From the Creation of the Present to the Future Heritage: Digital, Hybrid and Intangible Artifacts as Future Objects of Klironomy — Scenarios, Ethics and Criteria of Anticipatory Interpretation

Abstract

The relevance of this study is determined by the transformation of the concept of cultural heritage in the twenty-first century, whereby it ceases to be a static object of conservation and becomes a dynamic process of anticipatory selection. Under conditions of digitalisation, cultural hybridisation, and the growing significance of intangible creative forms, the boundaries between the past, present, and future have become permeable, requiring a new theoretical and methodological framework. The study focuses on developing klironomy — a metadisciplinary field concerned with the continuity of cultural being — which interprets heritage as a process of self-organisation and the projection of future meanings. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the formulation of a klironomical model for identifying and interpreting cultural phenomena as potential objects of future heritage. For the first time, the concepts of heritage futures, digital and intangible heritage, the philosophy of culture, and the ethics of selection are integrated into a unified system explaining the mechanisms of cultural continuity. An original typology of future klironomical objects is proposed, along with a model of anticipatory interpretation criteria encompassing temporality, cultural innovation, social resonance, technological sustainability, and ethical admissibility. The subject of the study is the contemporary human being as the bearer and creator of cultural meanings, determining which phenomena of today will become the heritage of tomorrow. The object of the study comprises material, intangible, and born-digital forms of culture considered in their potential for continuity. The study aims to elaborate the theoretical and methodological foundations of klironomy and to develop a model of interpretation applicable to the assessment of digital and hybrid artefacts. The methodology combines philosophical, cultural, and sociotechnical approaches through interdisciplinary synthesis, systemic and comparative analysis, content analysis of scientific and regulatory sources (UNESCO, ICCROM, PERSIST), and scenario-based modelling (foresight). This approach made it possible to conceptualise heritage as a self-organising system that unites processes of meaning-generation with the technologies of preservation. The results include a clarification of the conceptual field (heritage futures, born-digital, intangible heritage, klironomy), the development of a matrix typology of future heritage objects, and the identification of four scenarios for their formation — conservative, innovative, hybrid, and networked. The proposed klironomical model of criteria was tested on examples of digital art, virtual museums, and craft communities. The authors conclude that the contemporary and the new can be regarded as future heritage objects when interpreted through the lens of klironomy. Klironomy is thus affirmed as an integrative framework that unites philosophy, cultural studies, technology, and ethics into a coherent system of knowledge on the continuity of cultural being, opening perspectives for museum, educational, and research practices aimed at preserving the future through a reflective present.