Digital meets Culture

online workshop, 24th February 2021

Space for CH: How space technology can help monitor and preserve our cultural heritage

Several factors, both natural and anthropic ones, endanger nowadays our cultural heritage: subsidence, ground motion, pollution, looting, collateral damages and intentional attacks. Data provided by the European Space Agency Copernicus fleet of satellites and other cutting edge technologies leveraging on artificial intelligence and machine learning can help better assessing the risk and preserving sites at risk.

These themes were discussed during the workshop “Space for Cultural Heritage” organised by the Downstream Gateway on February 24th 2021, from 09:00 to 16:00.

Recordings of the workshop available here: https://down2earth.esa.int/2021/03/space-for-cultural-heritage-workshop/

The workshop foresaw the participation of actors both from the Cultural Heritage and the Space Sector in order to present opportunities and challenges in the use of space technologies and derived data for the protection, valorisation, and fruition of cultural assets.

Objectives
The main objectives of this workshop were to present the policy and regulatory framework in the sector; debate the actual challenges, both natural and anthropic; present new technologies that help in the discovery, monitoring and preservation of cultural heritage; and present ESA’s activities in support for the cultural heritage sector.

Expected Outcomes
a. Identify user needs.
b. Evaluate how space technology combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can support the sector.
c. Raise awareness of those new opportunities and create a link between cultural heritage community and space technology experts.

Download here the brochure of the event.

For more information on the topic, you can read ESA article on “Earth Observation applications and machine learning for cultural heritage preservation“.

The ESA Downstream Gateway

The ESA Downstream Gateway provides a single interface to non-space communities to interact more easily with ESA, its business opportunities as well as broad expertise in space based technologies, data, applications, and services.

Save the date: 3-4 March 2021

UNCHARTED project presented at the 1st MESOC International Workshop

“Societal Impacts of Culture: A transitional Perspective”: this is the titled of the 1^st international workshop that was held online by MESOC, the H2020 sister project of UNCHARTED. The meeting provided the opportunity to discuss with experts and stakeholders the role of culture in urban change, as well as methodological and operational approaches needed to support social impacts assessment and evaluation.
The agenda was scheduled in several sessions during which MESOC partners presented the first outcomes of the research designed to propose, test and validate an innovative and original approach to measuring the societal value and impacts of cultural policies and practices.
In addition the two-day meeting offered a schedule of round tables and parallel focus groups that actively involved the invited audience to a lively debate and to exchange knowledge and experiences related to their respective field of research.
In the framework of session 1, the panel debate titled “The social impacts of culture and cultural Policies” was dedicated to collect inputs and feedback on MESOC concepts by representatives of projects funded on the same call: in this specific context, Professor Arturo Rodríguez Morató, from the University of Barcelona, presented the UNCHARTED Research and Innovation Action and joined the discussion with the parallel project INVENT.
Moreover, other members of the UNCHARTED staff participated in the following focus groups providing additional contributions to the scientific discussion.
Download the MESOC Workshop schedule here.
Previous blog on MESOC workshop here
MESOC website

Neoliberalism and visual arts: an UNCHARTED conference talk

On 3rd December 2020, Professor Victoria Alexander , from Goldsmith, University of London, UNCHARTED project’s partner, gave a keynote address to the online conference “Another Artworld: Manifestations and Conditions of Equity in Visual Arts”.
The event was organized by the UNESCO Chair for Cultural Policy and Management of the University of the Arts in Belgrade in partnership with the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia. It received financial support by Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Serbia, the Austrian Kulturforum (Austrian Embassy in Belgrade) and was supported by the European Network on Cultural Management and Policy ENCATC. The main goal of the conference was to establish a discussion on principles of democratic governance and decision-making models in the field of visual arts, with the desire to broaden knowledge and consider possibilities of its implementation.
The talk draws on Professor Alexander’s work on heteronomy in the arts field and was based on the research she carried out in cooperation with Oliver Peterson Gilbert from Goldsmith, Post-Doctoral Research Assistant for UNCHARTED, in the framework of the project WP1, devoted to understanding the societal value of culture.
The contribution focused on the way Neoliberalism has affected cultural values in the UK and in the European Union. Neoliberalism, defined as a market-oriented ideology, has been taken up especially in Anglo-Saxon contexts, but also in various ways and degrees across the whole of Europe. Many of these effects are negative, for instance, shifts to the measurement of the social value of art by extrinsic yardsticks (such as economic and social impacts), rather than valuing art intrinsically. Neoliberal discourse also accompanies the decline of state support for the arts that is also accompanied by more market-based control mechanisms, all of which affect equity in the visual arts. The talk explores the extent to which cultural values are negatively impacted in such ways. In addition, as a counterpoint, it also looks at how Neoliberalism influenced some positive cultural values, for instance, more inclusive exhibitions and performances, as well as opening spaces for resisting discourses and DIY actions. By gauging the extent of the penetration of neoliberal discourse into European cultural values, the talk identifies challenges for visual artists.
The entire contribution can be viewed on YouTube here.
To know more about the influence of neo-liberalism in the configuration of the values of culture, consult the UNCHARTED work Package 1 webpage and read the full text of the related deliverable D1.4 here.
UNCHARTED website: uncharted-culture.eu

