Tangible and Intangible Approaches to Preserve Memory and [trans]form Cultural Landscapes
Author | : María Angélica Ospina Sierra |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 70 |
Release | : 2021 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:1255635211 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (11 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This research is seeking to better understand how cultural landscapes and their [trans]formation are recognized, calling out the differences between definitions of tangible and intangible heritage. Cultural heritage is acknowledged but its ways of expression have been poorly understood and preserved mainly because of the lack of information for safeguarding heritage. However, ethnographic communities have had a stronger understanding of the need for a broader knowledge of cultural heritage and they have been preserving their memory by creating vernacular cultural landscapes. Acts of remembering and forgetting which remain embedded as silent stratifications in cultural landscapes can be seen to shape the world. And these preservation efforts turn our landscapes into palimpsests on which the original writing has been effaced to make space for later writing but of which traces remain. Communities then get caught up between cultures, creating cultural landscapes that are not a container to store experiences but the experiences themselves. Yet, it is important to know the approaches they use to preserve their memory and heritage within those cultural landscapes. Communities choose consciously or unconsciously intangible and tangible expressions. The project will follow four different paths of inquiry: theoretical, hypothetical, referential, and experimental. The first chapter will compare and debate the different cultural heritage definitions and the processes that have been used to safeguard and preserve cultural landscapes among worldwide and national organizations. Followed by the second chapter which will state the hypothesis that the creation of cultural landscapes depends on immigration, the anthropological notion of identity, and the population and time. The third chapter will support the hypothesis with two case studies within Chicago highlighting each way of expression used to preserve their cultural heritage: the Colombian and Mexican communities. Finally, the fourth chapter will explore a pilot study of domestic spaces within those communities as an attempt to make visible the intangible aspect of the process of memory preservation. The last two chapters will be key to understanding the distinction between tangible and intangible as approaches to preserving memory within communities emphasizing the intangibility aspect of specific cultural landscapes. This research will focus on a perceived disconnect in re-educating society to understand and acknowledge the value of intangible cultural heritage. The thesis will present a different way to approach intangibility incorporating social inclusion as an attempt to propose a distinctive framework for the conservation and restoration of communities’ memory.