‘Living Heritage’ aka Intangible Cultural Heritage*
Living heritage is the dynamic side of cultural heritage: heritage which is continuously transformed, interpreted, shaped and transmitted from generation to generation. It also represents the participatory, co-creative dimension of cultural heritage, and is characterised by its transient, non-stationary and hard-to-grasp qualities. This concept is often assimilated to that of ‘intangible heritage’ or ‘living culture’, referring to cultural practices, representations, knowledge, and skills transmitted intergenerationally inside a cultural system. Though these terms are often used interchangeably, ‘living heritage’ is used to convey and stress the role of living generations in engaging with, defining, interpreting, changing, and co-creating the heritage transmitted from past generations.
Living heritage incorporates the parts of our shared past that live in our present – everyday rituals and practices, cultural expressions, shared memories, celebrations, festivals, stories, songs, and craft skills that help to define who we are. These don’t have to be as old as time – ICH is a form of heritage that lives in the present, where we often incorporate elements of older traditions and cultural expressions in our contemporary practices.
The ephemeral nature of much of the culture we work with and produce in Aberdeen could itself be regarded as intangible cultural heritage, as the loss of first large scale mural from Herakut produced on the old Market back in 2017 would attest. Something many will be happy to hear we’ll be revisiting this year.
We look forward to contributing to the city’s increasing reputation for this growing culture and hope to be both excavating and producing memories that live significantly longer than some of the works.
Martyn Reed
Nuart Founder and Curator
* We’re not certain that adding ‘intangible cultural heritage’ is any clearer than the term ‘living heritage’ but chose to employ it in order to sound a little less like a chain of middle class chintzy furniture stores.