online 23 and 24 June 2021

European Research and Innovation Days 2021

The European Research and Innovation Days are announced to take place online on 23 and 24 June 2021.

The Draft Programme is now out, with over 60 live sessions, ranging from high-level plenaries to immersive panel discussions and workshops. Session topics include Horizon Europe, the new European Research and Innovation Programme, our recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic, the European Research Area, European Innovation Ecosystems and much more.

Create your own programme and join your favorite sessions to discuss about research and innovation with other participants from across Europe and beyond. Attend some of the specialised workshops to discuss, interact, build new networks and work together to find solutions for our global challenges.

Questions? Check the Q&A area on the EU Research and Innovation Days website, where you can find answers to the questions you may have about the upcoming event.

Brought to you by the European Commission, the European Research and Innovation Days gathers together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and citizens to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond.

This year marks the start of Horizon Europe, the most ambitious EU research and innovation programme ever and will be a decisive moment to strengthen our European Research Area. Cooperation in research and innovation is essential in our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and will pave the way to a greener and more digital future.

Building on the great success and impact of the last online edition, this year’s event will again be fully digital, allowing everyone to get involved from anywhere. As in 2020, the online policy conference is expected to attract thousands of participants from all over the world.

@EUScienceInnov and join the conversation at #RiDaysEU.

The report by IN SITU ACT project

Joining the dots // Bridging the gap(s)

Johannes Bellinkx – Reverse © Marleen Annema

IN SITU is the European platform for artistic creation in public space. It is an ecosystem connecting the new generation of artists with audiences, programmers, and key-players involved in the economic, political and social realities around Europe.
IN SITU is led by Lieux publics, European and national centre for artistic creation in public space, located in Marseille (FR) and brings together 16 partners from 13 countries.

One of its projects was the IN SITU ACT, a 4-years (2016-2020) cultural cooperation project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

IN SITU ACT project involved 120 artists/companies from 16 countries, and aimed to strengthen the implementation of an ecosystem designed to structure and reinforce the sector of artistic creation, to support artists’ development and a better understanding of artistic creation in European public space.

The main activities of IN SITU ACT:

The intention is for this exploration to act as a bridge between IN SITU ACT and the next phase.

Recently the project produced the report “joining the dots //bridging the gap(s), a reflection on the European project” which is part of the final evaluation of the project and presents a reflection on the specific relationships built between the project’s partners with the artists to develop particular projects, formats of encounters, and working contexts.

The report was written by Judith Staines, an experienced consultant and evaluator (she worked with many European cultural projects and international networks on issues of mobility, cultural exchange, as well as in the culture and development sector) and important contributions were made by Marie Le Sourd, Secretary General to structure the evaluation report, providing research, interviews and other content.

More information:

IN SITU webpage: http://in-situ.info/en/

IN SITU ACT Report: http://in-situ.info/en/activities/en/joining-the-dots-bridging-the-gaps-50

Keep informed! Subscribe the SoPHIA Newsletter

SoPHIA Newsletter 3: Cultural Heritage and Development

SoPHIA – Social Platform for Holistic Impact Heritage Assessment aims to promote collective reflection within the cultural and political sector in Europe, on the impact assessment and quality of interventions in European historical environment and cultural heritage at urban level, which would ensure a balanced approach to measuring their ‘success’ and contributions to our sustainable future. With the constant active participation of the social platform, SoPHIA´s work is organized around four main analytical dimensions – social, cultural, economic and environmental impact – which constitute perspectives to identify the most important challenges and opportunities linked to cultural heritage interventions in Europe.

