Theorizing Cultural Heritage Informatics as the Intersection of Heritage, Memory, and Information

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the relationship between cultural heritage and collective memory through the lens of information. We explicitly frame the heritage‐memory‐relationship as constituting a theoretical foundation for the field of Cultural Heritage Informatics. In framing heritage and memory as information phenomena, we leverage two information frameworks that appear most suitable to host, translate, and overlay heritage and memory theory: Context, relevance, and labor (Fremery and Buckland, 2022) and Information as thing (Buckland, 1991). Altogether, this preliminary exploration 1) establishes a terminological understanding of cultural heritage, collective memory, and information/informatics; 2) maps these concepts with recourse to the Context, relevance and labor framework (Fremery and Buckland, 2022); 3) articulates cultural heritage informatics as the intersection of heritage and memory focused on processes of selection, transfer, and integration of historic information in the service of identity maintenance; and 4) offers a cultural heritage information framework that highlights the unique potential of Cultural Heritage Informatics to guide future information research in cultural information studies.