Digital meets Culture

understanding the change that the project brings to its community and how value is created for beneficiaries

EUreka3D impact assessment, supported with the Europeana Impact Playbook

all images in this post courtesy of Europeana.

In the committments of EUreka3D project, that is focused on supporting the digital transformation process in the cultural heritage sector, a major task is about reflecting on the impact and the increased knowledge that the project delivered to individuals, organisations and other stakeholder communities engaged with the project and involved in our capacity building programme.

The methodology established in EUreka3D makes use of the Europeana Impact Playbook, and in this light we’ve been very happy to attend a series of 4 Impact Assessment workshops run by Europeana in the Fall 2023. We followed The Change Pathway, equipping us with the necessary skills to collect, analyse, respond and share data from our project activities to the benefit of our stakeholders.

The Europeana Initiative started talking about impact over a decade ago, with a long-term goal to support the cultural heritage sector in understanding how their work creates value for their organization and in the world surrouding them. The Europeana Impact Playbook has been designed as a practical tool for impact-focused project design and impact assessment. It sets out an interactive approach that helps design for impact, plan an impact assessment, collect and analyse the data, draft impact narratives and evaluate the taken approaches.

It emphasises that thinking about, and measuring, impact, is not a one-off action, but a flexible and ongoing process that can benefit from in the long-term as you embed impact thinking in your processes and organisational culture.

In the course of Winter 2023 starting on 8th November, Europeana organizes a series of open Impact Cafés for any professional in the cultural sector to ask questions and to learn more about impact design and assessment.

EUreka3D project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.

Public presentation on 31 October 2023 at Palazzo dei Priori in Volterra

The UNCHARTED study on the Case of Volterra22

The UNCHARTED case study on Volterra22 will be presented in Volterra at Palazzo dei Priori on 30 October 2023 at 6 pm in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, the historical City Hall.

Volterra is the city selected as the main case study of the Axis 1 on Strategic Cultural Planning of the UNCHARTED project, as part of the Work Package 5 about experiential demonstrations.

After the field work conducted by Promoter, the UNCHARTED partner responsible of the study, with interviews and a public online questionnaire, the results of the research have been reported in a book that will be presented to citizens and stakeholders at the public event on the 30th of October. For the occasion the book will be distributed to all the participants.

The Mayor, the Councillor for Cultures and representatives of the UNCHARTED consortium will be present.

More more information are available on the project’s web page dedicated to the event.

The book with the full study about the Case of Volterra22 is available also online and downloadable from the UNCHARTED website in Italian and English versions.

Volterra22 Case study presented at the CaTCH Conference

The poster about the case study on Volterra22 has been presented in the framework of the CaTCH Conference, organised by the VAST project in Maribor, Slovenia on 23 October 2023.

VAST is the acronym of Values Across Space and Time. It is a project funded under Horizon 2020 that participates in the UNCHARTED Network.

The conference discussed the theme of capturing the intangible of cultural heritage.

The poster about the UNCHARTED case study on Volterra22 is available for download (PDF).

The presentation of the poster about the UNCHARTED case study on Volterra22 has been accompanied by the delivery of a video that is accessible on Youtube.

The full study about the Case of Volterra22 is available as a book that is downloadable from the UNCHARTED website in Italian and English versions.

Turin and online, 20 October 2023

Unlocking value from digital heritage collections: international perspectives

Unlocking value from digital heritage collections: international perspectives

20th October, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

University of Turin, Department of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis” – Campus Luigi Einaudi, Lungodora Siena 100, Sala Lauree Grande Rossa

Streaming on https://media.unito.it/

Registration for the event is recommended at the following link: https://survey.wikimedia.it/index.php/751416

Over the last decades, GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) have started to digitise the heritage they preserve, but technological, social and economic changes call for reflection on how to unlock the economic value of the digital cultural heritage collections.

The event aims to provide an up-to-date perspective on this topic, considering two divergent perspectives: free access and re-use versus exclusive and economic control of digital assets.

Insights will be brought by international expert speakers, who will provide up-to-date insights and will attempt to answer the following questions:

What are the costs and benefits of diverse policies governing access and reuse of digital collections?
Under what circumstances does it become financially feasible for GLAMs to adopt exclusive rights and licensing schemes to commercialize digital collections?
How does adopting Open Access models impact society and cultural institutions
How have national cultural policies been devised to enhance the value of GLAMs’ digital collections between openness and restrictions in the use of digital cultural heritage?
In what ways are innovations like NFTS, Virtual Reality, or applications of Artificial Intelligence reshaping the opportunities and challenges pertaining to the control, access, and reuse of digital heritage collections?

