Digital heritage objects, authorship, ownership and engagement

In this chapter I will discuss how the shift from analogue representations of the past, be they of real or imagined, sites, objects or activities, to digital representations of the same, brings with it new challenges. I will focus particularly on where these representations are intended to engage broader, non-professional and non-academic audiences. The ways in which digital representations of the past are created and disseminated needs to be carefully considered if they are not to appear sanitised, unengaging and even potentially distancing. How we construct the past is intimately linked with the nature of the representations we use in the construction process, and the apparent immateriality of digital objects creates new forms of relationships between the representation and audience. This consequently leads to new relationships between the audience and the part of the past that the digital object is intended to engage with