Humanising places: exposing histories of the disenfranchised through augmented reality

The conference Challenge the Past/Diversify the Future, hosted by the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies at the University of Gothenburg in March 2015, addressed the importance of thinking critically when documenting or expressing the past using digital technologies.1 This themed section’s aim is to grant a selection of papers from the conference a deservingly wider readership, focusing specifically on Augmented Reality as a means through which to both diversify established ideas about space and its people, and challenge perceptions of the past. The ultimate purpose is to stress the importance of devising an ontology to document the process of enhancing reality on site in a transparent and inclusive manner so as to account for diversity (see Vitale 2016). As demonstrated by the many insightful studies on the effect of representational practices on historical and cultural studies (see Smiles and Moser 2005; Russel 2006; Waterton and Watson 2010; Bonde and Houston 2013), when cultures, history, peoples and their performative practices and lifestyles are solidified through elaborate acts of representation, reconstruction or description, there is often little initiative to diversify and question. Through the representation thereof, the past is being globalised as an assemblage of agreed upon symbols that becomes our heritage rather than reflecting it. An understanding of the processes that make up these modes of documentation through which we communicate those places, events and performative practices that are part of our cultural heritage is crucial, since the communicative traditions these make use of constitute a large part of the public’s apprehension of past cultures and people. As have been shown on numerous occasions (see James 1997; Moser 2001; Westin 2014), the representations we are creating of the past often follows well established conventions that are outdated, homogenous, and highly problematic, and may feed into contemporary political conflict. It takes great effort to break free from these conventions, to diversify and tell new stories.