Speakers:

Trilce Navarrete (Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL)
Matthias Sahli (WIPO & University of Neuchatel, CH)
Simon Tanner (King’s College London, UK )

Chair: Enrico Eraldo Bertacchini (University of Turin, IT)

Online, Friday 27th October, 10th November, 1st December 2023

Transforming heritage: from 2D to 3D digitisation – webinar series

International Council on Archives and EUreka3D consortium organise a series of webinars on 3D digitisation and digital transformation of cultural heritage. The three sessions focus on the quality guidelines for cultural heritage digitisation, the use of 3D digitisation for cultural heritage reuse and research, and innovative initiatives in 3D and the CH sector.

This activity is intended for archivists and records management professionals, CHI professionals, 3D digitisation and digital infrastructure providers, digital humanities researchers, and students in all these fields.

The webinar series is included in the EUreka3D capacity building programme, which offers online and onsite training to CHIs for high-quality standards of digitisation, advanced metadata management and aggregation to Europeana.

Registration and info here

This event series, organized by EUreka3D project in collaboration with ICA, supports the TwinIt! campaign on fostering and promoting 3D digitisation to broaden access to culture, preserve irreplaceable cultural heritage and to spur innovation and creativity, fostering reuse and potential new services and applications in other sectors. The webinar series also contributes to the multidisciplinary capacity-building of heritage professionals in 3D digitisation, exchange of practices and pan-European collaboration and networking.

Full Programme

Webinar 1

Friday 27th October, h.14.30-15.30 CET
World day of audiovisual heritage

Being digital, being standard. Guidelines for digitisation of cultural heritage
14.30 Welcome and introduction – Antonella Fresa, Photoconsortium (PDF, 1 Mb)
14.40 Quality Management and quality digitisation in GLAMs – Ismo Malinen, Hannu Häkkinen, Museovirasto the Finnish Heritage Agency (PDF, 3 Mb)
15.10 Question and answers
15.30 Conclusion – David Iglésias Franch, CRDI/Ajuntament de Girona, PAAG (Photographic and Audiovisual Expert Group / ICA)

Recording available at: https://eureka3d.eu/transforming-heritage/

Webinar 2

Friday 10th November, h.15-16 CET
World Science Day for Peace and Development

Boosting 3D digitisation for research and reuse of cultural heritage collections
15.00 Welcome and introduction – Antonella Fresa, Photoconsortium (PDF, 1 Mb)
15.10 The VIGIE 2020/654 Study on digitisation of tangible heritage – Marinos Ioannides, Cyprus University of Technology
15.40 Question and answers
16.00 Conclusion – John Balean, Topfoto

Recording available at: https://eureka3d.eu/transforming-heritage/

Webinar 3

Friday 1st December, h.15-16 CET

3D Innovation and creativity in the cultural heritage sector
15.00 Welcome and introduction – Antonella Fresa, Photoconsortium
15.10 TwinIt! 3D for Europe’s culture – Valentine Charles, Europeana Foundation
15.40 Question and answers
16.00 Conclusion – Giulia Martini, Qatar National Library, PAAG (Photographic and Audiovisual Expert Group / ICA)

REGISTER HERE

EUreka3D project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.

Tokyo, from October 7th to November 12th 2023

Swaying Calmly, Gazing Quietly: the new TOKAS exhibition

TOKAS exhibition “Swaying Calmly, Gazing Quietly”

From October 7th to November 12th 2023, the exhibition Swaying Calmly, Gazing Quietly will commemorate the partnership between Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) and the Province of Quebec, with theme of cities and culture.

TOKAS is an arts center dedicated to the creation and promotion of contemporary artistic expression from Tokyo and supports a wide spectrum of artistic activities including crossover and experimental projects. Ever since it first opened in 2001, it has continued to collaborate with international artists, curators, arts centers, and cultural organizations to produce exhibitions and pioneer related programs.

TOKAS Project, which began in 2018, aims to shine a contemplative light on the arts, society, and various other themes from a multicultural perspective. In its sixth edition, this exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Quebec Government Office in Tokyo and the 5th anniversary of full-fledged exchange with the Province of Quebec, and it is centered on Quebec-based artists who have participated in TOKAS residency programs. The exhibition presents the works of four groups: Jean-Maxime Dufresne & Virginie Laganière, Jen Reimer & Max Stein, Michel Huneault, and Kokubun Yuko. Each of them explores the transformation of cities and the resulting adaptation of culture and environment.

The time the Quebec-based artists spent in Tokyo coincided with the runup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, a period of major changes for the city and Japanese society as a whole. Each of them explored different aspects of this shift – the psychological struggles of individuals adapting to urbanized working environments, scenes that usually go unnoticed and unperceived due to familiarity but become visible when viewed from a somewhat detached vantage point, other scenes of the construction of massive breakwaters that seemingly symbolize a departure from nature, the subtleties of people’s emotions – quietly observing and gathering material from which they developed their works. Over the past five to ten years, we have all faced events that drastically disrupted both individual mentalities and society as a whole. Particularly, the locked-down period beginning in 2020 when the world came to a standstill highlighted the ways in which culture and environment imprinted on the body can subtly fluctuate and manifest as a state of cognitive dissonance.

