Digital Futures for Cultural Heritage International Conference

Digital Futures for Cultural Heritage International Conference

University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Date: 28–30 May 2026
Submit abstracts to: vikrant.kishore@nottingham.edu.cn

Abstract Submission Deadline: 25 April 2026
Notification of Acceptance (Rolling Basis): from 5 March 2026
Registration Deadline: 30 April 2026
Conference Format: In person + online (Day 3 only, via Microsoft Teams)

Theme: Digital Futures for Cultural Heritage
The Digital Heritage Centre (DHC), Insitute of Asia and Pacific Studies, at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China invites proposals for papers, poster presentations, and digital work exhibitions for the upcoming international conference Digital Futures for Cultural Heritage, to be held from 28–30 May 2026.

This conference explores the role of digital technologies in shaping the preservation, interpretation, and circulation of cultural heritage in the 21st century. In an era where mobile media, AI, 3D digitisation, immersive platforms, and collaborative digital storytelling are transforming the way heritage is engaged with, we seek to bring together researchers, practitioners, artists, and community advocates who are experimenting with these tools to rethink cultural work.

We welcome interdisciplinary and practice-led submissions that reflect upon the impact, ethics, and applications of digital methods across contexts such as museums, archives, performance traditions, intangible heritage, community memory, vernacular art, and participatory initiatives.

Keynote Speakers:

Keynote 1: Professor Phillip McIntyre, University of Newcastle, Australia

Professor Phillip McIntyre is an internationally recognised Communication and Media scholar whose research focuses on creativity, cultural production, and practice-led inquiry. Widely regarded as a founding voice in Songwriting Studies, his scholarship examines how creative work is produced, evaluated, and sustained across media and cultural industries. He is the author of Creativity and Cultural Production and co-editor of The Creative System in Action and Educating for Creativity within Higher Education, with recent work including Paul McCartney and His Creative Practice. He has led major ARC-funded projects, contributed to national research assessment outcomes, and is a frequent keynote speaker on creativity, innovation, and research practice.

Title and Abstract: Creativity, Cultural Heritage and Digital Futures.

I want to begin by explaining the limits and extent of my keynote. Firstly, I will be using Raymond William’s understanding of ‘culture’ (1981: 13). He saw culture as a combination of the anthropological ‘whole way of life’ approach, combining this with the more common sense idea of culture as ‘artistic and intellectual activities.’ This combination can be shorthanded as culture = whole way of life + artistic and intellectual activities. ‘Heritage’ I take to be those accumulated aspects of culture that survive, sometimes over millennia, and provide a rich source for both innovation and tradition. Secondly, I am also presuming that the terms ‘digital futures’ refers to the digital technologies (Flew 2005; Arthur 2009) that are having such a profound impact on culture across the globe (Dhiman 2023; Grilli & Pedota 2024). Here, I take a middle ground on the technological determinist and social determinist dichotomy, choosing to see the technological and the social as aligned (Lax 2009; Hill 1988: 33-34). Thirdly, I want to introduce into this mix the idea that creativity (Niu, W. & Sternberg, R., 2006; Simonton 2006; Glăveanu 2020; Verger & Glăveanu 2025), that is, the emergence of novelty valued in at least one social setting (Hennessey 2017), results from a system in action (Csikszentmihalyi 2014; McIntyre et al 2016). This creative system is comprised of a choice making entity called an agent, be it a person, a group, organisation or institution, and a domain of knowledge or what Bourdieu calls a space of works, that is the heritage accumulated by collective work which presents itself as a set of possible uses (Bourdieu 1996: 235). There is also the field which is comprised of all those who have knowledge of the domain to varying degrees and provide judgements on the novelty being offered. Then, I hope to draw these three broad conceptual areas together and illustrate this with a number of examples from my own research over the last thirty years. I will conclude by arguing, in its simplest and most profound sense, that all things old are made new again.

    

Key Conference Topics (including but not limited to):

• Digital documentation and storytelling of intangible heritage
• Emerging tools and platforms for cultural preservation
• Archives, memory, and digital curation
• Community-led and participatory heritage initiatives
• AI, VR, AR and immersive technologies in cultural interpretation
• Ethics, data justice, and intellectual property in heritage digitisation
• Cultural mapping and digital humanities methods
• Digital museology, exhibitions, and performance
• Indigenous and marginalised voices in digital heritage spaces
• Mobile media and heritage filmmaking
• Sustainable models for digital heritage work

Submission Guidelines

We invite proposals for the following formats:

• Paper Presentations (15–20 minutes)
• Posters or Digital Exhibits
• Short Films / Practice-led Creative Works (maximum 20 minutes duration)
• Panels / Roundtables (Propose a group session of 3–4 speakers)

Proposals should include:

• Title
• Abstract (300 words max)
  Purpose and scope of the proposed topic
  Methods or creative approaches used
  Potential implications, findings, or contributions
• Keywords (4–6 terms)

Please indicate clearly whether your proposal is for a paper, poster, creative work, or roundtable.

Who Should Submit?

We welcome interdisciplinary contributions from:

• Academics, students, researchers
• Cultural practitioners, artists, archivists, and curators
• Museum professionals and heritage organisation staff
• Media & Digital storytellers and creative technologists
• Community-based cultural groups and NGOs

Registration Charges:

• General registration: 1,000 RMB
• Early Career Researchers (ECR): 700 RMB
• Students: 500 RMB

To register, please complete your payment through this link.

For more information or queries, please contact:
Dr Vikrant Kishore - Associate Professor
Digital Heritage Centre, Insitute of Asia and Pacific Studies, University of Nottingham Ningbo China
vikrant.kishore@nottingham.edu.cn

We look forward to your participation in shaping conversations around cultural memory, digital innovation, and inclusive futures.