Authentic Hercegovina

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Mostar.jpg

Revitalizing revitalization

Background

Initiated at the Infiniti Heritage Seminar 2-14 on October 18 2014 in Mostar, the Authentic Hercegovina project will continue and complement the Mostar 2004 post-war architectural reconstruction and revitalization project, by revitalizing the region's economy and culture. At the same time, this project will be a laboratory for developing and testing a specific transdisciplinary approach to tourism, and to cultural revitalization and preservation. By developing a pattern language, we make our results applicable to other global regions with similar challenges. The resulting Authentic Hercegovina travel destination and online community will combine a specific approach to events and tourism called authentic travel, with creative infrastructure design, and transdisciplinary co-creation.

Design patterns

On the more human side, this project will engage some of the proactive emigrants from the region and their international friends and colleagues, to reinvigorate the spirit of collaboration and opportunity.

From the point of view of systemic innovation, the Authentic Hercegovina project implements and showcases this simple and elegant idea: Information technology can now enable a different, authentic approach to tourism and travel; an approach that supports authentic, local economies and cultures, promotes authentic meeting of people and cultures and exchange of vital memes. We are using the technology that led to globalization — to reverse the negative consequences of globalization. For more information see the articles and the business plan below.

Amela Božić and Sladjan Jakirović are local coordinators of the project. Infiniti Heritage is the project’s institutional home.

Holotopia and the revival of authenticity

Knowledge Federation is presently focused on the Holotopia prototype, where an "outside the box" approach to contemporary issues is being developed. A variant of this prototype will be featured in this prototype, as an exemplary re-design of one of our society's key systems (tourism). A long story made short, Guy Debord's 1967 text "Society of the Spectacle" has recently received a renewed interest, and for an interesting reason: It has recently become recognized just how much Debord was right—in pointing out that the loss of authenticity (and the domination of our public and private lives by media-orchestrated spectacles) is at the core of the core of the more familiar global issues. See this article in The Guardian, where you'll also find the following:

How we confront the spectacle is a subject for another piece: in essence, the Situationists' contention was that its colonisation of life was not quite complete, and resistance has to begin with finding islands of the authentic, and building on them (...)

This "finding islands of the authentic, and building on them" is, of course, exactly what the approach to tourism that is being developed in this prototype is about.


See

  • Authentic Hercegovina Project – a Prospectus Article describing the project, published in Architecture & Science, Vol. 1 No. 2, 2014
  • Authentic Hercegovina Launch Video recording of the introductory talk at the project launch, October 18, 2014
  • Mostar Bridge 1566-1993-2004 Short video describing the history, destruction and rebuilding of Mostar Old Bridge (don't miss the sight of Prof. Pasic, founder of Infiniti Heritage and of Mostar 2004, walking over the Old Bridge with Prince Charles at the end of this film – an epitome of this project's international success)
  • Rebuilt Bridge Becomes Symbol of Post-War Healing Article about the earlier phase of this project, Mostar 2004, on PBS website
  • Architectural Healing – Planning Mostar's Revival Once Again Article about the earlier phase of this project, Mostar 2004, in The Washington Post
  • What Is Authentic Travel Article describing authentic travel and its various consequences. This article was presented and published in Proc. IPSI VIP International Conference, Sveti Stefan, 2005
  • Memetic Engineering Article describing the specific approach to systemic innovation that is developed and applied in this project. This article was presented and published in Proc. IPSI VIP International Conference, Sveti Stefan, 2005
  • UTEA Franchise Business Plan Business plan for a technology-enabled international authentic travel business, prepared for the 2003 Norwegian Venture Cup competition, with the help of McKinzie and University of Oslo advisors
  • Utea Portal Accompanying document to the above business plan, describing the role and the functions of the software