistic approach to data archival and preservation. Their film can be stored by the institutions themselves or in the Arctic World Archive. Portia de Rossi’s General Public is a company which developed a SYNOGRAPH ™ technology allowing printing actual brushstrokes on canvases and can therefore achieving the level detail and realness previously unreachable for repeated prints. It makes artist’s work available for a wider audience, without flattening the physical and metaphorical experience of art, but could potentially serve as a way to make ultra-realistic copies of legendary paintings, such as Mona Lisa. 

The great dilemma concerning this matter is curatorship - What should be preserved? Where lays the line between “noise” and true treasures? How do we do it, so that it is not „overcrowded”? We listen. We listen to the elders, to the specialists, to people who devoted their life to culture, history and heritage. We ask questions, we let communities choose what is most important to them, we fight for preservation of information that might not be economically profitable, but will benefit future generations. 

A thousand years from now is too abstract of an idea for most of us and especially public employees which are responsible for respective institutions for only three or four years at a time  and often lack long term imagination and initiative. Don’t leave it up to public officials, improve your self-consciousness about the issue of preservation before it’s too late. I have not been able put together my family’s history and genealogy, because most of the records, along with our crest and art have been destroyed during the World Wars and I’m not the only one. So take my word for it, it’s worth it, we need to make sure we do not lose more of our beautiful and incredible heritage than what we already have destroyed ourselves through wars and carelessness. To that I say - think about the heritage, cultural or not, that you find worth preserving and think about what’s at stake here. In this quickly evolving world, isn’t there something worth holding onto?