Digital meets Culture

Limassol, 3 November 2014

PREFORMA presented at EUROMED 2014

Peter Pharow from Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, PREFORMA Design Phase Leader, presented the project at the workshop “The Digitization Age: Mass Culture is Quality Culture. Challenges for Cultural Heritage and Society“, organised by Promoter Srl in the framework of the EUROMED 2014 Conference in Limassol, Cyprus.

The presentation focused on providing the audience with a general overview of the project’s aims and objectives and of the PREFORMA Challenge, highlighting in particular the lessons learnt from the preparation of the procurement and the main challenges for the design phase which has just started.

Download here the paper that has been published on the Conference Proceedings “Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection”.

Download here the presentation of PREFORMA.

For more information on the workshop please visit this article.

The association born as a spin-off of Europeana Photography project is now officially open

Celebrating PHOTOCONSORTIUM

The great experience of the Europeana Photography project is near to its end: the project is finishing on 31st January 2015 with a big closing event in Leuven. But the end of the project is nothing else than what it is: the end of the EU-funded project. The group of partners of Europeana Photography consortium strongly intends to stay together also beyond the EU-funding period, to build upon the results of the project and sail away for new opportunities related to the cultural value of photographic heritage.

For this reason, in Bratislava on 6th November 2014, just before the opening ceremony of the photographic exhibition Teatralny Svet, realized by the slovak partner Divadelny Ustav with a selection of photos digitized for the Europeana Photography project, the group celebrated officially the opening of PHOTOCONSORTIUM International Consortium for Photographic Heritage. The new body, in the form of an association, has the purpose of promotion and enhancement of the culture of photography and the photographic heritage.

The association has democratic structure, political independence and unlimited duration. It is a not for profit association, which intends to promote and organizes conferences, exhibitions, awards, training courses, publishing activities; to carry on and encourage research and studies; to promote initiatives in the interests of its members, collect data and provide consultancy.

The 18 members who joined the association in Bratislava are honored with the status of Founding Members, and constituted the first General Assembly of the association.

By acclamation, were nominated Fred Truyen as President and Antonella Fresa as Vice-president.

Photoconsortium already has a web address: www.photoconsortium.com, to be enriched shortly with full information of the association and its initiatives.

Two papers, a presentation and two technical workshops

Europeana Photography at ICA Girona 2014

ICA congress 2014 was a major event organized by Europeana Photography partner CRDI / Ajuntament de Girona. That was a perfect occasion for project’s dissemination towards an international and very valuable audience, and several partners attended it.

Two papers were submitted about the project, by Antonella Fresa and Valentina Bachi (Promoter) and by Frederik Truyen and Sofie Taes (KU Leuven).

The project was presented during a session dedicated to early photography, chaired by Fina Solà and including as speeches:

Fascismo, Guerra y Fotografía: la mirada de la nueva España, by Juan Alonso Fernández, Aleix Purcet Gregori (ES)
Creating a global online archive of Photography – the challenges, by Julia de Mowbray (EN)
Europeana Photography: photography as a privileged witness of our shared past 1839-1939, by Frederik Truyen (EN)
Adecuación de la descripción archivística de documentos fotográficos a los estándares internacionales by Darcinele Sena Rezende; André Porto Ancona López (ES)

The Conference papers are published in the Girona Municipality website http://www.girona.cat/web/ica2014/eng/comunicacions.php#top

The articles related to Europeana Photography can also be downloaded here:

Digitising, discovering and valuing European photographic heritage – A. Fresa, V. Bachi (Promoter) – PDF, 393 Kb

“All Our Yesterdays”: Europeana and the Phenomenology of Photographic Experience through the Framing of Digitization – F. Truyen, S. Taes (KU Leuven) – PDF, 572 Kb

Moreover, a dedicated workshop held by Nacha Van Steen (KMKG) was aimed to explain the skosified vocabulary created in the framework of the Europeana Photography project. the workshop was delivered in two sessions, one in English and one in French and in total there were 37 people registered.

