by Rosemary Cisneros, Coventry University

Europeana Space and RICHES projects were presented at the Tenth International Conference on the Arts in Society which took place at Imperial College London from the 22^nd– 24th of July. Each year, the International Conference on the Arts in Society draws a diverse group of participants from all over the world to craft a rich and distinctive conference experience, including plenary speakers, paper presentations, workshops sessions, exhibits, and social events.The conference program groups together presentations along similar themes to facilitate knowledge sharing and community building.

Europeana Space Dance Pilot and RICHES presented a paper Dancing the Real and the Virtual: The Production, Preservation and Reuse of Intangible Cultural Heritage which looked at the role that dance content plays within the records of digital cultural heritage across Europe and how these new tools encourage reimagination and reuse. The presentation drew upon the work within two European Commission funded projects (RICHES and Europeana Space) that are concerned with the role of dance within European society. By working with artists, researchers and other cultural industry experts across the European community, both projects are exploring the impact of digital technologies on dance. Research has involved fieldwork including interviews, case studies, surveys, prototype development and the creation of virtual performances to investigate the methodologies of making performances, of how the work is received, and how it is documented and enters (or not) our records of cultural heritage.

Overall, the presentation [available here, PDF, 1.1 Mb] was well received and supported the reflexive thinking about the role of the arts in society. ​​