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Making Sense of Virtual Heritage: How Immersive Fitness Evokes a Past that Suits the Present
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Cultural Sciences. (UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0557-9651
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Languages. (Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3293-6324
2022 (English)In: Virtual Interiorities: Book Three: Senses of Place and Space / [ed] D. Gottwald, G. Turner- Rahman, and V. Vahdat, ETC Press, 2022, p. 77-98Chapter in book (Refereed)
Sustainable development
SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
Abstract [en]

This paper focuses on the sensory experiences and the socio-cultural and socio-political contexts of digitally generated cultural heritage. As a case study, we use Les Mills' "The Trip", an immersive and multi-modal fitness regime where participants ride stationary bicycles in front of a large, domed screen where a winding road through a computer-generated hilly landscape is projected as a motivational aid. While these landscapes are imaginary and unrealistic, many reference various stereotypical cultural heritages so that participants ride through alleys of Greek statues, around futuristic Egyptian pyramids, or through a pirate ship at the bottom of the ocean. In the article, we consider the nature of this invented heritage at the interface of tangible and intangible heritage, the way it appeals to people emotionally and sensorially, and the social, physical, cultural and political consequences and implications of such digital heritage “trips”. The authors have different disciplinary backgrounds and interests which will inform the joint discussion: archaeology/heritage studies and literary and visual culture/decolonisation. On the one hand, we see a need to study the ethics and politics of the idealising and stereotypical representations of the past that are being used. On the other hand, there are also important lessons to be learned about heritage aesthetics, bodily perceptions of heritage and its relation to self, the creation of pastness, consequences for quality of (real) life and well-being both within the bounded and physical space of the fitness locale and outside it. The paper argues that virtual experiences of (future) past are no less significant or important than experiences IRL, especially as they may overlap with each other and are ultimately difficult to distinguish, both in terms of the experience they provide and in terms of their consequences in society. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ETC Press, 2022. p. 77-98
Keywords [en]
Classical Greece, cultural heritage, immersive fitness, gender, whiteness, pastness, time-travel
National Category
Cultural Studies
Research subject
Humanities, Visual Culture
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-118331ISBN: 9781387504978 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-118331DiVA, id: diva2:1727094
Available from: 2023-01-15 Created: 2023-01-15 Last updated: 2023-04-11Bibliographically approved

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Holtorf, CorneliusHöglund, Johan

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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Language
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Output format
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