Programme of the workshop (English): PDF, 317 Kb

Photos: Jordi S. Carrera, Ajuntament de Girona

Barcelona Theatre Institute, 10-11 November 2014

Workshop on co-creation, distributed performances and alternative content for the big screen

This workshop, co-organised by the Foundation i2CAT, the Government of Catalonia and the Theatre Institute of Barcelona, examined the gradual adoption of technological environments in the performing arts and how the expanding of bandwidth have given rise to new forms of creative expression and space for experimentation and new business models for performing arts, reaching other spaces such as movie screens and cultural institutions with the distribution of high-definition content.

During two days, international and local representatives, experts and creatives presented the technological tools and shared their experiences, focusing on the evolution of distributed environments, creative hubs and cultural broadcasting. The programme was developed considering the artists and technicians interested in co-creation. Representatives from different cultural and academic institutions in Europe (England, Italy, the Netherlands and Catalonia among others) met to share experiences, establish synergies and explore future collaborations.

Among the speakers who participated, the workshop included Robert Delamere, co-founder and creative director of Digital Theatre; Giovanni Cozzi, President at Rising Alternatives; Andy Lavender, University of Surrey; artist and performer Marcel·lí Antúnez and Sarah Whatley, dance professor and director of the Centre for Dance Research (C-Dare) at Coventry University in representation of the European project RICHES.

The RICHES project explores a looming tension derived from a lack of custodianship based on the traditional methods of archiving. There is the risk that digital CH may be mislaid or lost, yet at the same time more people assume the role of archivists and work with their own collections of cultural content, thus having a stake in how cultural content is made available; immediate access, re-use and reproducibility are more important to them than sustaining access to the more static/stable records of the past. Also the ease of transmission and reproduction brings increasing opportunities for content providers including cultural institutions to create new market opportunities. This new political economy in relation to digital records of CH is an important part of the Riches research project.

The workshop was specially designed and focused on the changes occurring in performance-based CH as a result of novel possibilities made available by digital technologies and its main objective was to bring together researchers, professionals and practitioners to share their experiences and knowledge and experiment with low latency virtual and shared environments to conduct future remote performances. Thanks to the technology made available by i2CAT Foundation, participants in the workshop had the opportunity to reflect on how to distribute performance based cultural heritage content through ultra-fast wired networks and to evaluate what benefits could be brought for their dissemination and preservation. Thanks to dedicated training sessions on the usage of UHD technologies and advanced network infrastructures provided by partner i2CAT and afterwards, through the realisation of a set of experiments and co-creation sessions, these activities will bring higher level of knowledge and open a wider range of possibilities to accomplish with the main goals defined by RICHES project and also enhance cooperation with external entities in order to enrich and better spread the results obtained.

Check out the workshop’s program here.

This workshop was organised within the framework of the European project SPECIFI that promotes the creation of a European Ring Creative Cities and Regions smart with the participation of European projects also Visionair, RICHES and eIeC. SPECIFI is funded under the CIP, Competitiveness and Innovation framework programme, which aims to promote the use of Future Internet infrastructures for the promotion of culture and creativity in the Smart Cities with the objective to capitalize the cultural and creative richness and diversity that emanates from European cities.

For further info:

Foundation i2CAT; Government of Catalonia; Theatre Institute of Barcelona; SPECIFI;

Visionair; eIeC

Use the hashtag #richesEU to join the RICHES community on Twitter

Subscribe to the RICHES Project YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/richesEU

computer games are more and more aknowledged as an artistic and creative medium

A famous painting inspires a videogame: nice initiative of Victoria&Albert Museum

Strawberry Thief is one of UK artist William Morris’s most popular repeating designs for textiles and it is housed at Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Award-winning designer Sophia George behind new iPad app – photo source independent.co.uk

The game designer Sophia George was invited by the V&A to select a design classic from its collection to create a videogame. In this free iPad game, the Strawberry Thief fabric becomes the backdrop for a challenge which enables the user to sketch and colour the famous pattern by flying a bird – the strawberry thief itself – across their iPad screen.

Computer games are more and more aknowledged as an artistic and creative medium that blend elements of many traditional practices – including pure art, animation, character design, architectural design, music and much more. During 6 months residency of Sophia at the Museum, she also did a lot of public engagement, inviting a variety of audiences to experience and participate in the creative process of game design.

“This project at the V&A has opened my eyes up to the possibilities of what games design can show. I am keen to look at more work by other famous British artists and designers and see what kinds of games can arise!” says Sophia in the V&A blog.

