Digital meets Culture

the virtual kick-off was hosted on 5-6 November 2020 by the project coordinator KU Leuven, with participation of all the partners

CitizenHeritage, a new project about citizen participation in education and research

CitizenHeritage – Citizen Science Practices in Cultural Heritage: towards a Sustainable Model in Higher Education

A new project co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, to empower Citizen Science and participation in cultural heritage as a booster for higher education.

CitizenHeritage will provide Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with new insights and opportunities to include Citizen Science activities for social purposes into HEIs curricula, teaching and learning activities. It will offer them a selection of good practices on how to benefit from the knowledge circulation in and outside academia and how to adopt a more vibrant role in civil society. The digital realm, with the digitisation of vast collections published in open access, and the growing availability of tools for online engagement and interaction, opens up incredible new possibilities to further stimulate knowledge creation and circulation in cooperation with citizens.

The project includes three universities (KU Leuven, National Technical University of Athens and Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam), two Europeana domain aggregators (Photoconsortium and European Fashion Heritage Association) and one specialized SME (Web2Learn). All partners met virtually on 5-6 November to align the plans for the various project’s activities.

image courtesy of Cyprus University of Technology

The project’s innovative contributions are:
1. its ‘making citizens part of the workflow’ approach.
A general reappraisal of citizen generated content is taking place in the cultural sector today. CHIs are constantly looking for new ways to involve citizens in their activities.
2. the close collaboration it establishes with the Cultural Heritage sector
Via the active participation of Photoconsortium and European Fashion Heritage Association, the project will engage with stakeholders and professionals in the digital cultural heritage domain, establing collaboration for knowledge sharing and co-curation between academics and stakeholders.
3. its focus on technological innovation
The project aims to test how the latest technological innovations to manage digital cultural heritage can support and enhance Citizen Science participation, both from a pedagogical and heritage perspective.
4. its analysis of the conditions favouring sustainability
CitizenHeritage will explore the degree to which Citizen Science can be an element to stimulate sustainability by promoting social ownership of cultural heritage knowledge. To do so, this project proposes the conceptualization of cultural heritage activities engagement as a cultural common in which value is created by social engagement between HEIs, CHIs and citizens at large. Based on variables of governance, financing and social engagement, the project will then examine the conditions under which CS makes both socially and economically sustainable contributions.

Website: www.citizenheritage.eu

Rock Open knowledge Week and EuroMed2020 Conference

Urban regeneration and digital heritage: two valuable experiences for the REACH project

A very intense period for the REACH project the one between the end of October and the beginning of November: 2 on line events provided the occasion to present the results of the REACH project activities and to increase its network.

From 27^th to 30^th October the REACH project was invited to held a booth to the virtual exhibition organized in the framework of the ROCK Opening Knowledge Week an on line initiative dedicated to explore the challenges of the urban heritage: the success of this event can be resumed through the following data:

15 Hours live broadcasting over 4 days
57 Speakers
34 Exhibitors
794 Registrations
458 Active participants
11342 Total pages opened
01:00 – 02:49 Hours average time spend on platform / day
106 Random speed dates
171 One-on-one conversations

During the 4 days event, REACH had the opportunity to confront and exchange information and experiences with other exhibitors and invited them to join its network participating to the REACH digital gallery and following the discussion about the sustainability of the Social Platform.

The organizers have published a very attractive graphic recorded presenting an overview of the all week that is available on the ROCK website.

Yesterday, 5 November, was the last day of the 8th International Euro-Mediterranean Conference (EuroMed 2020). The event started the 2rd November and offered a rich programme of workshops and presentations for exchange know-how and experiences in the Cultural Heritage field with specific attention to the use of digitization and 3d technology. The conference was followed by more than one thousand of attendees and in the next days the results of this wide participation will be available on the conference website.

REACH presented its contribution related to the preservation and protection of intangible and tangible heritage through participatory actions, with special regards to the outcomes of its pilots activities.

The EuroMed2020 Proceeding will be published by Springer Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series (www.springer.com/lncs).
The presentation and the full project paper are now available on the REACH website.

Download the Euromed REACH project paper here.
Download the Euromed 2020 booklet here

This afternoon, Thursday 5th November, stay connected and join the REACH project at the Euromed 2020 on line Conference

In the framework of the storytelling session of Euromed 2020 conference, the social platform of the REACH project will leave its contribution presenting a short speech titled “The Reach Project Contribution to Protecting, Preserving and Valuing Tangible and Intangible Heritage through Participation”
So far, the online high level event has gathered more than 150 followers and more than 1000 registration coming from 70 different Countries.
The 8th biannual European-Mediterranean (EUROMED) conference is co-organised by the UNESCO and the EU ERA Chairs on Digital Cultural Heritage. It brings together multidisciplinary researchers, policy makers, professionals, fellows, practitioners and stakeholders to explore some of the more pressing issues concerning Cultural Heritage today. In particular, the main goal of the conference is to focus on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research on tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, using cutting edge technologies for the protection, restoration, preservation, massive digitisation, documentation and presentation of the Cultural Heritage contents. At the same time, the event is intended to cover topics of research ready for exploitation, demonstrating the acceptability of new sustainable approaches and new technologies by the user community, owners, managers and conservators of our cultural patrimony.

