On Wednesday, 27 September 2006, the conference scope II Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage taking place in Vienna’s Austrian National Library the following two days, was presented at a press meeting.

The conference’s keynote speaker, Homi K. Bhabha from Harvard University, presented the conference’s topics together with the three other members of the Program Committee, Claudia Haas from Lord Cultural Resources, Christian Dögl from uma and Robert Temel from the Austrian Architectural Society, together with one of the other speakers, Elke Krasny from Vienna.

Homi Bhabha started with the observation that every other culture today is seen under the aspect of security, while in 19^th century, the first question when it came to another culture was if it had a classical period – if yes, it was a “high culture”. The dividing line today is its apparent relation to violence against people thinking differently, e.g. the liberal West. From that, he came to the question of how to relate to past relics of cultures and introduced notions like dis-possession and heritage choice which he was going to explicate in full depth at the conference itself.

Claudia Haas explained that the conference planned to combine a profound theoretical basis with a practice-oriented approach. The museums session of the conference was to be an example for this as speakers from two museums, in Johannesburg and in London, an exhibition designer and a theorist added their contributions to the discussion on recent developments in the museum field.

Christian Dögl reported on uma’s study on recordation and preservation of scientific and cultural heritage, commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Education, Research and Culture. The scope II conference was a continuation of the theoretical and practical work in the study and should be an opportunity to popularize new approaches to cultural heritage in Austria.

Elke Krasny spoke about her personal work which she was going to present at the conference and which related to personal remembrance based on sites and objects in the everyday landscapes of urban public spaces.

And Robert Temel finally explained the conference structure, the main topics to be addressed by the speakers and the expected outcome of scope II.

The new approaches formulated in the conference concept and by the speakers found broad interest among the attending journalists and led to a thorough discussion with the panel.

VIENNA RELOADED

In just seven weeks in Vienna, the conference scope^II will debate the future potential of 'cultural heritage'.

More precisely: scope^II will develop the concept of heritage from merely looking at objects themselves to highlighting their meaning through telling the stories which surround them.

Meaning versus Object

This approach to cultural heritage is not only relevant for UNESCO - World heritage site - inner-city Vienna, but all Cultural Heritage Sites and Subjects world wide.
Homi K. Bhabha, committee member and key note speaker of scope^II, gave his views of the new understanding of cultural heritage at a press conference (www.scope.at Multimedia) recently: 'I think, it would be much more productive, to look at the question of heritage in terms of what I call provenance. Tracking an objects’ movement, where it goes and how in that movement it gains a new value and a new meaning each time.’

Dead or alive?

'A lot of questions arise from Mr Bhabha’s statement’, committee member and session chair Robert Temel explained. Questions like 'Do objects get animated or die in museums?' or, whether the meaning we place on an object today remains true to its original meaning of 2000 years ago.

Chance for Economy

These are ideas and concepts which will influence the cultural, educational and scientific policies as well as the economy. ‘New target groups and approaches to the subject of cultural heritage will undoubtedly emerge'. Temel comments. Christian Doegl, CEO of uma information technology, the company organising the conference says: 'The full potential of connecting the message of museums and creative industries is yet to be realised. In Great Britain, however, these connections have already been successfully implemented and are serving as an example of how important these links between museums and the creative industries are.

Gail Durbin and Lauren Segal

Gail Durbin, Deputy Director of Learning and Interpretation at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and Lauren Segal, Head of the Heritage, Education and Tourism program on Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, are two of the International speakers taking part at the conference next month. Durbin’s special interest is the visitor’s interactivity and participation. She says: 'The web allows the visitor to become the museum interpreter. Museums have to change their strategies'. Lauren Segal will give an innovative example of the interlink of cultural heritage, education and tourism within an adapted prison in South Africa.

AUSTRIA COULD BE A BRIDGE

Vienna: scope^II presented Homi K. Bhabha in a press conference on Wednesday 12 July 2006.

There he talked in detail to Austrian journalists about the international conference “Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage”.

Homi K. Bhabha

„The fact that the discussion on cultural heritage is happening in Austria is of a great significance because of the country's strategic, liminal position between the western and the eastern nations. Austria could be a bridge in this discussion.“ This was Harvard Professor Homi K. Bhabha's starting statement during the press conference, for which he flew in to Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday 12 July 2006 to Vienna, Austria. Bhabha, born in India and one of the leading postcolonial theoretician in the world, was discussing as scopeII committee member and key note speaker the topic of the forthcoming conference.

