PurposeIn the past years, the importance of the cultural economy has led urbanism to a new perspective. Simultaneously, the main international institutions have pointed out the need to shift the urban economy into a sustainable one, green and energy efficient. The confluence of both flows explains why the imaginaries of the urban future are related to the concept of creative cities. Hence, the new economic engine of the cities should be founded on art, creativity and culture, all of them understood as clean energies. This study aims to show the crucial role of cultural heritage as a propeller of a new kind of urban development, more flexible and democratic, based on the construction of the city as a communicational, collective and open effort. Therefore, the city is conceived as a cultural heritage platform where tangible and intangible, social and creative interactions happen. Within this context, urban narratives appear as a dynamic material drawn on the possibilities offered by the heritage received from the past as a resource to be used for re-thinking and re-shaping the future.Design/methodology/approachThe approach of this paper is based on a profound analysis of historical cities, mainly in the European context, supported by the work carried out within the H2020 ROCK project. The cities within the project are: Athens, Bologna, Cluj-Napoca, Eindhoven, Lisbon, Liverpool, Lyon, Torino, Skopje and Vilnius. A wide variety of case studies coming mainly from these cities have been considered to understand better the theoretical point of view on the role of heritage, urban development and city branding. The information about cultural heritage projects used as case studies has been collected and selected coming from the direct work made on the field and the communication open with institutions and cultural stakeholders in every city. Even more, parallel seminars on cultural heritage and city branding organized within the project have allowed the authors to gather very valuable, updated and fresh information on these issues in every particular case.FindingsThe study proves that cultural heritage has been traditionally underrated as a mechanism for developing the future of the city and its communicative strategy. Cultural heritage appears as a practical tool for constructing more cohesive urban communities based on the use of public space and shared memories as storytelling platforms. The capacity of resiliency and sustainability revealed by cultural heritage through the time is, as well, a clear reference to construct a potential sustainable city, socially, culturally and environmentally.Social implicationsCultural heritage projects are shown as a perfect way to build stronger communities. Through the engagement and participation of citizens, urban storytelling reinforces a more open, real and sustainable city able to face the challenges of contemporary life (gentrification, pollution, mobility, etc.). Like that, heritage appears as a feasible tool for including citizens coming from all ages and backgrounds in the construction of a collective narrative of the city, based on the past and looking at the foreseen.Originality/valueThis study tries to relate fields that traditionally have remained not well connected: urban development, city branding and cultural heritage. The study demonstrates that cultural heritage is crucial as an urban narrative tool and consequently, as a planning/branding mechanism. Moreover, cultural institutions and cultural projects are very relevant platforms for social interaction, inviting citizens to have a more active role in the construction of the city as a collective communicational effort based on a network of social and cultural relations. Storytelling turns up as a new key element for communicating the city from grassroots, in a sustainable, democratic and inclusive manner, far away from the traditional top-down official perspective. Crowdsourcing methods are very powerful for establishing a shared and cohesive city brand, now rooted in its cultural and social foundations and not the marketing campaign clichés. Finally, storytelling emerges as a creative resource that enhances the social, cultural and economic layout of the city, forcing urbanists to include a greener, fairer and more democratic perspective in the future of cities.

INTRODUCCIÓNDesde el advenimiento de las primeras vanguardias y, sobre todo, de la segunda ola vanguardista pasada la II Guerra Mundial, el arte contemporáneo ha tendido irrevocablemente a la búsqueda de vías que acaben con la concepción de la obra como objeto fí-sico autónomo e independiente de la realidad circundante. La pregunta sobre las fronteras del hecho artístico llevó a lo largo de siglo XX a lo que muchos teóricos llamaron la desmaterialización del arte. Este hecho ha sido convenientemente estudiado por diversos autores entre los que destacan Lucy Inmaterialidades. Problemas de conservación del arte de los nuevos mediosInmaterialities. Problems of conservation of new media art Luis D. RIVERO MORENO Universidad de GranadaRecibido: 30-III-2017 Aceptado: 25-V-2017RESUMEN: La tendencia a la desmaterialización del arte durante el siglo XX verá su culminación definitiva en el desarrollo de los nuevos medios digitales actuales. Con ellos las creaciones artísticas acentuarán la carga de la información contenida sobre cualquier otro elemento físico. Los medios quedarán reducidos a materializadores circunstanciales de las obras. En este contexto, dominado por la rápida obsolescencia de las nuevas tecnologías, la cuestión será la de las posibles estrategias de conservación de las obras de cara al futuro. El patrimonio cultural digital producido en nuestros días corre un peligro constante de pérdida. Ante ello debe redifinirse el papel de la institución, un medio ya no almacenador de creaciones moribundas, sino punto neurálgico que debe mantener abierto el proceso de comunicación con el público-usuario.Palabras clave: Arte de los nuevos medios, Conservación, Patrimonio inmaterial, Arte contemporáneo, Arte digital. ABSTRACT:The arrival of new digital media has meant the end of the trend toward dematerialization started at the beginning of the 20th century. Because of this fact, artistic creations make the information burden a priority compared to any other physical element. Media have been reduced to mere materializers of the works. Early obsolescence of new technologies focus the question on the possible strategies of the conservation of works for the future. Digital heritage produced today is in an unceasing danger of loss. Therefore, the role of the institution must be redefined. The museum is not going to be a storehouse for dying works of art anymore, on the contrary it will become a main core that must keep the process of communication open to the public-user.

