Exploring Heritage Beyond Materiality

As an expert, conducted a talk at 'Alaap 'at the Department of Architecture, BUET on 20 August 2022. It was an honour and a pleasure to return to my alma mater to share my thoughts on heritage and experiences regarding technological usage for documentation and conservation of cultural heritage, a topic that fascinates me and something I have been exploring over the past few years.

A glimpse of the ideas behind the talk: Beyond their materiality, heritage sites embody values, meanings, nostalgia, and emotions. Heritage places today have a virtual presence where the meanings and values are ingrained in another way, thanks to the widespread availability of social media, information, and communication platforms. On the other hand, with the advent of technology, a third hybrid environment, augmented reality, has emerged between the physical and virtual worlds, connecting the two and expanding the narrative possibilities in each. As technology has improved, documentation and 3D interpretation methods have also become more sophisticated. When used with photogrammetry, the augmented reality (AR) tool can project three-dimensional representations of real-world environments. Using these techniques, it might be possible to reassess the viability of cultural heritage sites' hybridity in enabling wider engagement while challenging presumptions. As someone who is gaining some experience in researching and documenting aspects of 'heritage', we have explored the heritage documentation and interpretation procedures academically and practically over the past few years. With the support of the EMK centre, currently, we are also developing an application that will help to connect communities living in rural, distant, and underprivileged areas of Bangladesh, with the aim of arousing children's curiosity regarding the country's unique cultural heritage sites, which has also yielded some challenges with a few intriguing findings.