Time and Space of Heritage Preservation: Conservation Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the categories of time and space in light of heritage conservation. I demonstrate that heritage creation is the simultaneous creation of human time and space and that the critical treatment of heritage requires a more specific analysis of these terms. First, I look at how the creation of human space occurs through objects, and how the objects of the physical environment become things, i.e. parts of our living world. The world can only be understood through change. This is a fundamental finding that forms the basis for both elementary senses and complicated philosophies. In order to explain the change in heritage-related space, I am using the terms artificialisation and heritage technology. Artificialisation means the anthropogenic transformation of the environment, which takes place mainly with the help of technological systems. Therefore, the environment encompasses physical, biological and genetic environments, as well as the human culture with its past. In this environment, it is impossible to distinguish between the human and non-human, since they make up a single hybrid whole. Artificialisation is by no means a determined course in history; it is a human means of description, a metaphor that helps to explain the processes ongoing in nature and human society. According to this approach, the heritage process is one technique in the artificialisation of the environment. Although change is central to conservation theory, it is also a concept that causes the greatest doubts and ambiguous interpretations. The reason for this is very simple: change is related to time, which is a foundational concept. In this article, I use metaphysical time models to analyse the life course of things and their damage. Finally, I also refer to the conservation theories of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc and John Ruskin. The essential difference between the conservation theories that are discussed here lies in their attitudes toward time, and the related problems of object authenticity and identity. In the framework of the presentist model, it is not possible to solve the main contradiction connected to restoration. Stylistic restoration ruins the authenticity of buildings as historical documents; however without restoration, the objects would be destroyed and thereby lose their historical value. However, a solution to this dilemma can be found based on the eternalist time model, which helps connect heritage to contemporary time, and avoid its physical, legal, and mental separation from the everyday life of society. The fact that including objects as a part of heritage may damage them instead of preserving them should not be overlooked. The authenticity of an object is not related to any ideal state in its history but to a conceptual, factual and actual state in its wholeness.