Digital cultural heritage. Where does UNESCO stand?

Computer games and other practices, works and skills based on digital technologies have become part of our culture. As such, they are being collected and documented by more and more organizations with the aim of making them accessible and preserving them also for community-building purposes.

In order to meet the associated challenges, the right framework conditions are essential. The 'Art of Coding' initiative is therefore of particular importance. Since 2019, it has ensured that the demoscene is now the first digital culture to be listed as intangible national UNESCO cultural heritage in five countries (FI, GER, POL, NL, CH).

So now is the right time to draw a first conclusion. The aim is to look to the future against the background of the experience gained. The focus here is on the questions of which other digital cultures can claim cultural heritage status and what motivations there might be for this on the part of both the cultural institutions and society.