Globalisation as Opportunity

Globalisation and Migration, not as threat, but as creative opportunity, are changing the understanding of cultural heritage, Bhabha said. „Globalisation has now made us rethink the supremacist histories of the past from a different perspective.“ Postcolonial nations get the chance to tell their own stories, their own narratives. That, Bhabha argued, explains, why narrating is part of the conference title Narrating Heritage. „We use the word narrating because to be aware of the situation, where postcolonial countries have a sense of their own narrative. Of what their past was, including their own past of colonisation, and what their present is. So I think we are in a very different context today when we talk about heritage questions.“

Migration instead of Origin

Cultural objects, monuments or practices cannot be understood without those stories, which are connected to them. In a world of migration (people and objects) cultural heritage cannot have just one meaning or one value. Therefore provenance is an important concept for Bhabha. „I think, it would be much more productive, to look at the question of heritage in terms of what I call provenance.“ Bhabha doesn't mean provenance as origin, but as journey, which an object has got and which gave it a certain meaning at each time. „Tracking its movement, where it went and how in that movement it had a different value and a different meaning each time.“ Important is to find the meanings and values of an object in a range of contexts. Thus, for Bhabha, the slogan of uma information technology, who is organising scopeII, is one of the main topics of the conference. „When in scope we say separating the signal from the noise I think that is, what we want to bring to the discussion of heritage.“

Cultural Heritage in Museum and Cityscape

The debate over cultural heritage, which will be continued on 28 and 29 of September, is initiated by that press conference. 13 speakers and over 100 attendees will discuss the impact of the changing meaning of cultural heritage to the subtopics museum and cityscape. Christian Dögl, CEO of uma information technology: „The press conference with Homi Bhabha has given us an idea, how interesting and exciting the scopeII conference will be.“

POSTCOLONIAL VIENNA

Vienna: On Wednesday, 12 July 2006, SCOPE will held a press conference, where Homi K. Bhabha talks about „Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage“.

Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University, is member of the commitee and Key-note-Speaker at the international conference scopeII „Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage“.

Bombay – Harvard

Homi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is a postcolonial theorist, currently teaching at Harvard University. Bhabha was born into a Parsi family from Mumbai, India. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Mumbai (Elphinstone College) and a M.A. and D.Phil. from Christ Church, Oxford. After lecturing in the Department of English at the University of Sussex for over ten years, he received a senior fellowship at Princeton University where he was also made Old Dominion Visiting Professor. He was Steinberg Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where he delivered the Richard Wright Lecture Series. At Dartmouth College he was a faculty fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory. From 1997 to 2001 he served as Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. He has been the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature at Harvard University since 2001.

„French“ Philosopher

Bhabha is a leading voice in postcolonial studies and is highly influenced by Western poststructuralist theorists, notably Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Michel Foucault.

Bhabha was key note speaker at the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge Colloquium on Research and Higher Education Policy, Paris, France, 1-3 December 2004.

Nation and Narration

In Nation and Narration (1990), he argues against the tendency to essentialize Third World countries into a homogenous identity. Instead, he claims that all sense of nationhood is narrativized. He has also made a major contribution to postcolonial studies by pointing out how there is always ambivalence at the site of colonial dominance. In The Location of Culture (1994), Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality--all influenced by semiotics and Lacanian psychoanalysis--to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent.

Press Conference

Glacis Beisl, MuseumsQuartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna

12 July 2006, 11 am

INTANGIBLE SCOPE^II

It took some time. But finally on 20 April 2006 the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage came into force.

The international conference scope^II, entitled 'Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage', which takes place in Vienna on 28 and 29 September 2006, will bring new impulses into the current debate over cultural heritage.

Viennese Waltz as World Heritage?

A long time UNESCO and public interest have dealt mainly with tangible heritage like objects and monuments. With the new convention that point of view changed radically. Intangible Heritage is coming into focus.

Stories instead of Objects

This has raised the question whether our traditional view of cultural sites and subjects has to change. Because different cultures (and subcultures) connect different stories with one cultural object. Thus the story (narration, context) become as important as the objects themselves.

The „Cultural Heritage Turn“

In the conference 'Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage' scientists will intervene in the current debate and ask for effects in the area of cultural politics. That 'cultural heritage turn' is a new challange in creating future strategies by stakeholders, who are engaged in cultural memory.

Target Group of the Conference

scope^II particularly addresses stakeholders and institutions concerning humanities, cultural science, politics, knowledge management and grant programs, further university and research institutes, museums, collections, libraries and archives. Within the commercial range enterprises are addressed, which have to do in the broadest sense with tourism and exhibition concepts.

SCOPE-Conferences

'After Information versus Meaning in 1999 Sites & Subjects is the second event within the SCOPE conferences, which could be initiated by our company', says Christian Doegl, CEO of uma information technology.

Four Sessions

In four sessions participants and speakers will interactively discuss cultural heritage, museum, cityscape, and their practical effects on each other. Leader of the program committee and key note speaker of the conference is Harvard professor Homi K. Bhabha. Among many others the Austrian artist and art theoretician Peter Weibel will join the conference.

innovatives-oesterreich.at

"Sites & Subjects. Narrating Heritage" will take place in Vienna on 28 and 29 September 2006. Location is the "Augustinertrakt" of the Austrian National Library (former Imperial Residence) in the heart of town, which is part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. The conference is a project of innovatives-oesterreich.at.

The website to the conference is on-line now. For further information and to subscribe to our monthly newsletter please go to: www.scope.at.