Digital meets Culture

We care about your opinion!

UNCHARTED launches a survey to learn about visitors’ experience on its website

Two years after the UNCHARTED project started, the Consortium decided to launch a survey to measure the website’s popularity.

The survey is part of the dissemination planning process and aims to receive feedback to learn about the visitor experience on our website.

Who are the most frequent visitors? can they find what they are looking for? what would they like to find and what is missing, on the UNCHARTED website?

The answers collected will be useful to the project to improve its website and make it richer and more usable by all visitors who, with this questionnaire, have the opportunity to also leave qualitative feedback, through comments and suggestions, which can improve the experience on the site.

We care what you think and would like you to give us your opinion, so, what are you waiting for?

Click here to answer the questionnaire! It takes about 5 minutes.

A workshop will be held on March 17 to present the document. Comments will be collected until March 25, 2022

ARCH’s CEN Workshop Agreement for Resilience Management: open for Comments

ARCH project, together with several other organisations, has developed a draft CEN Workshop Agreement, CWA 17727 on a “Disaster Risk Management / Climate Change Adaptation Framework for historic areas”.

The draft , to which more than 40 stakeholders contributed, defines an integrated approach that combines disaster risk management and climate change adaptation activities for historic areas in communities.

The CEN Workshop Agreement is based on the ARCH Disaster Risk Management Framework for historic areas that takes climate change adaptation, heritage management, and social justice into account.

It includes step-by-step process to manage disasters, and to perform and monitor resilience-building activities and also guides readers in characterising historic areas, as well as their exposure to natural and climate change-induced hazards.

A wide variety of actors are asked to submit their comments: community/historic area decision makers, technical staff, all those who work on risk and vulnerability assessment, climate change adaptation and resilience enhancement as well as heritage managers, public administrators, sustainability and resilience officers, civil society associations, academic and research institutions.

The CEN Workshop Agreement is open for comments until 25 March and, in order to provide more information and deepen the arguments of the draft, a webinar will be held on March 17 to give a quick introduction to the document and gather feedback from interested stakeholders.

More information are available at here.

the collaboration with professors and students aims at actions to rehabilitate the old Quinta da Penha (Faro) and its hydraulic heritage

INCULTUM pilot in Portugal involves students of the University of Seville in fieldwork

text and images courtesy of University of Algarve.

The Portuguese pilot of INCULTUM over the Campina de Faro (Algarve), launched a challenge to professors and students of Architecture at the University of Seville.

As part of the Taller de Arquitectura Iberia Sur (TAIS), by Tierras del Algarve, Occidentes, coordinated by Professor Juan Vásquez Avellaneda, 40 students from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (ETSA) guided by six professors are developing projects to rehabilitate the old Quinta da Penha (Faro), from the 18th century, and its hydraulic heritage. TAIS proposes to work on the southern Portuguese region for the knowledge of shared experiences and situations: urban, housing, landscape, and heritage, with the aim of establishing cooperative and sustainable intervention strategies.

This aim is part of the intention of our pilot which, based on the study, inventory, and recovery of the traditional irrigation system (in disuse and degradation process), intends to give it visibility, making it protagonist in the proposal of cultural routes to be developed within the scope of the cultural tourism, and managed by the farmers and local communities.

[Show as slideshow]

In this sense, a study visit, and fieldwork was carried out, on November 18, 2021, with the objective of recognizing and analyzing the heritage values, but also the existing problems, with a view to developing proposals for the recovery of the buildings, adjacent outdoor spaces, and hydraulic structures (waterwheels, tanks, canals), whose program is part of the objectives of our pilot and INCULTUM.

In addition, on 13th May, a Congress entitled Del Algarve. Paisajes Ciudades Arquitecturas Palabras will be held at the University of Seville with the participation of the Portuguese pilot’s team that will present our study-case about the Campina de Faro, and where the rehabilitation projects of the historic Quinta da Penha and the landscape and water heritage, will be presented by Spanish students and professors.

Learn more about INCULTUM Pilot 2 Campina de Faro

15 - 16 March 2022, Paris

Symposium: ‘Heritage for the Future, Science for Heritage: A European Adventure for Research and Innovation’

Under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the symposium ‘Heritage for the Future, Science for Heritage: A European Adventure for Research and Innovation’ will be held next 15 – 16 March 2022 organized by the Foundation for Heritage Science with the support of the European Commission and in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the universities of Paris-Saclay and Cergy Paris.

The symposium will focus on heritage science, that contributes to the identification, understanding, conservation and transmission of cultural heritage and that brings together humanities, social, experimental, digital and engineering sciences.

