Digital meets Culture

Early Bird deadline: Friday February 2nd 2018 / Final deadline: Monday June 25th 2018

Edinburgh Short Film Festival Submissions Now Open for 2018

Screening the best in International contemporary short cinema at venues across the Scottish capital in Autumn and curating programmes for other festivals across the UK & Internationally.

This year, we’re also excited to be curating film programmes from submissions for our 2018 partners:

DC Shorts – The US East Coast’s largest short film event
Mecal – the Barcelona International Short Film Festival
Sardinia Film Festival
Fastnet Film Festival
Firenze FilmCorti
Hidden Door

and many others!

Max Length 25 minutes, international films welcomed, all genres eligible.

Early Bird deadline (£13): Friday February 2nd 2018

Final deadline: Monday June 25th 2018

http://www.edinburghshortfilmfestival.com/call-for-entries/

Brussels (Belgium), 14th March 2018

Achieving a Business-friendly Environment in the EU: Revitalising the European Agenda on SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the EU’s economy. They represent 99.8% of all companies operating in the non-financial business sector, accounting for 67% of total employment and 57% of added value. Almost all of these SMEs are micro enterprises, employing less of 10 people. Notwithstanding the necessary actions required by national governments, the EU has a crucial role in creating a supportive environment for businesses across Europe.

The Small Business Act (SBA) has been, since 2008, the overarching framework for the EU policy on SMEs. For the period 2014-2020, the SBA is implemented through the EU Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (the COSME programme), provided with planned budget of €2.3 billion. By 2018 at the latest, the European Commission is expected to carry out a mid-term evaluation of COSME. To ensure proper implementation of EU programmes and other policy measures in favour of enterprises within the Single Market, a clear common definition of SME would be required, so to avoid any distortions of competition deriving from legal uncertainty. In this regard, in the summer of 2017, the Commission launched the Inception Impact Assessment for the revision of the current EU SME definition, provided in Recommendation 2003/361/EC.

To enhance competitiveness and further increase prosperity, it is necessary to stimulate the creation of new businesses and revitalize the culture of entrepreneurship, fostering innovation and promoting the circulation of new ideas. Ensuring the adoption of well-designed regulatory instruments and the diffusion of key technologies is equally essential in pursuing the same purpose. One of the most important barriers that SMEs face is their difficulty in accessing finance. The creation of more integrated capital markets in Europe could help them mobilise private capital, unlocking diversified funding opportunities at lower costs. In this regard, the Capital Markets Union – which constitutes an integral part of the Investment Plan for Europe, the so-called Juncker plan – will remove obstacles to cross-border investment and create a strong system complementing banks as sources of financing.

This symposium will offer an opportunity to analyse the latest updates related to the EU policy on SMEs and entrepreneurship. It will explore its potential as a cross-sectoral issue, considering how complementary actions in other policy areas can have multiplier effects in strengthening its implementation. The conference will support the exchange of ideas and best practice, encouraging delegates to engage in a challenging debate with business representatives and policy makers at EU level.

Delegates will:

Examine the current European framework in support of SMEs and its upcoming developments
Assess the benefits of targeted pro-entrepreneurship education programmes
Explore ways to promote female and youth entrepreneurship
Learn about alternatives to improve SMEs’ access to finance
Discuss solutions to reduce the administrative burden and compliance costs for SMEs
Take part in interactive discussions on how to improve SMEs’ access to the Digital Single Market
Liaise with experts and relevant stakeholders at national and international level

View the brochure, including the full event programme: http://www.publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/media/events/flyers/IC14-PPE2_flyer.pdf

Registration: https://www.publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/events/IC14-PPE2

Historical and traditional irrigation systems as tools for the promotion of preservation of rural communities heritage.

Learning by the past: MEMOLA animation video

Memola project studies the formation process of historical landscapes in relation to the use of natural resources, especially soil and water, in order to define strategies for the conservation, diffusion and connection between cultural heritage and environment.
The project produced two interesting animation videos illustrating the importance of shared water management and the way how it contributes to solve conflicts, promote and preserve culture identities of rural communities.

An amazing expression of participatory approaches to culture where art is used to transform the urban environment into a happier and healthier place

Stuart Semple tranforms Denver in a HAPPY CITY

“We live in a time where public space is threatened, and people seem to be more atomized and isolated than ever. I’ve always had this radical idea that could be used to bring people together … “
These are the main reasons that inspired the celebrated British artist Stuart Semple to design for May 2018 a radical intervention in the urban context of the city of Denver, with the aim “to incite widespread happiness by breaking down social barriers, increasing connection among strangers and fostering wellbeing.”
Light installations, monumental paintings, interactive graphic works and large scale public sculptures will decorate strategic areas of the city, such as Union Station, the main and busiest rail station of the city, tranformed into a Happy Station, that gives playfulness and pleasure to everyday work, or the ‘Coloring Café’ an open space where everybody can freely paint, making their own contribution to Happy City.
Many of these huge, public works, will be permanently left as monuments to happiness.
Happy City is an initiative of the Denver Theater District, curated by NINE dot ARTS and supported by many other artistic and cultural institutions of the city of Denver.

