Keynote speakers
Sujeong Lee, UNESCO WHIPIC (South Korea)
“Heritage Interpretation is a meaning-making process through communication, participation and experience. It increases understanding and promotes connections between people and heritage places.” (WHIPIC, 2022). The meaning-making process can confirm that heritage for all is an essential resource for sustainable development of human beings by expanding our activities beyond conservation and management, expert-centred decision making, site visits and tours, to negotiate conflicting perspectives, share our untold memories and enrich our lives. What to interpret lies at the value of heritage and the way to interpret depends on our ability to invite different communities. My presentation will share WHIPIC’s recent research outcome in defining the concept and principle of interpretation to provoke discussion on the way to facilitate inclusive interpretation.
Sujeong Lee is the head of the Research Office of WHIPIC. After receiving a PhD in Conservation Studies in the UK, she worked as a research staff member in the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) of Korea, revising heritage law and drafting value-based conservation principles. She leads WHIPIC’s research on definition, principle, policy and strategy of interpretation and presentation, adopting an inclusive and community-based approach. She and her research team are devoted to work with different communities and listen to diverse voices for setting out viable interpretation principles.
David Uzzel, University of Surrey (UK)
Mainstream behaviour change approaches directed at individuals acting by themselves to address sustainability, climate change and indeed heritage issues are demonstrably inadequate for the challenges we face. I would like to address how we communicate, the language we use, and how we make the heritage meaningful in ways that speak to the existential crises we face globally and locally. Despite the times in which we live, this involves going beyond seeing heritage visitors as passive consumers of what is often disempowering information, to providing a positive narrative which encourages people to see themselves as active interpreters of the heritage for others in the context of a positive and hopeful future.
David Uzzell is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, UK. His principal research interests are public understandings of climate change, critical psychological approaches to sustainability, and identity and the meaning of the past in heritage interpretation.
Recent research has included an EU funded research project CRIC: Identity and Conflict. Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict (EU); On being Australian: Exploring the role of Anzac museum and heritage interpretive experiences in developing visitors’ sense of national identity (Australia), and the therapeutic effects of heritage sites during Covid lockdowns (UK).
Špela Spanžel, Cultural Heritage Directorate (Slovenia)
In various contexts, the term sustainability is increasingly becoming a word that does not signify a well thought-out concept, but is merely a fashionable reflection of the times. Sustainability in cultural heritage ranges from the material substance of monuments and sites to the immaterial knowledge and traditions of our ancestors – and also includes the community. Sustainability is therefore always contemporary and says more about ourselves than representing the achievements of a bygone era; it is a socially relevant concept and responds to the global challenges of our time, such as social inequality and the climate crisis. The recent floods in Slovenia have shown how important cultural heritage is for communities, how ill-prepared we are for recurring events affecting all types of cultural heritage, and how urgent it is to change our approach from passive protection to active adaptation. Understanding, representing and interpreting cultural heritage based on a rigorous methodology and with the participation of different stakeholders is therefore crucial for future resilient societies.
Špela Spanžel is an art historian, curator, policy expert and a member of several expert groups and steering committees within UNESCO, and the Council of Europe. She led the nomination of the works of the architect Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana, recognised as an example of human-centred urban design and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2021. Špela works as an Acting Director-General of the Cultural Heritage Directorate of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture.
Lluis Bonet, University of Barcelona (Spain)
CHARTER – European Cultural Heritage Skills Alliance, Erasmus+ funded blueprint, has been analysing during the last three years the state of the arts of the cultural heritage sector in terms of functions, occupational profiles, professional competencies and education and training schemes. During the presentation I will share the main results obtained and the draft recommendations for stakeholders and policy-makers with the aim of contrasting the views of the interpreters, both in the field of professional skills and education and training needs. Some of the results of the project focus on the interpretation of cultural heritage in an increasingly diverse Europe, on issues related to professional opportunities and mobility, the recognition and validation of education and training at a European scale, or how we faced challenges such as digitization or sustainability.
Lluis Bonet is coordinator of the CHARTER project, Director of the Cultural Management program of the University of Barcelona and expert in cultural economics, cultural policies and arts management. ENCATC Outstanding Contribution Laureate, he has been research fellow at MIT and the University of Montpelier, and active participant in many international organizations, award juries and international projects.
Subtitle
Mainstream behaviour change approaches directed at individuals acting by themselves to address sustainability, climate change and indeed heritage issues are demonstrably inadequate for the challenges we face. I would like to address how we communicate, the language we use, and how we make the heritage meaningful in ways that speak to the existential crises we face globally and locally. Despite the times in which we live, this involves going beyond seeing heritage visitors as passive consumers of what is often disempowering information, to providing a positive narrative which encourages people to see themselves as active interpreters of the heritage for others in the context of a positive and hopeful future.
David Uzzell is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, UK. His principal research interests are public understandings of climate change, critical psychological approaches to sustainability, and identity and the meaning of the past in heritage interpretation.
Recent research has included an EU funded research project CRIC: Identity and Conflict. Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict (EU); On being Australian: Exploring the role of Anzac museum and heritage interpretive experiences in developing visitors’ sense of national identity (Australia), and the therapeutic effects of heritage sites during Covid lockdowns (UK).
