Digital meets Culture

Participatory fieldwork continues to restore and valorize rural areas in the Altiplano de Granada

INCULTUM Pilot: annual cleaning Barjas irrigation channel Cáñar (Granada)

text and images courtesy of Elena Correa Jiménez (University of Granada).

On May 6 we carried out the annual cleaning of the Barjas irrigation channel Cáñar (Granada). The activity was organised by the Biocultural Archaeology Laboratory (MEMOLab), coordinated by Professor Dr. José María Martín Civantos, from the Department of Medieval History and CCTTHH of the University of Granada.

This is a medieval irrigation ditch that, after 30 years of abandonment, was recovered in 2014, by MEMOLab Laboratory, in collaboration with the Irrigation Community of Cáñar/Barjas. Since then, we have collaborated in the annual cleaning of the ditch, to achieve irrigation in the summer period, ensuring water in the driest periods.
This activity has been carried out thanks to the work of 50 volunteers from different interests, who, using traditional techniques, cleaned the irrigation ditch of vegetation and soil accumulated throughout the year.

Learn more about INCULTUM Pilot 1 – Altiplano de Granada

The two competitions were launched simultaneously on 5 May 2023.

European Commission launches the European Capital and Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism 2024 competitions

On behalf of the European Commission, DG GROW, we are pleased to inform you about the launch of two competitions open to cities in the EU Member States, and non-EU countries participating in the current Single Market Programme: the European Capital and European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism 2024 competitions.

1. European Capital of Smart Tourism

The European Capital of Smart Tourism is an established EU initiative which recognises outstanding achievements by European cities as tourism destinations in four categories: sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation as well as cultural heritage and creativity. It aims to promote smart tourism in the EU, network and strengthen destinations, and facilitate the exchange of best practices. The European Commission is implementing the European Capital of Smart Tourism initiative since 2019. Currently it is financed under the SME Pillar of the Single Market Programme (SMP) and is a successor of the Preparatory Action proposed by the European Parliament. The competition is open to cities across both the EU, as well as the non-EU countries that take part in the Single Market programme, with a population of over 100,000.

2. European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism

The European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism is the successor of the European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) initiative and rewards the best achievements in sustainable tourism and green transition practices in smaller destinations. The competition is founded upon the principle of promoting the development of sustainable tourism in destinations which brings value to the economy, the planet and the people. The competition is open to destinations across both the EU, as well as the non-EU countries that take part in the Single Market programme (See list), with a population between 25,000 – 100,000.

3. Online workshops to guide cities/destinations interested in both competitions

At this occasion, we cordially invite cities to attend two online workshops guiding applicants through the process of writing a successful application for the European Capital and Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism 2024 competitions.

European Capital of Smart Tourism: Applicant workshop on 1 JuneThe online workshop will take place on 1 June 2023, at 14:00 – 15:00 CET.To attend the workshop please register here.
European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism: Applicant workshop on 5 JuneThe online workshop will take place on 5 June 2023, at 14:00 – 15:00 CET. To attend the workshop please register here.

Find here more information about “How to nail your application in 7 steps”, or listen to the dedicated EU Smart Tourism podcast episode.

To compete for the European Capital or Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism 2024 title, apply online by 5 July 2023, at 17:00 CET. We invite you to read more about the initiative and find out how to apply on: https://smarttourismcapital.eu/.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the initiative secretariat: info@smarttourismcapital.eu.

Athens, 29 May 2023

Citizen Science in Cultural Heritage: practices and digital technologies

Wedding dance, Litohoro, Olympus di Άγνωστος δημιουργός – 1979 – Greece – CC BY-NC-ND. https://www.europeana.eu/item/2064929/https___www_searchculture_gr_aggregator_edm_LEMMTH_000043_11533_1902

On Monday, May 29 2023, the National Technical University of Athens, partner of the CitizenHeritage project, organises the workshop entitled Citizen Science in Cultural Heritage: practices and digital technologies.

CitizenHeritage is a European project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU, which collaborates with the UNCHARTED project.

The workshop of 29th June is the 4th and final multiplier event organised by the CitizenHeritage project, which follows the previews workshops in Pisa, Rotterdam and Leuven. Thanks to the collaboration between the projects, UNCHARTED attended and participated in all these events with presentations, posters and distribution of leaflets.

This time, Antonella Fresa, Network & Communication Manager of the UNCHARTED project and Vice-President of Photoconsortium Association, will present the Data Space for Cultural Heritage, the initiative of European Commission aiming to accelerate the digital transformation of Europe’s cultural sector. Photoconsortium is partner of the CitizenHeritage project and of the Data Space for Cultural Heritage initiative.

The workshop is a hybrid event that will take place physically at the Library of the National Technical University of Athens and accessible online.