SoPHIA´s Newsletters aims at sharing updates about editorials, news, interviews with key people and collaborations addressed in the project. In particular, the Newsletter 3 focuses on the link between Cultural Heritage and Development.

The first new of the Newsletter 3 is about the publication of the essay mapping Gaps and Shortcomings on CH impact assessment, which have been identified throughout the first deliverable of the literature review, and through collective reflection during the Athens’ Virtual Workshop process. Gaps and shortcomings point to an overall absence, or insufficient involvement of the public, recurrent in the different domains of the project. Among the Report findings there is clear evidence that public involvement is lacking almost everywhere in Europe, and the reasons why public participation is not always included in cultural investments decisions are several. The essay adopts a critical point of view to synthesize these findings towards the formulation of a holistic cultural heritage impact assessment.

The second new is about the literature review on the Impact of Cultural Heritage on Society. Within the SoPHIA project, the broad scope of the academic and policy literature available have been examined, indicating its relevance, complex character and delicacy. The review highlights that there are many limitations to the effectiveness of Social Impact Assessment and the management of social issues in projects, such as corruption, rent seeking, elite capture, speculation and opportunistic behaviour are difficult to manage. The social domain within the D1.1 Review of Research Literature, Policy Programmes and (good and bad) Practices can be found from pages 53 to 88.

After the literature review and consulations to stakeholders during the Athens Virtual Workshop in the summer 2020, SoPHIA designed a draft holistic impact assessment model that is being currently tested across Europe. The third new describes the 12 case studies of the project, which represent a variety of types of cultural heritage, comprising a landscape site, two museums, two programmes, three cultural districts, a place of remembrance, a historic city centre, an island and a monastery. The results will be presented at the Vienna Conference and further discussed with SoPHIA´s community of practice, fine-tuning the model and bridging thus the gap between the academic research and the professional practice on cultural heritage. To read about the 12 case studies please click here.

Website: https://sophiaplatform.eu/en
Suscription to SoPHIA´s Newsletter, please click here.

a capacity building workshop for Cultural Heritage Institutions which hold photographic collections at threat of decay

Saving Collective Visual History – online workshop by Photoconsortium

The opening event for the prestigious DIGITAL PAST 2021 conference, organized by the Royal Commission of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, was a 1-hour capacity building workshop by PHOTOCONSORTIUM to share experiences and lessons learnt for visual collections’ preservation, digitization and digital transformation.

Collections of analogue material that depict our collective visual history is deteriorating, with urgent need of saving for future generations. If we can’t save the analogue, we can’t digitize it. When digitized, what do we do with the original objects? Lack of funds, difficult planning and unclear post-digitization actions, without obvious benefit, make it challenging for archives to move into digital transformation.

Speakers from private companies and public bodies discussed the challenges and solutions encountered by public and private photographic archives to leverage digital technologies for preservation and enhancement of heritage photographs. This workshop was aimed at institutions dedicated to cultural heritage, and over 80 attendees joined the event also posing interesting questions.

View here the presentation.

DIGITAL PAST 2021 conference website: https://rcahmw.gov.uk/about-us/digital-past-conference/

Digitization is costly and time consuming, especially high-quality digitization using advanced techniques. Archives are forced by budget and time constraints to prioritize which objects to digitise, this does not always correspond to the deterioration rate of the original object. Many analogue materials that embed visual heritage (such as negatives, photographic prints and early motion pictures on film) is becoming illegible. The only way to preserve these images and sounds for future generations, is to digitize and transfer to accessible digital repositories.

Despite minor funding from national grants and, in part, with EU calls, digitization of our collective visual history falls on Cultural Heritage Institutions. In principle, it is acknowledged that CHIs have full responsibility of their collections, including how they make them accessible both for view and for reuse. Without external support achieving this is not an easy task.

Private companies and public bodies can have different approaches and policies when prioritising their collections, but there are many shared issues:

How to sustain the investment for digitization equipment and staff and administrative planning within the available budget
Choosing between in-house or outsourcing for the various phases of the process
Evaluating criteria meaningful curation of their collections, specifically when prioritising digitising
Implementing the best balance between available resources versus time constraints connected to the deterioration of fragile supports
Handling potentially dangerous supports such as nitrate negatives.
Once the content is digitized and available online, how to effectively plan access, reuse and disseminate.
Including community-driven needs for access/enjoyment and sustainable business models
Long-term preservation challenges connected to digitized collections.