Registration is free of charges and directly accessible by this link
Project’s paper agenda here
Euromed2020 conference webpage

online event 23-24 November 2020

Collect & Connect: Archives and Collections in a Digital Age

Collect & Connect aims to promote exchange and discussion between researchers and heritage professionals in the field of digital heritage. The conference officially concludes the Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives research project and presents the results of finished and original research in the field of digitized archives and cultural and natural heritage collections. The 2-day program offers a mix of keynotes, a round table discussion, project demonstrations and paper presentations.

Keynotes:

Sharon Leon, Associate Professor of History and Digital Humanities at Michigan State University on ‘From Event to Data Set: Perspective, Structure, and the Problem of Representation in Data-Driven Digital History‘
Franco Niccolucci, director of VAST-LAB research laboratory at PIN in Prato, Italy (PIN – University of Florence) on ‘The data challenge for cultural and natural heritage‘
Lambert Schomaker, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Groningen and scientific director of the ALICE (Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive Engineering) research institute on ‘From pixels to knowledge using AI: Where do the humans fit in?‘

Click here for the full program, including all paper presentations, the Round table and the Demolab presentations.

Connect with the other participants
One of the main aims of an in-person event is to connect with other participants. This can be a driver for new collaborations with different stakeholders in the field. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on that experience! NetworkTables enables you to connect with conference participants, exchange contact details and remain in touch with them after the conference. So please fill in your NetworkTables profile when you register for the event! You’ll find instructions on the registration page. NetworkTables is an online service which does not require you to install software on your computer.

Useful links and hashtags

International conference website Collect & Connect: Archives and Collections in a Digital Age. 23 – 24 November 2020, The Netherlands.

About the Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives project, its goals and its research partners.

#COLCO2020

#shareyourknowlegde

#collectandconnect

NEMO publishes Covid-19 follow-up survey

How do museums deal with the problems that emerged during the pandemic?

Six months ago, NEMO (the Network of European Museum Organisations) published a study on the impact of Covid-19 on the European museum sector.

In recent weeks we are experiencing a second wave of museum closures across Europe and NEMO started to update the map of re-openings with dates and information concerning second closures.
bit.ly/NEMOmap.

After this first study on the impact of Covid-19 on the European museum sector, NEMO has published a follow-up survey to map the status quo and check in with the museums on how they deal with the issues that emerged during the pandemic.

The second Covid study of NEMO will present an in-depth evaluation of:

Income losses, its consequences and mitigation.
Development of digital museum offers.
Questions related to a “new normal”, including the re-assessment of museum priorities and success criteria.
Staff and visitor safety during the pandemic.

Participation in this survey will help identify the policies and measures to be proposed at European level.

The link to the survey is here and responses are accepted until Friday 20 November 2020.

The Rock project presents the final report on CH and RIS3

Linking Cultural Heritage to Smart Specialisation Strategies

Today, place-based mainstream innovation policies in the EU are by large the so-called Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3 or S3 in acronym), which are promoted as an ex-ante conditionality for member states to get access to the European Structural and Investment Funds via Operational Programmes. Those strategies should be seen as a fast track to connect heritage to innovation policies more massively, as well as an excellent way to expand funding opportunities.This report provides a pathway to those interested in connecting the cultural heritage field with the smart specialisation strategies, in particular: i) RIS3/S3 regional leading authorities wanting to focus on cultural heritage at different levels and dimensions; ii) heritage managers wanting to frame cultural heritage within the innovation policy, notably the strategies for smart specialisation; iii) city officers wanting to unlock the potential of heritage as a driver for innovation-led local development.
It is the final output of the ROCK project task named “Linking Cultural Heritage-led Urban Regeneration to Smart Specialization Strategies”. Main goal of this task was to give a transnational response to the need for better connecting heritage-applied technologies and innovative activities to the existing smart specialisation strategies.
The ROCK project has been focused on historic districts as testbeds to demonstrate the full potential of cultural heritage as a driver for regeneration, sustainable development and economic growth. Based on a role model approach, ROCK´s final goal has been refining a European pattern on heritage-led urban development and regeneration.
Download the full document here

online capacity building workshop, recording available

Digital Transformation for User Engagement in Cultural Heritage

This unique webinar organized by Photoconsortium in collaboration with Europeana and the Cyprus University of Technology was proposed in the contex of the EUROMED 2020 webconference. A capacity building workshop dedicated to Cultural Heritage Institutions looking at new opportunities offered by Digital Heritage collections and technological tools for getting closer to their existing network and for engaging with new audiences.

Digital Transformation for User Engagement in Cultural Heritage

Download the presentation from the event: PDF, 10 Mb

Following the pace of the digital transformation is a must that all CHIs are currently experiencing, requiring big efforts in digitization, online presence and social media actions, all with the objective to increase visibility and to become more deeply rooted in the heritage community. This is enabled and backended with services and systems for digital collections management, aggregation to online repositories, and tools for metadata enrichment and annotation.

