SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Rather than the objects housed in museums, it is the intangible cultural heritage, as it is performed and presented, that allows the past to live. And, by making the past live, we attempt to sustain our identity, or, as academics, we interpret difference, in an effort to challenge the hyper-real consumerism of our post-modern condition, and to counter “cultural grey-out” caused by the industrial commodification that bombards our senses on TV, in films, and in the soundworlds that surround us – the commodified products that Theodor Adorno (1991) told us were synthetic and formulaic productions designed to generate profits. New artistic practice must fit the expectations of the contemporary world, with its concert halls and festivals. This worries many of the academic community, as much as it worries many of those who claim ownership of the intangible heritage, though whether we should be concerned depends on whether we are prepared to supplement the “dead” heritage with something more “alive” for contemporary society.