David Uzzell, University of Surrey (UK)
Mainstream behaviour change approaches directed at individuals acting by themselves to address sustainability, climate change and indeed heritage issues are demonstrably inadequate for the challenges we face. I would like to address how we communicate, the language we use, and how we make the heritage meaningful in ways that speak to the existential crises we face globally and locally. Despite the times in which we live, this involves going beyond seeing heritage visitors as passive consumers of what is often disempowering information, to providing a positive narrative which encourages people to see themselves as active interpreters of the heritage for others in the context of a positive and hopeful future.
David Uzzell is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, UK. His principal research interests are public understandings of climate change, critical psychological approaches to sustainability, and identity and the meaning of the past in heritage interpretation.
Recent research has included an EU funded research project CRIC: Identity and Conflict. Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict (EU); On being Australian: Exploring the role of Anzac museum and heritage interpretive experiences in developing visitors’ sense of national identity (Australia), and the therapeutic effects of heritage sites during Covid lockdowns (UK).
Graham Black, Nottingham Trent
University (UK)
Slow Interpretation in the “Age of Participation”
The “Age of Participation” has caused a revolution in people’s expectations and behaviour. Our audiences now expect to participate actively; to encounter different perspectives; to share experiences; to contribute; to decide for themselves.
It is also transforming the heritage sector, with a growing ambition to play a more active role in society, and to engage visitors with social challenges as complex as climate change and conflicting histories. This, in turn, expects more of Interpretation – most importantly, stimulating reflection.
However, reflection needs time. The longer users spend engaging with content, the more likely they are to reflect on the experience. How to influence audience behaviour by creating opportunities to slow down – from simple design to co-creation – is one of our greatest challenges. Thus ‘Slow Interpretation’.
Graham is Emeritus Professor of Museum Development at Nottingham Trent University. He has worked in and with museums for over 40 years. His fascination lies in the changing nature of heritage audiences and their expectations – and what this should mean for the practice of interpretation. Museum developments in which he has acted as Interpretation Consultant have twice won the prestigious UK £100,000 Art Fund Prize alongside many other awards. He has published three books – The Engaging Museum (2005) Transforming Museums in the 21st Century (2012) and Museums and the Challenge of Change (2021) – as well as numerous articles.
Irena Lazar, Head of the UNESCO Chair for Interpretation and Education for Enhancing Integrated Heritage Approaches (Slovenia)
Heritage interpretation and education – learning by doing
Deriving from the different discourses addressed by partners research and activities, our UNESCO Chair seeks to develop approaches and skills for heritage interpretation (and education) in an integrated perspective and thus bridge the artificial divides within heritage (natural / cultural; tangible / intangible etc). With an innovative way of education (of the students and the general public), the Chair aims at overcoming these stereotypical divisions between nature and culture, nations and ethnicities, professional sectors dealing with heritage etc, and promotes inclusion, cooperation, awareness, empathy and peace. The main goal is to develop interpretation for professionals and the general public in the context of an integrated approach to heritage.
Professor Irena Lazar is a Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia, She an archaeologist, professor, research and museum counsellor and head of the Unesco Chair. Her research fields are Roman archaeology and history, archaeology of Roman provinces, ancient glass, Roman material culture, cultural heritage (management, interpretation, promotion).
Asier Hilario Orús, Basque Coast UNESCO Global Geopark, Global Geoparks Network, Chair at IUGS International Commission on Geoheritage (Spain)
UNESCO Global Geoparks. Memory of the Earth, future for the people.
The Earth is 4,600 million years old and its heritage
is written in the rocks. The history of our mother Earth is the longest and most incredible history that has been ever written. Interpreting our
landscapes, rocks and fossils as well as all the geological processes shaping our daily lives is essential to understand the Earth system and its complex history. The concept of Deep Time revealed by the Earth’s geological record humbles us with the realization that we have just arrived. Yet study of the current Earth processes shows that our activity is rapidly and deeply transforming the Earth’s surface environments and processes. UNESCO Global geoparks celebrate and interpret the heritage of the Earth and include local communities and the creation of local development strategies for a better future.
Asier Hilario is a PhD Geologist with broad international expertise on Geoheritage, Geoparks, Geoconservation and Geotourism. His professional career is especially linked to the Basque Coast UNESCO Global Geopark. His main activity is related to the communication, assessment and management of geological heritage at national and international level. Since 2012 he has been part of the Coordination Committee of the European Geoparks network and he also belongs to the Advisory Committee of the European and Global Geoparks network. He has many other roles, such as senior evaluator for UNESCO Global Geoparks’ roster of evaluators, member of the Geoheritage specialist group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
and member of the Scientific Board of the International Geosciences Program (IGCP). At present he is chairman of the Geoheritage Commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences IUGS.
Urs Reif, President of the European Ranger Federation (Germany)
The egg-laying-wool-milk-pig – European rangers as intermediaries
Rangers in Europe tackle many different duties in their job. Some focus on monitoring, some or education or law enforcement or even combatting poaching …
The most common focus in all ranger duties is communication and being intermediaries on behalf of nature and conservation. Protected areas need defenders and, as such, rangers roam widely. Rangers who are appropriately trained are able to connect to people in their day-to-day work and offer them answers and meaning in meeting small and big challenges. Rangers can offer direct participation, even in areas such as biodiversity losses, to their guests in protected areas. Nature interpretation offers a great means of delivering this challenge.
Urs was born in 1980, studied biology and nature conservation and is now working as a chief ranger for the Black Forest national park in Germany. In addition, Urs has worked in conservancy reporting and in the federal ministry for nature conservation. As a volunteer, he sits on the ranger working group for Europarc Germany and is president of the European Ranger Federation.
