University of Gothenburg
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Jonathan Westin

Research Coordinator

Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion
Mail
jonathan.westin@lir.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

Director

Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion
Mail
jonathan.westin@lir.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Jonathan Westin

I am associate professor in Conservation and Acting Director of Gothenburg Research Infrastructure in Digital Humanities (GRIDH) at the University of Gothenburg. In my research I study how we form our perception of culture through representations, and how these representations become part of our cultural heritage. By focusing on the communicative aspects of culture management, I approach the creation of visual representations as a negotiation process between new research and established images.

In my current research I investigate digital contingency planning for cultural heritage, digital possibilities in reconstructing lost spaces, digital technologies effect on the concepts of space and place, and the processes of documentation and digitisation. To digitise is to disassociate a material from its physicality, an ocularcentric act where multisensory qualities are translated into a purely visual form without depth. However, this disassociation allows for a mobility that makes the material reach beyond artificial contexts such as collections and archives and provoke new associations.

I have published my research in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, Convergence Magazine and Visual Anthropology Review.