Agenda and registration are available here.

The workshop will take place online on 25 May from 13:00 to 14:30.

Europeana-Ki Culture Sustainability Workshop Series: Workshop II – Climate Action

Bauhinia variegata, Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, CC BY-SA

The Europeana Network Association’s Climate Action Community is holding a series of workshops in collaboration with Ki Culture and supported by Europeana Foundation on sustainability and sustainable digital cultural heritage management: these workshops will focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), climate action, and better digital information management practice.

“Workshop II – Climate Action” is the second of a three-session workshop series and it will focus on the climate crisis and specifically what the cultural sector can do about it: the workshop challenges participants to discuss topics that they may feel are controversial or difficult to discuss.

By providing moderated, small discussion spaces, participants are given space and time to explore their own thoughts and feelings regarding the climate crisis and the larger and smaller actions happening. Participants should leave feeling empowered and relieved – having a clearer takeaway on what the nuances are of these topics and a clearer idea of their thoughts on these issues.

Find all the related information and register to participate at this link.

The workshop takes place in Brussels on 31st May 2023, with 3 parallel tracks dedicated to different stakeholders

CitizenHeritage presented at Scivil workshop ‘Shared Challenges in Citizen Science’

There are many unique challenges involved in setting up citizen science. Scivil, a Flemish knowledge center for citizen science that promotes citizen science projects in Flanders and beyond, is organizing a workshop on 31/5/2023 with three parallel tracks to discuss these challenges and come up with possible solutions together.

CitizenHeritage joins forces with Scivil in this event, to provide insights about citizen participation in cultural heritage and its potential with citizen science.

The workshop includes a general presentation and three thematic sessions in parallel, focused on shared challenges in citizen science:

citizen science in museums, archives and libraries
citizen science and the role of local authorities
support citizen science in your organization

The workshop is an in-presence event, in Dutch language.

Speakers and presenters:
– Thomas Van Oppens (city of Leuven)
– Prof. Fred Truyen (Citizen Heritage Project)
– Luiza Mitrache (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences & Royal Museum for Central Africa)

More information and registration: https://www.scivil.be/event/workshop-gedeelde-uitdagingen-citizen-science

This training workshop, addressed to a variety of stakeholders, is focused on water heritage, agroecology and food sovereignship

FOOD LANDSCAPES, workshop organized by the INCULTUM Pilot in Portugal

The workshop “Food Landscapes” was organized by the University of Algarve, IN LOCO Association in the context of the INCULTUM Pilot dedicated to the hydraulic heritage of Campina de Faro.

26th May 2023 h. 9.30

Where: Loulé, Sala da Junta de Freguesia de São Sebastião

Registration: https://linktr.ee/incultum

The workshop was focused on water heritage, agroecology and food sovereignship, and was addressed to local producers, technicians from public institutions, tour guides and other small tourist agents, university and secondary school students, other local development agents and citizens with an interest in the subject.

[Show as slideshow]

The workshop had three distinct parts. The first part involved sharing good practices de agroecology and water heritage recovery, with the participation of different stakeholders (a private company producing and catering for local and seasonal products, an association for the defense of natural and cultural heritage and a cooperative for the development of low density territories). In the second part, there was the opportunity to taste food products from local vegetable gardens associated with the Mediterranean diet. In the third part, there was a training session corresponding to the creation of an interpretation path of the landscape and water heritage. This training session and innovation workshop was attended by 35 people from the local community and stakeholders.

With a site-specific installation, Cingolani comes back to China with a tribute to Matteo Ricci.

Italian artist Gianluca Cingolani presents Imago Sum at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing

Three and a half years after his solo exhibition Fragmenta at Beijing’s Today Museum in November 2019, Gianluca Cingolani returns to China from 19 to 25 May with the site-specific installation Imago sum at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing.

It is a tribute to the Art of memory narrated by what is still recognized in China as the cultural ambassador par excellence in relations with the Western world: Matteo Ricci. To this art Ricci in 1596 dedicates a small treatise written in Chinese and titled 西国记法 (Xiguo jifa).

Created by Collettivo G_B, Imago Sum leads us along the path of memory created from and through images: to osberve, imagine a space (a palace, a theatre, a colonnade), then insert what we whish to remember in that space. When we want to remember we come back with the mind to the palace, the theatre, we make an immaginary walk thorugh the colonnade. In the installation Imago sum, we meet Matteo Ricci, but also Plato, Cicero and Giordano Bruno, crossing the world from East to West.

The exhibition itinerary unfolds through six rolls of artificial silk and two videos, made with the artistic technique of digital compositing. The works talk to each other, in a dialogue held together by the great Masters of the art of memory.

