Centering Oppressive Spaces with Digital

October 28, 2022

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)—our parent organization—is an international NGO and one of the Three Advisory Bodies to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Commission (UNESCO WHC) headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, France (https://www.icomos.org/en). The United States National Committee was established in 1965 in Washington, District of Columbia, and is a part of the worldwide ICOMOS network of 104 member states and national committees, 10,489 individual members in 151 countries, 248 institutional members and 28 international scientific committees who support the conservation of the world’s heritage. For over 50 years, US/ICOMOS has worked to deliver the best of international historic preservation and heritage conservation work to the U.S. domestic preservation dialogue, while sharing and interpreting for the world the unique American historic preservation system (https://usicomos.org/). The Monuments Toolkit Project is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Monuments Toolkit Project is currently conducting case studies—both national and international—focusing on instances where organizations, governments and institutions have addressed controversial monuments. We shall be contacting academics, cultural heritage professionals, bureaucrats, thought leaders, activists and more in the U.S. and around the globe (https://usicomos.org/monumentstoolkit/).

Centering Oppressive Spaces with Digital Media explores the interactions between digital media, public spaces and shared experiences. Through an analysis of features and user feedback, we will theorize new methods of approach to Oppressive Monuments. A comparison of monuments in public spaces with their digital counterparts will also support the navigation of case studies via Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. The webinar features panelists Rodney Freeman and Deliasofia Zacarias and is moderated by William Humphrey.