To continue the argument from my previous posts – [Link] [Link] – that heritage, the (legacy) of the past in the present, is best conceived as a process of working on the past in the present – as a process of design.

I have just returned from a trip to Göteborg, that most wonderfully open of intellectual communities, where I was sharing such ideas.

Heritage matters. Our heritage, your heritage – so frequently a touchstone today for value and authenticity.

My argument is to shift from associating heritage with cultural property, to treating it as an aspect of cultural production, indeed just about every design effort, even if this isn’t recognized or acknowledged. I connect heritage with actuality – the persistence of the past in the present.

Critical heritage – to realize this active labor of articulating apst and present

Human-centered design – to recognize these deep temporal properties involved in any design effort.

Tri Bywyd, from Brith Gof (1995) – working the past in the present in site specific performance – [Link]