Cultural heritage: perception, conservation and enhancement in the digital age

Cultural Heritage can be perceived in many ways: as history, but not only in the strict sense of the word, it may be perceived on a personal level as history of a community, as lifetime’s memories. The perception that the individual and the community develop towards Cultural Heritage is not to be considered as something immutable in time. In fact, changes in society certainly contribute to continuously redefinitions of the relationship between the community and Cultural Heritage and it may also change in terms of degree and intensity. The subjects come into contact with Cultural Heritage, the process starts with knowledge, then they become users and successively they may also become Cultural Heritage promoters according to their degree of attachment and to the feeling of recognition of Cultural Heritage as a constitutive factor of cultural identity. Cultural identity can be considered as something that is in perennial osmosis, in transformation and in movement. Cultivating art, literature, knowledge of the global Cultural Heritage, legacy of different cultures and civilizations, leads to the peculiar cultural propensity that makes us develop a strong sense of empathy and curiosity on the other, orienting individuals to respect different cultures, to embrace diversity, in order to create a peaceful coexistence in intercultural societies. What is known about oneself and what is known about others plays a crucial role in the construction of identity. The audience feels closer to Cultural Heritage thanks to new possibilities to enjoy culture; there is a progressive closeness in the relationship between the new generations and Cultural Heritage. The individual's sensitivity and attachment to Cultural Heritage can also be heightened through the use of the smatrphones and digital media become tools that the individual uses to express cultural identity.