You are what you (co)curate. A participatory approach to fashion curation in the digital world. Business Case & Teaching Notes

The digitisation of cultural heritage started more than 20 years ago and brought about a number of changes in the way culture is being produced, consumed, and perceived. Initially, this process aimed at taking out the cultural artefacts, from being stuck in the dusty galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and bringing them closer to both professionals from the creative industries and non-professionals or the general public. Nevertheless, this approach is rather difficult. The vast amount of digitised cultural heritage is not used at its full potential, especially in the segment of fashion heritage. The current lecture aims at discussing the creation of a new participatory approach to curation of fashion heritage content with the help of students. Why is a participatory approach to curation of fashion heritage important? To what extent and how is it feasible in the digital realm? How can both the organisation behind the digital archive and its users benefit from it?