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An ornate heritage ceiling surrounded by strong layered digital networks, scanning rings and spatial reconstruction data
Heritage Futures · Original photo CIE · Layered digital interpretation

Heritage Futures

Heritage is not only inherited. It can help us imagine.

Heritage Futures functions as an experimental and creative space where artists, filmmakers, designers, researchers and communities test new public forms of heritage practice, digital presentation and imagination.

The cluster turns difficult heritage questions into participatory formats, installations and stories that invite people to encounter the past differently and shape possible futures together.

Digital Heritage Futures conference artwork about reconstructing heritage through technologyDigital Heritage Futures Conference · CIE · Münster

Role in CIE

Experiment in public.

Heritage Futures gives CIE a space to test creative formats before they become established programmes or resources.

It works with HeritageLab to document experiments, Dhakira to address justice and memory, Ecology Journeys to explore place, and EduHub to translate outcomes into learning.

Programmes and projects

Ways into the future

Public experiments invite participation, make complex questions tangible and create space for new voices.

Co-labPilot

Community installations

Collaborative installations made with communities, researchers, students and creative practitioners.

Propose a Co-lab
Story projectGaza

Where My Street Remains

A project about place, disappearance, continuity, urban change, belonging and community storytelling.

Explore the project
Creative researchDeveloping

Digital storytelling pilots

New formats for presenting layered heritage narratives through image, sound, film and interaction.

Discuss a pilot
Audio programme2021

World Heritage Radio

An audio experiment that opened World Heritage debate through community voices, interviews and shared broadcasts.

Listen to the project story

2026–2027 focus

What comes next

  • Define and publish the Heritage Futures cluster profile.
  • Develop a pilot community Co-lab or public installation.
  • Advance Where My Street Remains and digital storytelling pilots.
  • Connect experimental outputs to HeritageLab documentation and EduHub resources.