Digital meets Culture

A different picture of 1950s

User Engagement and Digital Cultural Heritage: Reflecting on the Kaleidoscope Project

The project 50s in Europe Kaleidoscope was concluded in February 2020. The project explored user engagement with digital cultural heritage by focusing on archival photographs related to the project theme ‘1950s in Europe’.
Digital Tools
Kaleidoscope gathered user-experience feedback on two tools: the WithCrowd annotation tool and the Visual Similarity Search. The Visual Similarity Search draws on deep learning techniques enabling the linking of resources/images based on visual similarity. Both tools propose innovations in digital exhibition methods by using participatory approaches.
Content Collection and Curation
Digital storytelling was used as a strategy to engage stakeholders via a project exhibition entitled ‘Blue Skies, Red Panic’. The exhibition was realized in various forms: as a travelling exhibition touring cities in Europe including: Pisa, Girona, Antwerp, and Berlin; and as a virtual exhibition showcased on Europeana.eu. The process of sourcing and sharing heritage photographs aimed to enhance the digital collections, increase user interaction, and explore innovations in curatorial practice.
Focus Groups and Workshops
During the Kaleidoscope project a number of events were organised by the consortium. Focus groups and workshops reached target audiences of cultural heritage professionals, academic researchers, students, artists and local citizens. The memories workshop in Girona entitled ‘Family Photo Talks’ used oral history as a co-creative methodology. The Crowdsourcing workshop in Athens invited participants to contribute to the Kaleidoscope annotation campaigns focused on the themes of 1950s Style and Design and 1950s Transport and Travel. While the Rephotography workshop in Coventry focused on repeat photography as a way of engaging users with ‘then’ (1950s) and ‘now’.
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
The projects educational focus has created an international outreach, which extends beyond the lifecycle of the project. Kaleidoscope collaborated with the Culture Moves team to develop the MOOC ‘Creating a Digital Cultural Heritage Community’. Modules include a core module introducing user engagement theory, and modules focused on photography and museums. The MOOC currently (May 2020) has 2,035 registered users and is still open for enrolments.
For more information look at:
Impact and Future Exploitation Report
Photoconsortium webpage

Registration deadline: 31 July 2020

Reimagining Museums for Climate Action: An International Design Competition

Reimagining Museums for Climate Action asks designers, architects, academics, artists, poets, philosophers, museum professionals and the public at large to radically (re)imagine and (re)design the museum as an institution, to help bring about more equitable and sustainable futures in the climate change era. The competition aims to explore how museums can help society transform to a low carbon future, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and safeguard ecosystems.
As the world confronts a global pandemic that is impacting on all aspects of social, cultural and economic life, many of the certainties we may have had about the future seem less concrete. While thousands of museums around the world are currently closed, new forms of engagement and experimentation have emerged to rethink the relationship between museums and society. Alongside a profound sense of loss and insecurity, there is hope: hope that the multitude of ways in which communities globally have responded to COVID-19 might inspire new forms of radical action to address the climate and ecological emergency. In this moment, it is particularly important to consider the unique capacities of museums to shape more just and sustainable futures.
Entries will be judged by an international panel of museum, architecture and design, climate change, heritage and sustainability experts. Eight finalists will each receive £2,500 to develop their ideas into exhibits, which will be displayed at Glasgow Science Centre ahead of and during COP26, the United Nations Climate Change conference, in 2021. COP26 is due to take place at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC). Glasgow Science Centre (GSC), which is situated next to the SEC, will play a key role in the conference. The exhibition will be accompanied by talks, workshops and other activities encouraging debate around the future role of museums, in times of rapid environmental change.
The competition has been developed by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area, led by Professor Rodney Harrison (UCL Institute of Archaeology (IoA)), in partnership with Colin Sterling (IoA), Henry McGhie (Curating Tomorrow), and Emma Woodham (GSC). It launches on the 18th May 2020, for International Museums Day.
Register your interest by 31st July 2020 to submit by the final deadline of 15th September 2020.
Further information is available on the competition website www.museumsforclimateaction.org
Please send any queries to enquiries@museumsforclimateaction.org
Please follow us on Twitter @climatemuseums and Instagram.com/museumsforclimateaction

a project dedicated to Chinese heritage in Europe, supporting the Europeana.eu digital heritage portal

PAGODE – Europeana China

img: CC BY-NC-SA, KIK-IRPA Brussels (Belgium) – http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/121619

Co-financed by the European Union under the CEF Connecting Europe Facility Programme, PAGODE wants to contribute to generating rich user experience and high audience engagement with Europeana, the European digital library, by proposing a thematic approach in the aggregation, curation and presentation of Chinese cultual heritage preserved in Europe.