For further information about:

the artist: www.stuartsemple.com

Denver Theatre District: www.denvertheatredistrict.com

NINE dot ARTS: www.ninedotarts.com

To read more on Happy City, visit https://fadmagazine.com/2017/12/20/234014/

Fort Worth (Texas, US), 3-6 June 2018

ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries / JCDL 2018

From Data to Wisdom: Resilient Integration across Societies, Disciplines, and Systems.

The ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries in 2018 (JCDL 2018) will be held in conjunction with UNT Open Access Symposium 2018 on June 3 – 6, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas, the rustic and artistic threshold into the American West. It will be hosted by three units of the University of North Texas (UNT) — the College of Information, the UNT Health Science Center, and the UNT Libraries. Its co-organizer includes the School of Information Management at Wuhan University.

A call for participation is currenly open with deadlines on Jan. 15, 2018 (Tutorial and workshop proposal submissions; Full paper and short paper submissions) and Jan. 29, 2018 (Panel, poster and demonstration submissions).

JCDL welcomes interesting submissions ranging across theories, systems, services, and applications. We invite those managing, operating, developing, curating, evaluating, or utilizing digital libraries broadly defined, covering academic or public institutions, including archives, museums, and social networks. We seek involvement of those in iSchools, as well as working in computer or information or social sciences and technologies. Multiple tracks and sessions will ensure tailoring to researchers, practitioners, and diverse communities including data science/analytics, data curation/stewardship, information retrieval, human-computer interaction, hypertext (and Web/network science), multimedia, publishing, preservation, digital humanities, machine learning/AI, heritage/culture, health/medicine, policy, law, and privacy/intellectual property.

Website: https://2018.jcdl.org/

exploring and presenting the expanded moving image, image – in the broadest sense, including video, audio-visual performance, light art, sound art, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and multi-media formats in between – in public space.

Screen City Biennial 2017 highlights

Screen City is a biennal event dedicated to presenting the moving image in public space, and its program combines installations, screenings, art walks, an online exhibition and audio-visual program, talks and panels. It explores the relation between the moving image, sound and architecture and presents artistic formats that seek to expand the borders of cinematic experience. The Biennial is organized in Stavanger, Norway, in close collaboration with local and international art institutions and organizations. The Biennial presents a new platform that works to explore uses of the moving image in contemporary artistic practice. For the 2017 Biennial edition titled Migrating Stories, Stavanger harbor – its architectonic position in the landscape and its surroundings – was an important focus for production and presentations of the art. The Biennial presented moving image artworks from a broad range of international artists in dialogue and conjunction with the urban sphere and context in the city of Stavanger.

More photos, documentation and video:

http://2017.screencitybiennial.org/documentation/

Screen City is produced by Art Republic – Norway. Art Republic is a platform dedicated to digital art & public space. Inspired by the encounters between art and new technology, and the contemporary expression constantly being born through this meeting point. Art Republic consults, curates and produce projects that seek new approaches towards expanded cinematic experiences. Art Republic empowers research & projects dedicated to the creation of new exhibition & distribution models for the moving image, and enforcing the line of art-tech entrepreneurship.

In these artworks, the viewer enters into the added reality created by the painter, that empowers the static picture with realistic dynamic details.

Augmented Reality vs. classical painting: the works of Dražen Turković

Dražen Turković is a painter who likes to explore new technical possibilities in contemporary art, and in facts his most recent and innovative works start from “classical” painting on acrylic. The paintings are characterized with intense colors and decorated abstract lines with a striving on a linear composition, framed by clear and sharp paint brushes, either in a horizontal or vertical direction.

These artworks “function” either independently as they are, or as the basis for experimenting with digital technology, and are thus empowered with Augmented Reality, to be discovered by the viewer using “special weapons” in his/her hands: a smartphone with a dedicated app. Through the Aurasma application, the user enters into an active view of the image, immersed in the added reality created by the painter, that empowers the static picture with realistic dynamic details.

Dražen has been been researching the possibilities of integration of IT technology and fine arts for some years, experiencing and revealing classic painting techniques through new means of expression. In this research there is also an innovative aspect that is connected to the concept of originals and duplicates. In facts, each copy of Dražen’s work is as authentic as compared to the original painting, because the application works in the same way either with the original work or with its copy. Thus, AR makes the artwork accessible to everyone in its full experience, but indeed the original painting always remains unique in the classical sense of being a picture on the wall. Also, despite duplicates of the painting can be infinite, the artwork’s life is linked to the short-term technology currently available in the market, which would possibly be replaced soon with more advanced tools and developments.

Dražen Turković was born in Pribanjci (Hr) in 1950. He graduated in Ljubljana, after which he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan (Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera – Milan) and graduated in 1975. He graduated in painting, graphic design, digital graphics and design. He has been grouped and independently exhibited since 1974 at home and abroad. He has been awarded numerous awards at international exhibitions. He lives and works in Pula.