En el mundo digital y tecnológico actual, la regeneración urbana podría haber dejado de ser un proceso físico y arquitectónico para pasar a ser, simplemente, una superficial puesta en escena de nuevas y más atractivas imágenes de la ciudad que hagan de la misma un destino deseado. Sin embargo, la representación requiere de un relato que la contextualice y dé sentido. El ámbito cultural y patrimonial ofrece para ello sus espacios como plataformas de intercambio y comunicación. Este artículo aborda las opciones que disponen los habitantes de la ciudad como responsables de su narración y de su representación. Se multiplican así las posibilidades de una planificación urbana democrática, abierta y participativa. Sólo de este modo la planificación urbana será más creativa y sostenible, y su relato más acorde a la compleja realidad urbana.

PurposeDigital language has meant a revolution in the methods of production, distribution and conservation of contemporary art. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the new status of museums within the digital age. Works using new media must be understood as spaces of non-hierarchical communication where an artist’s role is diluted and the public becomes a user that completes an open process. Therefore, the function of the museum is challenged, being no longer a moral authority or a place of storing physical works. Because of its instability and obsolescence, the only valid method for the conservation of digital art is permanence through change. Design/methodology/approachThis research contrasts the theoretical material emerged in the past years related to the characteristic of new media to the practical work of conservation of digital pieces made by the new generation of museums and cultural centres. In addition, the fresh material offered by the Web itself allows analyzing the virtual activity of the museums themselves and the new platforms (online labs, databases, websites and blogs) arisen in the past decades. The latter are perfect examples of the new paths opened by the digital contemporary technology offering collective sites of communication in real time. FindingsThe preservation of digital and intangible heritage is understood as a form of development of a collective memory that can help in the understanding of our age in the future. In this way, the goals and the responsibilities are common; citizens are required to keep an active culture that is no more a culture of the accumulation and concentration by a minority. In present context, there is a new possibility, maybe for the first time in history, of achieving a new narrative really democratized and decentralized through the new ways of interacting and sharing information offers by digital media. Social implicationsThe urgency of getting an open and free access to information and technology is part of the idiosyncratic of digital art. There is a real aim of generating alternative spaces of knowledge serving public interest, being apart from the economic and political interests of large corporations. In this respect, the role of the museum will be controversial. First of all, as an institution originally created to impose power and moral authority by the governments. Originality/valueMuseums remains as the main artistic institution nowadays. However, they are in a difficult position as a traditional space for preserving and exhibiting art. That is why, they are adapting themselves to the new digital context helped by offering practical databases and updated information on their collections via websites and social networks.

Fuses (1964Fuses ( -1966. In this study, we discuss the role the artist plays as producer, director and main protagonist of all her production. We reflect on the role of the creator-director as an actor that would lead to the achievement of a film with necessarily autobiographical overtones. Assuming the avant-garde perspective of the cinema as a personal diary, Schneemann's cinema will explore different aspects of identity and sexuality of women in an artistic, alternative and politically feminist cinema. Understanding her cinema as a plastic element, the artist will explore at the same time a physical and matteric experimentation through the filmed bodies as well as the very materiality of the film, excluding any narrative, dramatic and illusory chance of projection of the spectator in both the cinematic and the private space of the artist.