In the game, you have to use the Strawberry Thief bird to collect strawberries which enable you to paint. First you start with a blank piece of paper where you sketch the pattern. Once the pattern is drawn out, you can start to add some basic colours to the piece. Finally, richer colours and texture are added to finish the design. To control the bird’s movement, you simply draw lines on the touchscreen and the bird will follow your path.

The game is available for free download from the app store.

Read more about this story:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/artists-residence-va/the-strawberry-thief-ipad-game

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/vas-game-designer-in-residence-releases-game-based-on-william-morris-strawberry-thief-9814456.html

important dissemination action towards the NEM - New European Media community

E-Space at NEM Summit and General Assembly

The NEM Summit, organised every year since 2008 by the NEM Initiative in close cooperation with leading industrial and academic players worldwide, is the “not-to-be-missed” annual event for all those interested in Future Internet developments and in the fast paced evolution of the networked and electronic media industry.

The presentation of E-Space was during the “Expression of Interest” session during the NEM General Assembly. This session provides an opportunity to introduce to the entire NEM community relevant activities and collaboration opportunities. Prior registration is mandatory and a selection is made by the organisers.

The presentation given by partner IN2 introduced the Europeana Space project, giving some details on the Dance Pilot and stressing the various ways in which it is possible to collaborate with the best practice network. Finally an invitation to attend the first E-Space conference in Venice was made. Flyers about the conference were made available. The presentation followed the speech of James Morley from Europeana, complementing it nicely.

The event was attended by EC representatives (DG Connect), researchers, industry, broadcasters, SMEs and creative industry, SME cluster representatives, venture capital firms and business angels.

Presentation by Alex Stan (PDF, 2.6 Mb)

the best idea will receive a tailor made Incubation Support Package as a prize, helping to bring it successfully to the market.

Europeana Creative – Final Open Innovation Challenge Launched!

Europeana Creative is once again looking for creative developers, designers, start-ups and other entrepreneurs to re-use Europe’s digitised cultural heritage from Europeana in innovative and creative ways!

We are pleased to announce the launch of our final challenge encouraging YOU to design and create products & applications that re-use Europeana content in the theme of Design.

Our previous Challenges, on the themes of Natural History & History Education, Tourism & Social Networks, attracted applications from 16 different European countries demonstrating innovative ideas for cultural heritage re-use. If you wish to learn more about previous winning applications please visit our blog here and here.
As always, the best idea will receive a tailor made Incubation Support Package as a prize, helping to bring it successfully to the market! The prize consists of specialist support measures delivered by a team of experts providing business mentoring, technical support, assistance with identifying and accessing finance, facilitation of business partnerships, access to specialised testing environments, marketing and promotion support.

Apply by submitting your project on http://ecreativedesign2015.istart.org. The deadline for entries is January 15th, 2015. The best applications will be invited to pitch during our final Challenges Event in Manchester hosted during the arts & innovation event, Future Everything Festival, at the end of February 2015, where the winners will be selected.

Download the press release with full information on the Challenge (PDF, 421 Kb)

What should you create? We welcome a wide range of works for the Design Challenge, and appreciate contemporary and creative approaches to digital cultural heritage materials. For example, including but not limited to results of digital fabrication, media art, design objects, web/mobile applications and services.
Where to get content? Search for it on Europeana Labs. Use our APIs for your own developments! You can access the collections and incorporate them into things like apps, games, websites, even creating mash-ups using other APIs. The possibilities are endless. Want to work with these collections? The Europeana APIs allow you to access exactly what you want, delivering your own customised view of Europeana content.

Learn more about Europeana Creative: www.europeanacreative.eu

Policy, sustainability, partnership with EPOS and B2DROP

EUDAT News bullettin – October 2014

Anyone can sync and exchange research data with EUDAT’s latest service

B2DROP is a secure and trusted data-exchange service to keep your research data synchronized and up to date and to exchange with colleagues.

B2DROP offers you a simple and easy-to-use solution to store and exchange data with colleagues and team members, to synchronize multiple versions of data and to ensure automatic desktop synchronization of large files. Find out more and give B2DROP a go on the EUDAT website.

Sustainability – a word on everyone’s lips

Sustainability – having the resources and the policy framework to deliver services and support users into the future – is at the heart of EUDAT’s mission.

