Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/899551
one of the earliest major breakout video games back in 1983 called Boulderdash. Across the province, we're seeing virtual reality and augmented reality come alive in museums and galleries. In London, the Ontario Museum of Archaeology houses a virtual reality exhibit of an Iroquois longhouse. In Ottawa, the Science and Technology Museum is getting a major renovation, which will include a virtual reality arcade to showcase the entire archive. When physical space is limited, virtual reality can help with access. For the last 15 years, huge efforts have been made to digitize archives, cultural collections in museums and local libraries. By digitizing, we are hoping to both safeguard and conserve work. It's also an effort to make work more accessible to more people, often online. Large national projects around the world, including Canada, have embarked on this effort. At first, we thought of digitization as a solution to the archive problem. But as technology ages and becomes outdated, we are realizing that digitization is sometimes more fragile than the original material, especially as software and hardware become obsolete. For example, my early digital documentaries (from less than 15 years ago) were built and exhibited in a program called Adobe Flash, which was at the time, available on over 95 per cent of browsers. It was one of the most accessible video and multimedia players of the time. Now, Flash is all but dead. Meanwhile, modern film print, when well preserved, can last longer than 100 years. So will digital works go the way of silent films? (Silent films were made on flammable and very fragile nitrate film and 90 per cent of silent films are now considered lost). UNESCO only recognized moving images as an integral part of world heritage in 1980; it recognized digital heritage in 2001. We are losing some of digital culture faster than we are making it. Some of it is meant to be ephemeral, like Snapchat, but we need to think in deeper ways about how to make it accessible for future generations. So while the digital shift affords us all sorts of new ways to make, document and share cultures, it also brings new challenges of how to safeguard these new intangible artifacts. We need investment in strategic planning and action on digital and intangible heritage at all levels of government. In the meantime, don't forget to print and store those personal pics! Katerina Cizek is an Emmy-winning documentarian, whose work is almost entirely made for and with new digital tech, including the web. She is based in Toronto, and is heading up a new initiative at MIT Open Documentary Lab, called Co-Creation Studio. Photo: Joseph Byron (1847-1923) / Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.4.14 Photo: Byron Company (New York, N.Y.) / Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.4.18 Heritage Matters 44