What it is about

PAGODE will aggregate to Europeana a minimum of 10,000 new objects, annotate and enrich more than 2,000 digital objects already in Europeana, and activate Cultural Heritage Institutions to plan new digitisation and enrichment of thousands and thousands of digital cultural heritage items. This wealth of material will be organized in Europeana to create a new thematic collection rich in high quality content to explore, compelling editorials, galleries, blogs and a virtual exhibition.

Focusing on the various forms of the presence of Chinese culture in Europe, the overall aim of PAGODE is to add further value to Cultural Heritage Institutions that own Chinese collections, to reach new end users, and to encourage creative reuse of the cultural heritage content in the domains of multicultural integration, cultural tourism, education and research.

PAGODE will promote further understanding of the cultural values of China and the cultural exchange between China and Europe, allowing Cultural Heritage Institutions to connect and share their collections and metadata across new sectors and borders and in this way to increase awareness and usage of Europeana to a wider audience, internationally. The project’s originality lies on the creation of a framework for a holistic overview of all Chinese collections within the scope of the pan-European area. As such, it would offer the foundations for further scholarship in this field, and even more important for the reinterpretation of questions of the circulation, trade, collecting and display of Chinese art in modern Europe with the aim to have a thorough understanding of the collecting history and Europe-China relationship from the historical and contemporary perspectives.

Website: www.photoconsortium.net/pagode

Friday, May 29 - The Series Starts

“Changing with the Times” – ICSB Arts & Entrepreneurship Series

Put forth by UNESCO, artists around the world engage with the “ResiliArt” movement to demonstrate how “confinement can also be a period of openness to others and to culture, to strengthen the links between artistic creation and society.” The movement remains strong despite the uncertainty and loss that many art institutions are currently facing.

Similar to the experiences of many other businesses, art galleries and exhibits must take on new forms in our new world. Just as we have seen many innovative businesses take control of the situation by enhancing their digital presence, we will learn how artists and exhibit curators are innovating to continue their businesses.

In imagining the way to captivate the social, cultural, and financial sectors of art, artists and entrepreneurs alike must reproduce the resilience of their work in the business’s reconstruction in the new normal.

“Join us as we share in the experience of hearing from Lenore Miller, Director of the University Art Galleries and Chief Curator at the George Washington University.”

ATEC at the University of Texas at Dallas, MA/MFA/PhD programs beginning in Fall 2020

The School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication invites applications for its programs

Do you appreciate the opportunities of cross-disciplinary education?
Would you like to develop your creative skills?
Do you aspire to be a visionary scholar, researcher and artist?

ATEC, the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas, invites applications for its programs: ATEC Master of Arts (MA), ATEC Master of Fine Arts (MFA), ATEC Doctor of Philosophy.

The ATEC MA in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication.
Areas of Study:

Interaction Design
Emerging Media Studies

It aims to improve undergraduate education through further study of theories and methodologies in technology and media studies as well as contemporary debates in the fields. After the coursework, students undertake independent research to pursue their own scholarly questions for their theses.

The ATEC MFA in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication.
Areas of Study:

MFA Animation
MFA Creative Practice
MFA Game Development

A terminal degree to teach arts and technology-related courses at the college level or to engage in studio or design practice. Students participate in a culture of community and critique, develops the creative use and critical investigation of technology in artistic practices.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
The program of he PhD in ATEC is designed both for students wishing to teach arts- and-technology-related courses in colleges and universities and those who wish to develop artistic, cultural or commercial applications of digital technology/emerging media. This program promotes the fusion of creative with critical thinking and theory with practice.

