World Heritage. From the Manuscript to the Digital Form

Nowadays it seems that the notion of cultures as petrified monoliths has largely become outdated. The boundaries between cultures are blurred and vague, due to migration, transnational communities and diaspora, education and socialization. Folk culture is often declared to be archaic, whereas high culture is declared to be universal in terms of its meanings and values; mass culture and postmodern life are based on the media and electronic communications as vectors of meaning, notions, beliefs. This paper focuses on the issues of relations between cultures that retain their uniqueness, the mutual permeation of cultures that constitute the world’s cultural heritage. It also deals with the interpretation of the widely accepted phrase ‘mythology of the open road’, which is linked to mastering information and its transformation from the manuscript through the printed to the digital format. It is an expression of recognition of broad and diverse possibilities of providing information on cultural heritage. At the same time, it represents an ironic statement, since access to knowledge is conditioned by technological, economic, ethnic, political, legal, geographical and linguistic barriers.