La riproduzione digitale del patrimonio: dalla 'conservazione materiale' alla 'conservazione delle informazioni'

This contribution aims to illustrate the multiple potentialities offered by emerging digital technologies for the preservation, knowledge, and enhancement of cultural heritage. In recent years, their increasingly frequent use has allowed for detailed activities of digital surveying, knowledge acquisition, and cataloging of cultural heritage, resulting in a shift of focus from the materiality to the immateriality of assets and from restoration activities to data surveying and management that needs to be regularly repeated over time. For instance, emblematic cases of physical reproduction such as the replication of Cave No. 6 of the pre-Hispanic site Risco Caído in Gran Canaria and Lascaux demonstrate how it is currently possible to ensure the enjoyment and knowledge of heritage through copies while simultaneously preserving the material originals. This saves the originals from the anthropic degradation caused by the increasing accessibility to a wider audience. Furthermore, the creation of physical facsimiles (scaled-down copies, reintegrated copies, copies using different materials) of damaged or destroyed monuments and artworks not only allows for the replication of the state of preservation of the originals but also provides deeper cognitive access to otherwise illegible data. It offers the opportunity to touch and observe the copies up close, as demonstrated by reproductions carried out by Factum Arte. Reproductions of the tomb of Seti I, the tomb of Tutankhamun, and the Kamukuwakà cave in the Amazon rainforest’s Mato Grosso region enable the exploration of reintegrative solutions without damaging the fragmented originals. In these exemplary cases, facsimiles incorporate mimetic restorative interventions, visually restoring the previous condition before the trauma and surpassing the original in terms of the amount of information they can offer to users. Additionally, there has been a substantial shift in the preservation of heritage in recent decades, transitioning from material operational methods to immaterial approaches facilitated by the creation and management of specific databases for endangered monuments and artworks. In culturally vulnerable contexts at risk of destruction due to anthropic actions triggered by armed conflicts, seismic activities, and climate change, the protection of cultural heritage becomes inevitable. This protection is indirectly achievable through accurate digital surveys of the state of preservation of cultural assets, which are then archived in dedicated databases. This operation becomes indispensable for the future, considering the potential need for restoration or reconstruction in the event of potential destruction, as demonstrated by recent reproductions of the monuments of Palmyra carried out by the IDA. In such cases, concerns regarding material restoration become less significant, as monuments can be faithfully reproduced based on the acquired and archived information if they are damaged. The diversity and complexity of these experiences invite reflection on the evolution of key concepts in cultural heritage, such as “authenticity” “integrity” and the “aura” of artworks in the current era of reproducibility and extreme visualization.