During the covid 19-crisis, when they were forced to close their premises, museums and libraries became fully aware of the importance of leveraging their digital cultural collections as a form of compensation for the unavailability of the physical spaces. As the digital environment very much is a global one, CHIs are now engaging with users from all over the world, thus meeting new audiences with no geographic boundaries. Yet this expansion, both in terms of audience and digital features adding to the physical experience, remains complementary to the place and role of memory institutions as representatives of their local community and its history.

In the post-covid scenario, therefore, it will be more important than ever to reconnect with local communities, by compelling user engagement actions via user-driven storytelling, co-creation, crowdsourcing and citizen participation.

In this multidisciplinary webinar, success stories and best practices from international projects were presented as case studies, offering different perspectives on what is possible to achieve by leveraging digital collections, technology and tools.

Case studies presented and discussed in the event:

Fifties in Europe Kaleidoscope, user engagement with photographic heritage
WeAre#EuropeForCulture, co-creation events and citizen participation: stories from Nicosia
Europeana: a community empowering the cultural heritage sector in its digital transformation
PAGODE – Europeana China and Europeana XX: Century of Change: diversity, multiculturalism, identity and storytelling

Speakers:

Dr. Antonella Fresa, Promoter / Photoconsortium
Prof. Fred Truyen, KU Leuven / Photoconsortium
Prof. Marinos Ioannides, Cyprus University of Technology
Ariadna Matas, Europeana Foundation
Sofie Taes, KU Leuven / Photoconsortium

Join our virtual booth!

REACH Project at the #OpenKnowledgeWeek on line exhibition

From 27 to 30 October 2020, REACH will participate to the virtual exhibition organized in the framework of the Rock Open Knowledge Week, a four days on line event for city officers, policy-makers, urban researchers, cultural actors and civic changemakers. The event will be joined by more than 50 keynote speakers, hundreds of participants and offers an extensive programme of 20 sessions including talks, live sessions, thematic online seminars and the virtual exhibition to discover the technological solutions developed by ROCK partners and learn about other relevant EU-funded projects focusing on cultural heritage.
To join the exhibition you shall register to the event and then you will be free to visit the booths of the ROCK sister’s projects, to make questions to the exhibitors, to plan a B2B meeting, to participate to debates and exchange your knowledge and experience.
REACH will be waiting for you!!!
Register here https://rockproject.eu/ROCK-open-knowledge-week
Follow the event on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin
Download the Press release of the event

Save the date: 16-19 November 2020

NEMO’s European Museum Conference 2020:Museums Making Sense

The Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) invites you to discuss how museums can help visitors make sense of complicated matters – be it climate change or migration processes or economic relations. Through storytelling methods, museums can help us understand complex interrelations. Museums can work as innovative labs to test different complex scenarios, giving the opportunity to find answers for questions like:

How do we want to live?
How could the future look like?

Register to experience the online version of the NEMO European Museum Conference 2020 – Museums making sense. The conference is free of charge.
Spread out over four days, we invite you to take part in morning and afternoon sessions. In the registration form below, please tick the boxes for all of the sessions that you want to join. We will provide you with the individual links to join the sessions shortly before they take place. The links will be sent to the email address that you enter below. In most cases will you be able to join/ leave a session later/ earlier if you have to.
Full programme is available at: https://www.ne-mo.org/about-us/european-museum-conference-2020/programme.html
Contact: office@ne-mo.org
Conference webpage: https://www.ne-mo.org/about-us/european-museum-conference-2020.html

Coventry creates is now live!

18 Pieces Of Research, 18 Creative Responses

A digital exhibition of artworks created during lockdown and inspired by university research. 18 artistic responses to research dealing with several and multifaceted themes: Coventry poetry, Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matters movement, Coventry and refugees, its twinning history, women’s suffrage, homelessness and interactive games.
Coventry Creates is part of the ongoing work by Coventry and Warwick universities in the lead up to the City of Culture. The University Partnership has funded over 30 creative research projects, involving over 50 Coventry organisations and local communities.
During the March-May 2020 Covid-19 UK lockdown the two Universities selected 18 local artists to receive a grant that allowed them to continue their work during the pandemic. Coventry Creates received over 100 applications by researchers from the social sciences, arts, science and medicine from across both the city’s universities.
The project, Coventry Creates, provided up to £2,000 funding to the chosen projects so that they could keep producing artwork for this collaborative digital exhibition, in the run up to UK City of Culture 2021.
The exhibition will be hosted until December 2022 and all art works will also be kept in the Coventry City of Culture Digital Archive. The collaboration between The University of Warwick and Coventry University follows a new Memorandum of Understanding that provides them with new opportunities to work together to the benefits of arts and culture throughout the region.
Organisers invites to visit the online exhibition and participate to a survey that is available on the Coventry creates webpage.
Download the Coventry Creates flyer
Coventry Creates webpage
More blog about Coventry Creates