The metaverse has gained popularity recently in many areas including social media, healthcare, education and manufacturing. This work explores the use of the metaverse concept for cultural heritage applications. The motivation is to develop a systematic approach for the construction of a cultural heritage metaverse and to offer, potentially, more effective solutions for tourism guidance, site maintenance, heritage object conservation, etc. We propose a framework for this cultural heritage metaverse with an emphasis on fundamental elements and on characterization of the mapping between the physical and virtual cultural heritage worlds. Efforts are made to analyze the dimensional structures of the cultural heritage metaverse. Specifically, five different dimensions, linearity, planarity, space, time and context, are discussed to better understand this metaverse. The proposed framework and methodology are novel and can be applied to the digitalization of cultural heritage via its metaverse development. This is followed by a detailed case study to illustrate the tangible procedure, constructing a cultural heritage metaverse with a complex and dynamic nature which can be used for different applications, including heritage conservation.

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Virtual reality (VR) uses sensorial mimetics to construct collective memory in virtual space. The regeneration of high-definition cultural heritage symbols transforms memory into an immediate experience that is constantly being renewed, strengthens the relationship between cultural heritage and contemporary society, and continually affects the persistent renewal of cultural traditions. Hyper-presence is a networked state of cognitive psychology that lies in links, interactions, and exchanges; it is the result of networked social minds and distributed cognition. In the contemporary moment, cultural heritage takes on three types of progressively developed presence: simulated restoration presence, informationally reproduced presence, and symbolically regenerated presence. Symbolic regeneration belongs to the realm of hyper-presence. Building databases with data collected on cultural heritage is the foundation of building a cognitive agent. As a platform, VR becomes an efficient mode of information dissemination, forming an independent presence for cultural heritage through the reproduction of media and information. In a network society, informatized cultural heritage becomes a source for the production of new cultural symbols, and presence is created through the continuous regeneration and dissemination of symbols. Symbols and regenerated symbols combine to constitute the hyper-presence of informatized cultural heritage; people's understanding of cultural heritage therefore exists in an ever-changing state. Intelligences with presence on the network form a complete system, and VR creates comprehensive cognition for the system through high-definition virtuality. Formed in the coordination between intelligences, collective memory creates its hyper-presence today.

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The purpose of this study is to explore how online museums distribute the postproduction of cultural knowledge related to artworks in a network society. This study has implications for how online museums will adapt to the future development of knowledge societies. The core innovation of this study is exploring distributed knowledge postproduction in online museums from the perspective of Mode 2 knowledge production and online distributed knowledge production. This study will also examine distributed knowledge postproduction in online museums, which co‐constructs knowledge and meaning. This paper covers how online museums transform artworks into a resource for cultural postproduction through digital means and engage in Mode 2 knowledge postproduction. Online museums convey knowledge of artworks, creating narratives of phenomena, extending the aura of works of art, and increasing the volume of disseminated knowledge. Through the Semantic Web, online museums construct distributed online systems of knowledge, bringing together machines, technologies, and people and enriching the cultural understanding and innovation of systems of knowledge. Through hyperlinks, exhibitions in online museums intervene in social contexts anytime and anywhere, distributing the cultural knowledge postproduction of artworks. By establishing interactive connections with various contexts, online museums co‐construct knowledge and meaning. Compared with previous work, this study explores how new technological applications in online museums co‐construct knowledge and meaning through interactions with various social contexts, which will influence the future development of knowledge societies.