A plenary session on sustainability at EUDAT’s Third Conference, held in Amsterdam on 24 and 25 September 2014, brought together experts from across Europe to debate what sustainability should encompass and how it can be achieved. Read the full report on the EUDAT website.

Data access and reuse: all you need to know

Research data policy: are we winning? To help find answers, EUDAT is holding a workshop with its data access and reuse policy working group in Rome on 11 and 12 November 2014. This workshop will inform a report which will incorporate results from EUDAT’s survey on open data and contain insights into the path towards a common policy framework. Get a sneak preview of key topics on the EUDAT website.

Providing IT solutions to the solid Earth sciences community

EPOS and EUDAT join forces to provide researchers with basic e-science services.

This month, EUDAT speaks to Massimo Cocco, Director of Research at the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. Massimo is coordinating the preparatory phase of a European project named European Plate Observing System (EPOS). In this interview, Massimo tells us about EPOS and explains why its adoption of EUDAT’s solutions is important. You can read the full interview on the EUDAT website.

An action-packed autumn for EUDAT

EUDAT will be at key events in the areas of data infrastructure and supercomputing over the next few months. First, we’ll be speaking at the e-IRG Workshop in Rome on 10 and 11 November. Next, we’ll be at SC14 in New Orleans from 16-21 November – pop by the PRACE booth (no. 2215) and BSC booth (no. 3427) for EUDAT information and goodies. Finally, in December we’ll be taking part in the Research Data Alliance Global Data and Computing e-Infrastructure Challenges event, also in Rome.

On November 4th the virtual kick-off meeting will take place.

Results of the PREFORMA CfT published!

The results of the call for tender launched by PREFORMA in June 2014 are now available.

All tenders eligible and not subject to the exclusion criteria have been evaluated by a number of experts and a decision panel.

By a decision on the 28th of October 2014, Riksarkivet, on behalf of the PREFORMA Consortium, has decided to award contract to the following tenderers:

VeraPDFa Consortium (to work on PDF/A)
Preservica (to work on PDF/A)
Easy Innova (to work on TIFF/EP)
MediaArea (to work on MKV/FFV1/LPCM)
KU Leuven – Libis Library IT Services (to work on TIFF/EP)
Université Catholique de Louvain (to work on MKV/JPEG2000/LPCM)

The 6 tenderers will start working starting from November 2014 on the design and development of an open-source toolset for conformance checking of digital files intended for long-term preservation in memory institutions.

The PREFORMA project would like to express its thanks to all the organisations who participated in the Call for Tenders and would like to remind to all interested parties to join our community and to follow the progress of the project.

Florence (Italy), 11 November 2014

Sharing Local Cultural Heritage through Europeana – LoCloud workshop

11th November, 14.30, at Palazzo Coppini, via del Giglio 10, Florence, Italy.

The workshop, whose theme is “Sharing Local Culture through Europeana” will present LoCloud, its on-going activities and results achieved so far, including demonstrations of the services that the project is developing to help make collections held by local institutions more widely available. The workshop will start at 14.30 and will last the whole afternoon.

Objectives of the workshop:

To stimulate discussion and collaboration between curators, experts and stakeholdersin digital libraries, cultural heritage, tourism and local communities on new ways to make holdings more widely available.
To showcase the latest developments in supporting small and medium-sized cultural institutions in making their digitised collections available online via the Europeana portal through the LoCloud project.

Download the workshop flyer with agenda of the day (PDF, 908 Kb)

LoCloud project is developing a cloud-based infrastructure to be used by small and mediumsized local heritage institutions, to make their digital collections discoverable through Europeana (www.europeana.eu), the great Europeana digital library. Moreover, LoCloud will offer a series of services, including a geo-location tool, a collection management system, multilingual vocabularies for local history and archaeology, and historic placenames. These services will enrich the digital content, increasing its usefulness, and enhance the user’s experience.

Learn More about LoCloud: http://www.locloud.eu/

ICOMOS is a global non-government organisation dedicated to the promotion of the application of theory, methodology, and scientific techniques to the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage. This year the General Assembly will focus on ‘Heritage and Landscape as Human Values’ and it will last for the entire week, from 9 to 14 November 2014.