Four main topics will be covered :

A reflexive heritage for a resilient society: the role of cultural heritage for the society and its interpretation and valorization.
Sustainable management of cultural heritage: the tools, methods and technologies that foster knowledge and transmission to the future generations.
Cultural heritage in a changing context: the challenges posed by the rapidly demographic, social, environmental, economic, political and cultural changing context.
Cultural heritage climate and environment change: the impact and the adaptation of heritage to climate change and its capacity to be a resource for a more sustainable society.

The event will be held in Paris, at the Louvre and the National Library of France (François Mitterrand) and it is still possible to participate remotely.

More information…

Programme of the event

Conclusions of the High-Level Workshop on ‘Research and Innovation for the New European Bauhaus’

The ‘Horizon Europe – New European Bauhaus Nexus Report’

The New European Bauhaus is an ambitious European initiative whose core values are Sustainability, Inclusion and Beauty.

The project, which also includes the cultural sector and will combine innovation and heritage, aims to make society more sustainable, aesthetic and inclusive.

The ‘Horizon Europe-New European Bauhaus Nexus Report’ (2022) is an independent expert report which names a number of challenges to address (which will require input and innovation from multiple sectors) and provides a set of guiding principles that can shape the goals of the New European Bauhaus initiative.

The recommendations include:

Opportunities for the current funding period 2021-22 and potential short-term actions
Mid-term goals for the 2023-24 period
Long-term actions beyond 2024 that reflect the transdisciplinary and trans-sectoral vision of the New European Bauhaus

The report also provides set of strategic priorities and associated benchmarks that describe a possible path forward for European society and its response to the climate emergency.

Read the report:

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Schellnhuber, H., Widera, B., Kutnar, A., et al., Horizon Europe and new European Bauhaus NEXUS report : conclusions of the High-Level Workshop on ‘Research and Innovation for the New European Bauhaus’, jointly organised by DG Research and Innovation and the Joint Research Centre, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/49925

RURITAGE is a another EU-funded research project which strives to enable rural regeneration through heritage

RURITAGE and INCULTUM establish collaboration

INCULTUM and RURITAGE projects have in common a keen focus on empowering marginal and rural areas in the promotion of their cultural and natural heritage, which not only needs to be safeguarded but also leveraged for communities-driven sustainable development. The INCULTUM project will build on RURITAGE outcomes and policy development to support strategies for participatory approaches, with the aim to unlock new opportunities of growth in peripheral areas.

RURITAGE is a four-year-long EU-funded research project, initiated June 2018, which strives to enable rural regeneration through heritage. The project aims to sustainably enhance local heritage for regional and community development. The intention is to regenerate rural areas with the help of the Systemic Innovation Areas (SIA) framework which identifies unique heritage potential within rural communities. The recognised SIAs are Pilgrimage, Resilience, Sustainable Local Food Production, Integrated Landscape Management, Migration and Art and Festivals.

Read more on RURITAGE website: https://www.ruritage.eu/

Students and other participants were involved in hands-on activities to plant typical trees and to recover part of the productive and landscape space

Recovering abandoned spaces in the rural area near Granada

Before and after the recovery activity of the area

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

Following the work for recovering the area that was initiated on Pilot site in January, the students of the Rural Public School “SENED” of Jérez del Marquesado were involved in a day activity of planting rowan, walnut and chestnut trees. Continuing with the recovery of the Barranco del Alcázar in Jérez del Marquesado, after the reconstruction of the dry stone walls of the cultivation terraces, students planted typical trees of the area, to recover part of the productive and landscape space of this area.

The activity consisted of planting trees typical of the area. Mainly chestnut trees, but also some walnut, mulberry, rowan and other traditional fruit trees. The pupils of the Jérez del Marquesado school took part in this activity, with the children of the village being the protagonists. In groups, the students planted the trees and then watered them, thanks to the Alcázar irrigation channel, which was also recovered during the Balates School.

It has been a way of trying to create a link between the ravine and the younger inhabitants of the village who have not seen or known the chestnut grove or the cultivation area in all its splendour.

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.

Learn more about INCULTUM Pilot 1 – Altiplano de Granada

Coming together: Culture, Heritage and Smart Specialization for innovation with rural heritage and communities

RURITAGE shares recommendations for an integrated territorial development approach

Policy Recommendations for the Integration of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CNH) within Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3/4) is the last publication from RURITAGE project.

The document provides practical strategies to bridge the gap by bringing culture together with areas like smart specialisation, innovation, experimentation, entrepreneurship, business development and sustainable development. In other words, it outlines a broader perspective of what innovation and regeneration can mean for communities – especially rural ones.

