Audio-Visual Data from Defying Convention: Devising New Approaches to Heritage Values in Valletta, Malta 2021-2022
Joshua de Giorgio, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5284/1106986. How to cite using this DOI
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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- ADS Collection: 5416
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1106986
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This collection comprises audio-visual data from interviews undertaken by the 'Defying Convention: Devising New Approaches to Heritage Values in Valletta, Malta' project.
Valletta, the historic capital of the Maltese Islands, is a planned fortified town built in the 16th century, by the Order of the Knights of St. John. Though modified over time, it retains enough of its original fabric, footprint and plan to have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980. After a long period of decline, in great part due the post-World War Two diaspora, the city has in recent years been regenerated and aggressively gentrified. As a resident, I have witnessed first-hand the changes wrought on the city, and how this is impacting residents, at times disenfranchising them from places once familiar.
This project explores heritage value and significance derived from, or associated, with the city these residents and other stakeholders. Informed by Critical Heritage Theory and aligning itself with spirit and remit of charters and conventions from recent decades, this research proposes an alternative take on the historic environment of a World Heritage location. At its core, it aims to demonstrate the important, often overlooked, dimension of the social value of heritage places. The approach and stance adopted embraces a bottom-up, people-centred outlook, and deliberately focuses on the mundane, everyday aspects of city, to celebrate personal connections with the historic fabric and space.
