Volume 50, Issue 1

This conceptual study discusses cultural and historic sounds as tangible heritage by focusing on preservation practices for both soundscape and individual sound sources besides the acoustical fingerprints of the spaces. Although the intangible cultural heritage concept has opened a new room into the sensory objects, the formal approaches to sensory heritage are still missing and ambiguous. This study dwells on why we should classify culturally significant sensory objects as tangible heritage assets in terms of heritage, sensory semiotics, and acoustics. The digitalization methods to preserve and reconstruct acoustic heritage along with their measurable and computable nature were discussed as well.

This in-process project report describes a critical youth-led participatory heritage project that seeks to document, preserve, and make digitally accessible oral histories, archives, and artifacts of an urban, predominantly African American high school with a rich history and legacy. As a long-standing community institution, the narratives emerging from this high school are intricately connected with the larger story of the city of Philadelphia. This article uses an equity-based lens to demonstrate how youth-led participatory heritage can contribute to youth empowerment, critical consciousness development, and critical digital literacies. Implications for schools and communities experiencing gentrification, displacement, and community change are provided, including how participatory heritage with youth can utilize collaborative, asset-based efforts to foster change that allows youth and communities to have agency over their individual and collective stories, community history and legacy, and their futures.