“Imago sum – I am image – is an installation work dedicated to the power of memory, which is also a great creative power” – the artist says – “in order to remember, one should be able to imagine. The power of imagination: this is what Ricci narrates to the Chinese.”

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The hybrid event will take place June 9th in Athens, Greece.

NTUAthens upcoming event “The Role of Semantic Technologies in Common European Data Spaces”

The event “The Role of Semantic Technologies in Common European Data Spaces” promises an enriching program with presentations from esteemed experts representing SEMIC, Interoperable Europe Academy & Joinup, Data Space Support Center, DG CNECT, Data Space for Cultural Heritage, STIRData, University of Ghent, European Railway Association, and Cognizone.

To join the the event, registration is mandatory. Since the event is hybrid, it’s possible to also participate online.

More information about the program event can be found here.

Scope of the survey is to identify relevant, impactful and innovative projects in specific locations, in order select case studies of the IN SITU project

IN SITU survey on ‘Mapping of cultural and creative projects & selection of case studies’

IN SITU is a 48-month-long research project currently exploring how cultural and creative practices can help tackle place-based issues in six non-urban areas representing the six IN SITU Labs: Azores, Portugal; Western coastal region, Ireland; Western region, Iceland; Rauma and Eurajoki municipalities, Finland; Valmiera County, Latvia; Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia.

In this context, the project has just launched a survey on ‘Mapping of cultural and creative projects & selection of case studies’. Through this survey, we want to map projects proposing cultural and creative responses to key place-based issues in the six IN SITU lab locations and at the same time identify the two most relevant, impactful and innovative projects in each Lab location, in order to become the case studies of the IN SITU project. The case study providers will be subcontracted to provide two monitoring reports on the development of their project (value EUR 5000).

The survey can be answered by those meeting the following 3 requirements:

The cultural or creative practice of the respondent is legally registered in one of the IN SITU lab locations (see above); AND
The respondent is active in one or more cultural or creative fields; AND
The respondent runs or is involved in a project that is related to one or more of the most pressing local issues in his/her region.

Link to the survey: https://s.chkmkt.com/?e=304104&h=B85D75A518E255F. The introduction to the survey includes all the necessary information and also the link to a more comprehensive FAQ document.

More about IN SITU: https://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/in-situ-new-project/

The event was organised by the Banská Bystrica Development Agency in cooperation with the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, with the aim of building and supporting the innovation system of the region.

The INCULTUM Pilot Mining Treasures of Central Slovakia at the INNOVATION MEETUP

Article by Darina Rojíková, Matej Bel University

On Thursday 11 May 2023, the University Library of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica became the venue for the second INNOVATION MEETUP series of events. The event was organised by the Banská Bystrica Development Agency in cooperation with the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, with the aim of building and supporting the innovation system of the region.

More than 70 participants from business, academia, public administration, and startups gathered at the second INNOVATION MEETUP to engage in networking, community building, relationship development, and business-to-business and science-to-business networking in the field of innovation. The aim of the event was, among other things, to exchange experiences, knowledge, and opinions on various topics. The participants of the meetup could get to know interesting projects of existing or starting companies, but also experience scientific research gadgets in the form of virtual reality or the life of microorganisms used in pharmacy and medicine.

img. courtesy: Kamila Borseková

At the event, the coordinator of research at the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Kamila Borsekova, presented the innovative and participatory web platform “Mining treasures”, which is the result of work within the international research project INCULTUM. The mining treasures represent a participatory platform and a digital map of the mining treasures in central Slovakia. The purpose of the platform is to introduce and familiarise people with “treasures”, in the form of historical and cultural heritage, left by our ancestors in connection with mining activities in Central Slovakia. The role of the platform is not only to promote and spread interest in visiting lesser-known mining monuments and mining heritage sites, but also to educate children, young people and the general public in this area of history interactively. Few people know that Jakob Fugger, one of the founders of the Thurzo-Fugger company, was the richest man in history, or that the Thurzo-Fuger company introduced a system of double-entry accountancy.

img courtesy: Kamila Borseková

As Kamila Borseková stated at the event: “Although we and our children have learnt about dinosaurs, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, we pay very little attention to our own history, and that is one of the things we decided to change with the Mining Treasures of Central Slovakia project. Thanks to the Mining Treasures project, we discovered immense potential connected with the cultural and historical heritage that this region has, as well as a number of great people who are active, passionate and devoted to protection and further usage of cultural heritage in the region. We also see great potential in starting new business activities, in creating new and innovative products and services. The role of our university can be seen in creating connection between people and activities with the aim to empower this potential for the development of our region.”

Discover more about the Pilot: https://incultum.eu/pilots/3-mining-treasures-of-central-slovakia/