This presentation will look at approaches to digital methods that seek to blur the lines between recording and representing heritage sites, monuments and practices and creating unique responses to these that have value and significance in its own right. In this exploration I will touch on co-design and collaborative creative approaches with communities in the UK (and internationally). Projects such as the Digital Laocoön, HARPS offer examples where the specific affordances of digital representation methods are being mobilised in new ways. Similarly, the UKRI funded ‘Unpath’d Waters’ maritime heritage project which is exploring, not only codesign of a full scale immersive system (VR) with three underserved audience groups, but also new means by which, large scale heterogeneous datasets can navigated through pathways collaboratively curated by the data-holders and their audiences. This project in particular, with a focus not only on representation and access, but data integration and enhancement through AI offers a clear opportunity to challenge some of the underlying constructs and assumptions that have shaped data collection priorities since the inception of historic environment records in the early 20th century.