There is an emerging consensus that replicas of heritage objects and places can accrue a certain authenticity. But can replicas, somehow, extend the authenticity of the original object? Could they, even, be more authentic than the originals? Last month I gave a paper at ‘Futures’, the conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, held
Last week (20 August), a Twitter chat organised by Heritage 2020 in partnership with Paul Hibberd of the LNWR George the Fifth Steam Locomotive Trust, explored replicas as a means of creating ‘living’ heritage, interpretation and understanding. Topics covered included how to define a replica in the context of heritage and how replicas add value
The Bridges Archaeology Collection In 1994 Mrs Margaret Bridges, a Fife resident, donated a collection of Cypriot archaeological material to the University of St Andrews for educational use. The artefacts range in date from the Bronze Age to the Byzantine period and provide fascinating glimpses into the ancient world – from trade, technology and consumption
Why are we seduced by the idea of the ‘original’ and drawn to the old, worn or ruined? Is the aura of a ‘thing’ bound to its materiality, or is its aura a social construct capable of migrating to other objects, replicas or reproductions? These questions lay the foundation for my practice-based PhD scholarship, which
The perceived value of replicas has ebbed and flowed in different times and contexts, but this appears to have come full circle from their antiquarian origins, particularly for conservation, presentation and collections management with facsimiles possessing their own, connected, trajectories. The newly published New Futures for Replicas: Principles and Guidance for Museums and Heritage, featured
‘Does it matter that a monument is a concrete replica rather than an eighth-century original?’ So asks journalist Chris Green in a long read in The i newspaper on 18 July 2020, prompted by the issues raised in our book My Life as a Replica: St John’s Cross, Iona. He also mentions the guidance now
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