Abstract
Design is playing an increasingly important role in relation to cultural heritage, with designers and design researchers at the forefront of reimagining how cultural organisations, such as museums and galleries, operate in a mediatized, networked, and digitally mature world. In this light, the tools and methods, practices, and cultures of design are helping GLAMs navigate their postdigital condition and social, cultural, and technological complexities that this entails. This track (Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage) seeks to open new territory for design researchers to respond critically and creatively to how design engages with digital culture and can be used to interrogate, reconfigure, and redesign how cultural institutions think, operate, and evolve in these challenging circumstances. To explore and reflect on the breadth, complexity and intertwined nature of such challenges, the track is structured around four interrelated thematic areas that, together, articulate a composite reflection on digital cultural heritage that moves from foundational principles (Futuring Principles), to situated design practices (Futuring Practices), to the infrastructures that underpin and condition how heritage is mediated, organised, and circulated (Futuring Infrastructures), and finally to the experiential dimensions of design through which heritage is encountered and interpreted by different audiences (Futuring Experiences).
Keywords
Human-centred Design; Experience Design; Design Practice; Posthuman Design; Digital Cultural Heritage; Cultural Heritage; Design for Cultural Heritage; Equality, Diversity, Inclusion
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.228
Citation
Mason, M., Trocchianesi, R., Dziekan, V., and Parry, R. (2026) Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.228
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage
Design is playing an increasingly important role in relation to cultural heritage, with designers and design researchers at the forefront of reimagining how cultural organisations, such as museums and galleries, operate in a mediatized, networked, and digitally mature world. In this light, the tools and methods, practices, and cultures of design are helping GLAMs navigate their postdigital condition and social, cultural, and technological complexities that this entails. This track (Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage) seeks to open new territory for design researchers to respond critically and creatively to how design engages with digital culture and can be used to interrogate, reconfigure, and redesign how cultural institutions think, operate, and evolve in these challenging circumstances. To explore and reflect on the breadth, complexity and intertwined nature of such challenges, the track is structured around four interrelated thematic areas that, together, articulate a composite reflection on digital cultural heritage that moves from foundational principles (Futuring Principles), to situated design practices (Futuring Practices), to the infrastructures that underpin and condition how heritage is mediated, organised, and circulated (Futuring Infrastructures), and finally to the experiential dimensions of design through which heritage is encountered and interpreted by different audiences (Futuring Experiences).