Speakers from private companies and public bodies shared testimonies, expertise and knowledge driving a discussion to explore these crucial issues.

Speakers included:

John Balean, TopFoto
Erik Buelinckx, KIK-IRPA
David Iglésias Frank, Girona City Archive
Fred Truyen, KU Leuven
Chair: Antonella Fresa, Promoter srl

This event is organized as part of the Europeana DSI4 capacity building effort.

Challenges and new perspectives by world’s leading museum directors

The Future of the Museum. 28 Dialogues

As museums worldwide shuttered in 2020 because of the coronavirus, New York-based cultural strategist András Szántó conducted a series of interviews to a international group of museum directors to discuss the future of cultural Institutions : 28 dialogues face the historical limitations and unexploited potential of art museums. What emerges from the series of conversations is a composite portrait of a generation of museum leaders working to make institutions more open, democratic, inclusive, experimental and experiential, technologically savvy, culturally polyphonic, attuned to the needs of their visitors and communities, and concerned with addressing the defining issues of the societies around them. The book was published by Hatje Cantz on November 2020 and available worldwide on January 2021.

More information about the book here

Interview with the Author here

a new project led by the University of Pisa, to combine philology, archaeology, and AI-based research

AI helps with deciphering the Herculaneum papyri

The important papyri retrieved in Herculaneaum and preserved at the National Library in Naples contain basically all our knowledge about Greek philosophical schools. Diogenes Laërtius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers (3rd century AD) and Philodemus of Gadara’s Syntaxis (75-50 BC) in facts represents the earliest ‘history of philosophy’ to have reached us directly from antiquity. From this work that is exclusively preserved by the Herculaneum papyri we may derive a virtually systematic account of the history of Greek philosophical schools, but unfortunately the original manuscripts which transmit it are in a really poor state, very hard to decipher.

By relying on the most advanced technologies available today, the recently launched project “Greek Schools”, coordinated by the University of Pisa, aims to provide a new innovative critical edition of the whole treatise and its different sections, with extensive introductions and commentaries. By using AI and advanced X-ray and lighting techniques, the technology will help researchers identify written texts, colours, inks and other information that would be invisible to the human eye.

In particular the project will deliver:

New Greek text with palaeographic and philological apparatus, modern annotated translation, papyrological and philosophical introduction and commentary, by applying noninvasive techniques to both opisthograph and multi-layered papyri belonging to Philodemus’ Syntaxis in order to (a) read the text hidden on the verso, (b) detect, classify and replace overlapping layers, and (c) read the text concealed inside the latter;
combination of state-of-the-art methods with new, sounder philological approaches in order to produce a more reliable and substantially improved critical text of Philodemus’ treatise and its various sections through an innovative editorial system;
production of an open-access electronic edition of it through a pioneering open-source scholarly Web platform, engaging the scientific community in an on-going and on-line collaborative review of our critical edition.

The launch meeting was held online on 18th January 2021 (Italian language).

Project website: https://greekschools.eu/

Art / Culture / Economy to democratize society

How to foster placemaking as an inspiring European co-creation process?

Trans-making is a H2020 research and innovation project leaded by Relais Culture Europe Association (France). It aims to establish a multilateral network of research and innovation staff active in the fields of placemaking/place-based art activities as a space to create alternative narratives for social, economic and democratic renewal.
The objective of the project trans-making is to strengthen research capacities, through exchange of knowledge, expertise, skills and experiences between academic and non-academic partners from Europe and Third Countries in a shared research programme focusing on: Collecting, Documenting / Exploring, Experimenting / Performing / Designing.
Trough the work programme of Research and Innovation, the project’s Consortium, composed by academic and non-academics partners, aims to foster links between art and culture, economy, democracy and innovation at EU level and beyond. It promotes a better understanding and knowledge sharing between scientific community, stakeholders and policy-makers.
The final aim of trans-making is to establish a long term collaboration among the partners in order to have a scientific and innovative worldwide community devoted to the research, (including art-based research), innovation, education activity in the matters concerned by the project. Moreover, the proposed measures of the project will be conceived in order to have the widest possible impact of the society.
The project was supposed to end in December 2020, but due to COVID, its activity was extended for another year. It will end in December 2021, with a final event presenting the project’s results.
To stay up to date on the project’s progress visit: trans-making.eu

Johannes Bellinkx – Reverse © Marleen Annema

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