In response to the current circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, UT Dallas has extended the deadlines for the 2020 admission for the MA and AMF programs to the 1st July 2020.

Further information: https://atec.utdallas.edu/2020-call-for-graduate-applications/

From May 30 to August 23, 2020

Jönköpings läns museum in Jönköping, Sweden, invites Video Art Miden to present the video art exhibition “ARTificial Intelligence”

The video art selection, curated by Gioula Papadopoulou (art director and curator of Video Art Miden) presents 8 works that deal with various concepts concerning the “homo digitalis” era and artificial intelligence, exploring the physical detachment and the gradual digitalization and virtualization of our world, our societies and our minds.

All works have one thing in common: they are tracing and decoding human behavior in the digital era and explore our relationship with our self and “the other”. What do we have to sacrifice in order to approach a supposedly perfect future world?

Participant artists/works:
– Juergen Trautwein & Silvia Nonnenmacher, Meta_Face, USA 2017
– Di Hu, Les Objets Du Système, China 2019
– Landia Art and Economy Foundation, Chatbot Dialogs, Germany 2019
– Landia Art and Economy Foundation, Human Applications, Germany 2019
– Elliott Nicole J. Waller & Fabian Forban, AEI (artificial emotional intelligence), Sweden/Germany, 2019
– Yvana Samandova & Borjan Zarevski, Artificial Intelligence VS Aristotle// beta 0.98, France, 2019
– Katerina Athanasopoulou & Eleni Ikoniadou, Her Voice, UK 2019
– Sven Windszus, PURE WHITE, Germany 2017

[Show as slideshow]

Jönköpings läns museum is an art and cultural history museum, which brings to life the county’s cultural heritage. The museum’s buildings also contain archives, magazines, an extensive picture archive and a studio for painting preservation.

Video Art Miden founded by an independent group of Greek artists, is an independent organization for the exploration and promotion of video art. It has been one of the earliest specialized video-art festivals in Greece and has been recognized as one of the most successful video art platforms and an important cultural exchange point for Greek and international video art. Miden screening programs are hosted by significant festivals, museums globally.

Download detailed information here.
More info about Video Art Miden: https://www.instagram.com/videoart_miden/
More info about the works here
More info about the exhibition may be found at the museum’s website

EuropeanaTech presents papers elaborated by experts following the conference held in Hamburg in November 2019

SWIB (Semantic Web In Libraries) on EuropeanaTech

img.: Schematic depiction of a knowledge graph in the performing arts domain; from the paper by Julia Beck, Frankfurt University Library, CC0.

The SWIB (Semantic Web in Libraries) annual conference is one of the essential events related to Linked Open Data in libraries and other related organisations. EuropeanaTech has long been involved in this event as presenters, review board members and organisers.

SWIB19, the 11th conference was held 25 – 27 November 2019 in Hamburg and as always, featured a top notch program featuring institutes from around the world who continue to further the possibilities and potential of LOD within digital cultural heritage.

With the current issue of EuropeanaTech Insight, we took inspiration from the 2019 program, and invited several authors to elaborate on papers that were presented at the conference. Featured within this issue are articles from, ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, Frankfurt University Library, Germany, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany, GWDG, Germany and kcoylenet jointly with Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.

Read the EuropeanaTech issue at: https://pro.europeana.eu/page/issue-15-swib-2019

We hope that you find these papers valuable and thought provoking. Work and research regarding Linked Open Data continues to be a top priority within the EuropeanaTech community. For those curious about the full program including slides and videos, you can find these here.

Selected in the category Education, Training and Awareness-Raising

Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation is one of the winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra

The European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra, funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, promote best practices related to heritage conservation, research, management, education and communication. They contribute to a stronger public recognition of value of cultural heritage for Europe’s society, economy and environment.
Specialist juries assess the projects and select the winners in four categories: conservation, research, dedicated service by individuals or organisations, education training and awareness-raising.

The last 7th May, European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra announced the winners of the 2020 edition: 21 exemplary achievement from 15 countries.

