Fiche de cours

Interrogating heritage and creativity

AR-622

Fiche de cours

Enseignant(s) :

Graezer Bideau Florence
Invited lecturers (see below)
Larsen Peter Bille

Langue:

English

Frequency

Only this year

Remark

November 4th - 6th 2021

Summary

The course aims to interrogate heritage and creativity by confronting contemporary theoretical debate and empirical case-studies.

Content

Invited lecturers :

Michael Herzfeld, Trevor Marchand, Sarah Kenderdine, Harriet Deacon, Luca Zan, Chiara Bortolotto, Ave Paulus, Kathrina Siinoven, Alain Dufaux, David Littlefield, Michel Rautenberg

This PhD school aims to introduce contemporary debates around heritage, creativity and innovation. Descriptions of heritage, guidance and norms rarely denote the central role that innovation and creativity play across a wide range of different forms and types of heritage. From special sites and monuments to everyday cultural practices, emphasis in narrative terms tends to focus on connections to the past, the nation and essentialized traditions rehearsing long-standing dichotomies between authentic heritage and change. Many times, creativity and the ensuing transformations of both rural and urban spaces tend to remain hidden behind exposed artefacts and official representations, silenced by authorized heritage discourse or simply relegated as vernacular practices. Similarly, representations of cultural or ritual practices are often reified, essentialized and even commodified. Ranging from massive infrastructure construction, speculative architecture and total material transformations of heritage sites to micro-level restoration and beautification techniques by local craftsmen and practitioners, innovation clearly takes different forms, values and positionalities in the context of heritage.

 

In addition to this, there is a strong emphasis on heritage, technology  and innovation at EPFL offering further elements for consideration. Targeting an interdisciplinary audience amongst others PhD students from urban studies, architecture, anthropology and digital humanities, the phd workshop also aims to build an interdisciplinary community and strengthen linkages between students.

 

The PhD school builds on and will be informed by theoretical debates and empirical case-studies taking place during the international workshop organized at the EPFL. Students are encouraged to assist workshop discussions on November 4 and 5. Students are therefore expected to prepare a poster presenting their own research, which will be showcased with a dedicated time-slot for presentations on the afternoon of November 5. Secondly, a conceptual paper will be shared at the beginning of October and students are expected to prepare a 5-page paper outlining how their research engages with the creative turn sent in by the end of October. These papers will be clustered around similar themes and peer-reviewed using a round-table format with Herzfeld, Graezer Bideau and Larsen as discussants.

Keywords

Heritage, Creativity, Innovation, Critical perspective, Anthropology, Architecture, Sustainability

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Identify key issues around heritage and creativity debates and apply a critical perspective
• Analyze and discuss their own research in relation to the creative turn