Task Force Cultural Heritage

Task Force Cultural Heritage

Pooling of expertise at the KIT

Cultural heritage includes both material and immaterial cultural goods that symbolise ideas, concepts, and events. It is crucial to preserve them in order to be able to maintain a connection to the past.
 
Heritage, however, is subject to various risks. Weather and natural influences affect the materials. Additional hazards occur due to human behaviour – such as military conflicts, social changes, or pollution – which can lead to a loss of cultural relics. To counter these risks and to allow for the conservation of material heritage, multidisciplinary collaboration is required.
 
Preserving intangible cultural heritage is also not without difficulties, since it is prone to change every time it is passed on. An account of rituals or traditions in the form of a digital document, for example, can lead to a consolidation of a specific cultural moment.
 
Therefore, such a process must be critically reflected. A cross-linking of the methodological approaches and the know-how of the humanities and the social sciences is necessary.

Goal

Based on these considerations, the aim of the project ‘Task Force Cultural Heritage’ is to systematically examine whether and how to contribute to the preservation of the cultural objects with the help of the existing competence and skills at KIT (technical, scientific, cultural).
 
This includes knowledge of the physical preservation of objects, as well as the study of social consequences of cultural assets and the development of strategies to deal with cultural heritage under changing social conditions.
 
These skills should be focused, in order to advance interdisciplinary work in the field of Cultural Heritage with the help of a pool of experts. The Task Force aims to promote the international activity of the KIT.

Previous Achievements

A pilot project focused on the preparations for the classification, preservation, documentation, development, and inclusion of the Buddhist heritage sites in Andhra Pradesh, India in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The ZAK | Centre for Cultural and General Studies worked together with their partner, the Centre for Buddhist Studies, University of Hyderabad in India.

Project

Duration: June- October 2012

Scientific Management:
Prof. Dr. Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha
Director of the ZAK | Center for Cultural and General Studies

 

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