Today, as the reopened world goes about its business as if nothing had happened, these works created by capturing and intertwining space, time, sound, emotion, and landscape may offer fresh awareness of what has fundamentally changed and what remains unchanged.

Discover here TOKAS project and the artists!

The Environmental Sustainability Practice Task Force of Europeana's Climate Action Community is looking for professionals in the digital heritage to fill in a survey to evaluate the sustainability of the field

New survey by the Climate Action Community

Title: Twelve different species of bees swarming a flowery meadow. Coloured etching by J. Bishop after J. Stewart.
Creator: James Stewart

The Environmental Sustainability Practice Task Force of the Europeana Network Association Climate Action Community has just launched a survey to evaluate the sustainability of digital preservation practices in European cultural heritage institutions, with a view to finding ways to mitigate our sector’s environmental impact.

The Climate Action Community is looking for responses from digital professionals working in a cultural heritage institution, or part of a heritage institution IT team, or involved in any way in the digital preservation or management or provision of digital content.

The survey is accessible here, and it will be closing for responses by the 13th of October.

Alicante, 31 August 2023

INCULTUM Workshop at ERSA Congress: The role of participatory approaches in tourism and sustainable development

The proposal of the INCULTUM project was approved by the prestigious ERSA 2023 Congress that took place in Alicante from 28 October to 1 September 2023.

A Special Session of the Congress was organised by INCULTUM to explore and debate on the themes of cultural tourism and participatory approaches.

The Alicante-S69 Special Session, titled “The role of participatory approaches in tourism and sustainable development,” held on August 31, 2023, brought together experts from around the world to discuss innovative strategies in sustainable tourism.

Chaired by Kamila Borsekova from Matej Bel University, Slovakia, and Marina Toger from Uppsala University, Sweden, the session featured presentations from six different countries, offering insights into the intersection of participatory methods and sustainable tourism practices.

The INCULTUM Session offered a rich and diverse array of insights into the role of participatory approaches in sustainable tourism and development. Presenters from and beyond INCULTUM project members, demonstrated how participatory methods, data collection, and community engagement are essential for shaping the future of responsible and sustainable tourism.

The presentations featured in Alicante align closely with the goals of the INCULTUM project, emphasizing the significance of local community involvement and participatory approaches in managing marginal and peripheral places, cultural heritage, and resources. By showcasing successful case studies and innovative participatory models, the session provides inspiration and practical tools for empowering local communities and stakeholders to harness the untapped potential of their cultural heritage and resources.

Information sheet of the INCULTUM Special Session is available here for download.

Complementary to the presentations of the Special Session, the work of INCULTUM pilot in Portugal was also presented by Prof. Desidério Batista of the University of Algarve.

Presenters and Topics:

Marina Toger (Sweden): Developing Participatory Engagement in a Rural Destination

- In her presentation, Marina Toger emphasized the challenges of developing sustainable tourism while balancing the needs of inhabitants, tourists, and businesses. She highlighted findings from a project that leveraged digitalization to promote sustainable visitor experiences in rural and peri-urban areas. The presentation showcased a methodology that emphasized stakeholder engagement and knowledge co-creation for policy and strategy formulation.

Tiina Rinne (Finland): Intertwining User-Generated Geographical Data for Outdoor Recreation Planning

- Tiina Rinne’s presentation explored the changing landscape of outdoor recreation and the challenges faced by planners and managers in meeting visitor demands. She discussed the potential of geospatial big data, such as mobile phone data and social media data, in monitoring and managing outdoor recreational areas. Additionally, Dr. Rinne highlighted the significance of active sensing methods like digital participatory mapping in understanding visitor motivations and preferences.

Caudan Paul (France): Participatory Sciences to Measure Tourist Flows

- Paul’s presentation focused on the importance of objective and quantified data for visitor flow management, especially in small island territories. He shared insights from a project that involved islanders and visitors in creating digital counting solutions for tourism data collection. This participatory approach aimed to provide real-time, updated data for decision-making.

Kamila Borsekova (Slovakia): How Participation and Building a Hiking Community Shape Sustainable Tourism

- Borsekova’s presentation delved into the relationship between sustainable tourism and participation, with a specific focus on hiking communities. She analyzed the activities of “hikemates” and their impact on sustainable tourism. The presentation explored concepts such as community building, social capital, crowdfunding, and volunteering in the context of tourism sustainability.