We are very pleased to announce that Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation, partner in the REACH Minority Heritage Pilot, is one of the winner in the category “Education Training and Awareness-Raising”.

The Foundation was established in 2010; the aim was to create a platform for the meeting and dialogue between young Roma and non-Roma to reduce stereotypes, prejudices and intolerance against Roma through the fostering of interaction and the sharing of Roma culture and history.

It organizes several educational workshops in Hungary, where Roma is the largest minority group, in particular in Budapest, Pécs, Miskolc and Ózd.

The walking tours that takes place in the 8th district of Budapest and in the city of Pécs are the most successful activities promoted by the Foundation; they are led by Roma youngsters who contribute, with their own experiences, to the discovery of the districts and their link to the cultural heritage of Roma.

The programme means to provide young Roma people with useful work experience and encourages them to feel proud of their heritage.

One of the most important long-term impacts of the initiative has been the personal development of the young Roma volunteers: they are trained by the Foundation’s staff to moderate and facilitate workshops in primary and secondary schools throughout the country. In these meetings they introduce young people to Roma culture, through history, art and heritage and encourage an open intercultural dialogue between the participants.

The jury stressed that:
“This grassroots initiative empowers Roma people and addresses intolerance and social exclusion through the fostering of interaction, dialogue and the sharing of knowledge and understanding of Roma culture. The programme of the Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation encourages personal development and a good quality of life for the construction of a peaceful and democratic community with respect for cultural diversity, according to the principles of the Faro Convention. The programme has succeeded in creating a network of young Roma activists who act as mediators ensuring the agency of the community. The way in which the Uccu Roma Informal Educational Foundation has provided a platform for exchange and dialogue in everyday life is a great example of social innovation in that they have utilised cultural heritage in the construction of a more cohesive society. This is applicable in many other countries where these problems are present“.

See the video

survey by UNESCO and International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives

Magnetic Tape Alert Project: mapping archives that are in danger

Today’s knowledge of the linguistic and cultural diversity of humanity is widely based on magnetic tape recordings produced over the past 60 years. Magnetic audio and video tape formats are now obsolete. Spare parts supply and service is fading, replay equipment in operable condition is disappearing rapidly, and routine transfer of magnetic tape documents is estimated to end around 2025. The only way to preserve these sounds and images in the long term, and to keep them accessible for future generations, is their digitisation and transfer to safe digital repositories.

While many professional memory institutions have already secured their audiovisual holdings, or have planned to do so in time, a great part of audio and video recordings are still in their original state, kept in small academic or cultural institutions, or in private hands.

With the Magnetic Tape Alert Project, the Information for All Programme (IFAP) of UNESCO, in cooperation with IASA, the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives, intends to alert stakeholders of the imminent threat of losing access to their audiovisual documents. Part of this is to conduct a survey of existing audiovisual documents on magnetic tape that are not yet digitally preserved. The survey focusses on unique recordings rather than copies.

The information obtained through the survey on collections at risk will serve as a basis for the planning of adequate solutions for the safeguarding of these irreplaceable original documents in the long-term.

Take the survey here: http://www.mtap.iasa-web.org/

Deadline 31 May 2020

From the collaboration between Getty, Google Arts & Culture

Art Transfer, the new app to transform common life into artwork

The rapid shuttering of museums due to COVID-19 has had serious consequences; museums, to stay connected with audiences when they can’t physically visit collections, found new and unusual ways to bring together their public. So they have entered in the houses of thousands people making available their cultural collections on-line.
Also the Google Arts & Culture platform offers virtual tours and museum collections using gigapixel photographs and StreetView technology.

But now, why not transform the world around, maybe the closed spaces in which we are forced to stay, or ourselves in famous artworks?

The J. Paul Getty Trust and Google have teamed up to launch Art Transfer, new feature on the Google Arts & Culture app, that lets users apply the characteristic styles of Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Cézanne, Kahlo and many more to any image, transforming even the most mundane photos into veritable masterpieces.
The tool is very easy to use even if not all the artwork options produce equally faithful results.
Also this is a new way to participate in the world of art and to reminder that art history is cool.