Website: www.drazenturkovic.wordpress.com

digital tour technology helps audiences with accessibility needs understand the spaces and routes in advance, before stepping inside the building

Auckland Live launches the first Accessibility Virtual Tour of the city’s Town Hall

Auckland Live is a part of Regional Facilities Auckland, committed to promoting the arts, and supporting inclusiveness and access to the arts for all.

In early December 2017, Auckland Live launched the first Accessibility Virtual Tour for the Town Hall– the first of a New Zealand venue to assist disabled and mobility-impaired concertgoers. This online tour is an intuitive vehicle for audiences with accessibility needs to become familiar with the historic venue before stepping inside.

Built around 3-D images of the Town Hall’s Baroque-style interiors, the tour begins in the venue’s foyer, where virtual visitors can choose to navigate wheelchair and mobility-impaired pathways taking them to seating in the Great Hall and Chamber Concert. Step counts along the way, coupled with elevator access, floor plans and pathways to the box office, public toilets and the bar offer an enhanced and fulsome experience of the Auckland Council A and Category 1 Heritage NZ listed building.

User-centric and innovative, AVT is the culmination of hours of research and analysis by Auckland Live and virtual tour developers Property3D, as well as consultation and testing with the disabled community.

[Show as slideshow]

“By coupling the latest in digital tour technology with a 106-year-old building we’ve opened up the doors of the Town Hall wider than ever before. The enhanced accessibility allows more Aucklanders, particularly those with disability issues and the elderly, to enjoy the iconic Town Hall as well as experience the magic and memories created by the live arts experience. We believe this is only the first step to the future of more accessibility and inclusive”, said Auckland Live director, Robbie Macrae.

Accessibility Virtual Tours will be launched online in 2018 for The Civic, Aotea Centre and Bruce Mason Centre in Auckland.

The Town Hall tour can be taken here: https://goo.gl/3pNNqX
Website: aucklandlive.co.nz

the consultation is open until 14th January: go have your say about how can digital culture enrich your life and work

Developing Europe’s Digital Platform for cultural heritage: public consultation on Europeana opens

How can digital culture enrich your daily life and work? Do you share, access or use cultural heritage materials online? Today, the Commission launches a public consultation to hear the opinions from citizens and organisations with a personal or professional interest in digital culture available online.

The public consultation will be open in all EU languages until 14 January 2018, go have your say here.

The Commission wants to know how citizens, professionals and organisations use Europeana, the European online platform for culture heritage that is visited approximately 700,000 times per month. The platform gives access to over 53 million items including image, text, sound, video and 3D material from the collections of over 3,700 libraries, archives, museums, galleries and audio-visual collections across Europe. The platform can be used by teachers, artists, data professionals in cultural institutions and creative fields but also everyone looking for information on culture.

The public consultation will help to identify through an independent evaluation how Europeana is currently used and how this can be improved and made more accessible for everyone. For example, the platform provides content also for re-use in the education, research or creative sectors of which many people are not yet aware. The results of the consultation will contribute to further develop Europeana’s offers and increase its visibility and use for the European culture heritage online. Europeana will also be closely associated to the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018.

More about the consultation: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-europeana-europes-digital-platform-cultural-heritage_en

A digital project by Europeana invites museums and people to show the contribution migration makes to culture for European Year of Cultural Heritage

Europeana Migration, to show that culture is the product of multicultural influences down the centuries

2018 will be the European Year of Cultural Heritage when citizens across Europe are invited to explore what it offers in all its forms. Europeana, the digital face of Europe’s cultural heritage, partners the Year and will supply the cross-border and cross-generational element to activities.

The Year will spotlight cultural heritage as a part of people’s everyday lives, ‘where the past meets the future’; in 2018 Europeana will focus on migration to show that culture is the product of multicultural influences down the centuries – from the food people cook and eat, to the music they listen and dance, and even the clothes they wear.

Europeana invites people young and old to be part of its Europe-wide project to build an online collection dedicated to migration.

Throughout the Year people will be able to share and upload their family stories and memorabilia online to Europeana Migration Collection– building it together with migration museums across Europe.
All of the content on the site will relate to migration and, from photos to films and letters to artworks, it will tell the stories of the people who have journeyed to, from and across Europe, uncovering the contribution of migration to our cultural heritage.
The items will be an important online testament to Europe’s rich history of migration, freely available for anyone to discover and use for education, research, inspiration and pleasure.

Participation activity begins in March 2018 and as the Collection builds throughout the Year people will be encouraged take part

– by exploring their cultural heritage, sharing what they discover, through exhibitions and galleries

– via social media with the hashtags #EuropeanaMigration and #EuropeforCulture

– and also through working with schools and retirement homes.

Elisabeth Niggemann, Chair of the Europeana Foundation and General Director of the German National Library, explains: ‘Europe’s cultural heritage has shaped the collective memory and identity of European citizens through the centuries. From folklore and traditions to visual arts and fashion, our diversity is an invaluable resource that can stimulate connections between people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures. Europeana and Europe’s citizens will help tell this story as part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage.’