Viktor Smith (Denmark): Naming and Framing a Marginal Tourism Destination

- Smith’s presentation examined the case of Campina de Faro in Portugal and the challenges of creating a place-brand image for a relatively unknown location. He discussed the importance of the name of a destination in shaping perceptions and attracting visitors. The presentation emphasized a participatory, bottom-up approach to brand development, involving local communities in the process.

Darius Liutikas (Lithuania): Post-COVID-19 Era: Possibilities for Sustainable Tourism

- Liutikas explored the transformative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism behavior and opportunities for responsible tourism. His presentation highlighted the adoption of new technologies and innovations in the tourism sector during the pandemic. Dr. Liutikas emphasized the importance of sustainability and community-based tourism development in the post-COVID era.

Some pictures of the presenters at the Special Session.

online, 5th October 2023

42nd Breakfast at Sustainability’s: Cultural Heritage as a driver of Circular Tourism

42nd Breakfast at Sustainability’s: Cultural Heritage as a driver of Circular Tourism

Thursday October 5th 2023 / From 10:00 to 12:00 CET, Online

What is ‘circular cultural tourism’ and how can it contribute to sustainable regional development in Europe?

The next edition of ICLEI’s flagship Breakfast at Sustainability’s series will take place on 5 October 2023 from 10:00-12:00 CEST, and will bring together representatives of EU institutions, cultural experts, regional officers, and tourism stakeholders to discuss the unexplored potential of cultural heritage as a driver of circular tourism.

Save the date and register here to secure your spot!

As Europe’s regions are recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism sector, and as global trends are transforming the travel industry, this is a timely moment to revisit how circular approaches to tourism, human-centered destinations, and heritage-led transformations can contribute to building a sustainable future for all.
Participants in this online event will acquire a better understanding of Tourism Transition Pathways in different contexts and will gain key insights on how local cultural assets can drive sustainable tourism strategies. This edition will be hosted online by ICLEI Europe in collaboration with ERRIN and CNR, in the context of the Be.CULTOUR project, a Horizon Europe project developing heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centered and circular economy.

Confirmed speakers:
● Kirsti Ala-Mutka, Policy Officer, DG GROW, European Commission
● Anne Grady, Seconded Cultural Heritage Expert, European Parliament
● Gianluca Saba, Head of International Relations Office, Comune di Genova,
representative of the UAEU Sustainable Tourism Partnership
● Antonia Gravagnuolo, Be.CULTOUR project coordinator, National Research Council of
Italy
● Maria Kapari, Co-Founder, Joy of Culture (Cyprus)
● Kirsi Sippola, Development Manager, HAMI, Visit Häme (Finland)

Moderator:
Stephania Xydia, Officer, Sustainability Culture & Cultural Transitions, ICLEI Europe

Keynote Listener:
Dr Małgorzata Ćwikła, Officer, Sustainability Culture & Cultural Transitions, ICLEI Europe

The event with the title: “Re-envisioning Cultural Heritage Documentation in the Metaverse Age” focused on the training of scholars, stakeholders and other professionals in the area of 2D/3D digital documentation of Tangible Cultural Heritage

EUreka3D at the Mnemosyne Summer School 2023

The Mnemosyne Project Summer-School 2023 was held in Limassol (Cyprus) at the Pefkos-Hotel from the 23rd until the 27th of October. The Deputy Minister of Culture, the Deputy Minister of Research & Innovation, the Mayor of Limassol were present at the Opening Ceremony.

The event with the title: “Re-envisioning Cultural Heritage Documentation in the Metaverse Age” focused on the training of scholars, stakeholders and other professionals in the area of 2D/3D digital documentation of Tangible Cultural Heritage. Drawing from a wide range of experts, stakeholders and policy-makers various innovation projects to identify, record, protect and manage heritage assets were selectively showcased to attendees, enabling the active engagement of communities – including women, youth and civil society.

As part of the training, a session about the EUreka3D action took place on 24th October, coordinated by the project leader Antonella Fresa (Photoconsortium) and Marinos Ioannides (Cyprus University of Technology), specifically focusing on emphasis on the use of Cloud Infrastructures and the process of aggregating and harvesting high quality 3D models for publication in Europeana.

Download EUreka3D presentation (PDF, 1.5 Mb)

In the context of the summer school, a hands-on session was also organized, to digitize one of the most important squares of Limassol: the so called Friendship Square, a place in the bicommunal area of Limassol, which is going to be fully restored and used as the 1st of its kind project for the rapprochement between GR and TR Cypriots. The Municipality of Limassol, the Bishopric and all other involved authorities gave the permission to digitise the entire square and create the 3D BIM models from the two most important monuments: The Saint Antonio Church as well as the two hundred meters away Ibrahim-Aga Mosque. It is expected that the models and associated metadata will be aggregatesd and harvested for publication in Europeana.