My latest column piece on NOMOS journal is up and available. I wanted to explore the idea of 'terror heritage', questioning the way in which value becomes attributed to heritage sites and museum collections. Is a sense of value born from an intrinsic quality held by each site and artefact, or is value created by circumstance, the threat of destruction perhaps? I've included the opening paragraph below, with the rest of the article following at this link. Heritage is always being created. While forms of heritage, such as castles and cathedrals, must first be built, it is later generations who decide that these structures are of value – who decide to preserve, conserve, and present buildings, and in doing so, turn the historic into their heritage. Within the terminology of heritage, there is vast variety, but it is always people who decide what will become heritage. There are, however, forms of heritage that are defined by circumstance, great disasters, or catastrophes. These events might be natural, such as earthquakes or tsunamis, that mark landscape and society alike, but then there are more direct human actions. Last month, videos circulated of a shocking attack on the Mosul Museum in Iraq, where ancient antiquities were deliberately destroyed. Yet, in those acts of mindless aggression, was the status of the collections and sites being elevated? Was there a form of “terror heritage” being created, where very acts of destruction made the global community more aware of, and more enthusiastic about, ensuring the long-term survival of those cultural artifacts?
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