The document details ways for cultural heritage and smart specialisation experts to work in an interdisciplinary way, breaking down barriers between sectors that might otherwise be seen as unrelated. Some of the key recommendations include to:

Interact across sectors and areas of expertise.
Embrace a broader view on innovation and try to look at CNH from new perspectives.
Bring cultural and natural heritage into research and innovation.
Think beyond tourism to diversify the rural economy.
Consider the complexity of heritage in an integrated way, including cultural, natural and digital components as well as tangible and intangible aspects.
Include the Culture and Creative Industries, which are an excellent way to bring cultural and natural heritage features to life.

The document is available for direct download at this link: https://www.ruritage.eu/wp-content/uploads/fv-contest/c1/Ruritage-Policy-Recommendations-www-pages.pdf?_t=1641901585

Read more in an article about the publication on RURITAGE website: https://www.ruritage.eu/news-events/coming-together-culture-heritage-and-smart-specialisation/

ICOM General Conference, Prague 20-28 August 2022

The Power of Museums

The International Council of Museums ICOM has recently opened registrations to join the 26th ICOM General Conference which will take place in Prague from 20 to 28 August 2022.

Every three years, the ICOM General Conference gathers the international museum community around a topic of crucial interest to promote cultural exchange, international cooperation, and to inspire local actions in order to allow museums to continue their mission to support the society.

“The Power of Museums” is the theme of the ICOM General Conference Prague 2022, and four are the main subtopics:

Museums and the Civil Society
Museums and resilience
Museum and leadership
Museums and new technologies

For the first time the Conference will be organized in hybrid mode: keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, round tables and other activities of the main scientific programme can be followed online by participants from all over the world as well as at the Congress Center in Prague.
The Call for Papers to become part of the official scientific programme of the Conference is open until March 31.

Further and more detailed information on the event and on how to participate are available at https://prague2022.icom.museum/

How Artificial Intelligence can benefit the Cultural Heritage sector?

Watch the new video of the Saint George on a Bike project

Cultural heritage professionals aim to improve the way we understand paintings by generating descriptions of them. However, since millions of cultural objects have been created throughout history, completing such a task seems impossible, but only for humans.

The goal of the Saint George on a Bike (SGoaB) project is to provide high-performance metadata enrichment capability by using High Performance Computing (HPC) resources in the cultural heritage domain. The project trains natural language processing and deep learning algorithms in culture, symbols, and historical context to automatically generate rich metadata for hundreds of thousands of images from various European cultural heritage repositories. Within the project, researchers and engineers are creating rich descriptions for paintings to train AI models, so these can in turn analyse many more thousands of paintings automatically.

In this regard the project has launched an engaging and inspiring video that aims to show how AI can help the cultural heritage sector and its potential to soon recognize the context of artwork and generate accurate annotations automatically. The audience of this video are professionals working in the GLAM sector and also the general public.

Among other advantages of applying AI in the cultural heritage sector the video highlights the improved experience visually impaired people could have with better descriptions; the possibility to study hidden relations between thousands of items simultaneously and the opportunity to curate virtual exhibitions with related paintings from around the globe.

Saint George on a Bike: Training AI to be aware of cultural heritage contexts

Automatic image captioning is a process that allows already trained models running on commodity computers to generate textual descriptions from an image. It is a burgeoning reality in a handful of other areas such as classifying image contents on social media. However, to date, no AI system has been built and trained to help in the description of cultural heritage images, while factoring in the time-period and scene composition rules for sacred iconography from the 14th to the 18th centuries.

As part of the Saint George on a Bike project, researchers at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Europeana Foundation build and train AI systems to help cultural heritage institutions describe and classify their art pieces automatically. In the end both casual users and cultural heritage professionals will benefit from a better access to collections and also a better experience navigating through collection catalogs. They will owe this to richer artwork annotations, leading to improved image scene indexation and search capabilities, obtained with the help of a specialized AI system.

“Our project will allow quick access to enriched cultural information, which can serve equally well for cultural and social ends, education, tourism, and possibly for historians or anthropologists. Indirectly the citizens can benefit from better public services, when these are based on the insight that the richer metadata we produce offers – such as web accessibility for the visually impaired or narratives that can expose social injustice or integration and gender issues through cultural heritage corpora and help create a more tolerant European identity”, says Maria-Cristina Marinescu, coordinator of the Saint George on a Bike project.

To learn more about the Saint George on a Bike project, visit https://saintgeorgeonabike.eu/.