Seite - 249 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Band 3:2

249 | www.limina-graz.eu Chiara Zuanni | Heritage in a digital world practice, also seems apt for social media research, in which platform al- gorithms and the choice of digital methods shape what we can see of the structure, the data that is available and possible to collect, and the way we as researchers can interact with it. Donna Haraway, in A Cyborg Manifesto, suggests that communication sci- ences (and biology) are engaged in a “translation of the world into a problem of coding, a search for a com- mon language in which all resistance to instrumental control disappears and all heterogeneity can be submitted to disassembly, reassembly, in- vestment, and exchange” (Haraway 1990 [1985], 302). The dilution of boundaries proposed by the cyborg theory enlightens the process of digital knowledge-making, in which new heritage values are formed from reassembling an heterogeneity of sources and online prac- tices. As previously mentioned, it has been productively used by Morgan (2019) in relation to archaeological digital practice. However, this dilution and the shift from representation to simulation, the first dichotomy men- tioned by Haraway (1990 [1985], 300), emphasises also the risks of exploi- tation of heritage in the digital sphere, in which algorithms that can mimic social interactions and connect internet users can affect online experienc- es. At a simple level, we can just think of social media bots, which can easily be used to circulate information to users, serving specific agendas. As it has been argued in a previous section, both archaeological theory and Critical Heritage Studies have moved to recognise that heritage-making pro- cesses happen in the present, and the predominance of the Authorised Her- itage Discourse needs to be counterbalanced by a more open and inclusive approach to heritage-making. However, there is a long history of debates on the public understanding and uses of the past, which has highlighted how heritage practitioners need to be alert to the misuses and abuses of the past for political agendas, e. g. white supremacy or nationalistic move- ments. In this sense, the emergence of simulation in Haraway, as well as in Baudrillard (1994) and in Eco’s hyperreality (1998), requires further at- tention to the cyborgs and their impact on heritage discourses in the public sphere, so as to support inclusive and participatory translation of herit- The predominance of the Authorised Heritage Discourse needs to be counterbalanced by a more inclusive approach to heritage-making.