Digital meets Culture

Dr György Eszter, researcher at the Eötvös Loránd university of Budapest share her fieldwork

Roma Heritage:the case study of the REACH project

Last 19 February, Dr György Eszter, interviewed by the “HALLGATOI MAGAZINE” reported her direct experience in carrying on the case study of the minority heritage pilot within the REACH project.
Dr György, presented a global overview of the objectives, initiatives and main results achieved by the pilot, pointing out how its activities and especially the local encounters revealed the potential of future cooperation between stakeholders by identifying opportunities of cross-collaboration. the interview recalled step by step the initiatives that have involved the local Roma communities promoting cohesion and dialogue.
She highlighted that thanks to the REACH support, participants of the local encounters could overcome their isolation (geographical, social and professional) and create a strong network which is very important for increasing the visibility towards each other and fostering opportunities to exchange knowledge and experiences about their good practices and struggles.
Read the full text of the interview (Hungarian language)

Generative and audio-reactive virtual-reality installation - until 5th April in Pittsburg

Oscillations 2020, new artwork by Miguel Chevalier

Oscillations 2020, Miguel Chevalier
Music: Michel Redolfi
Generative and audio-reactive virtual-reality installation
Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh (USA)
Curator: Murray Horne
January 25 – April 5, 2020
Software: Cyrille Henry / Antoine Villeret
Technical production: Voxels Productions

Miguel CHEVALIER Oscillations 2020 Pittsburgh (USA) from Claude Mossessian on Vimeo.

Oscillations 2020 is a new generative virtual-reality installation by Miguel Chevalier that is audio-audio-reactive with music by Michel Redolfi.
This creation allows a 3D graphic visualization of the music by Michel Redolfi.
Thanks to generative software, a waveform is generated in real time according to the frequencies and amplitudes of the music. These spectrums of the different sounds of music generate imaginary landscapes to infinity. These landscapes, which pass before our eyes, present an infinite variations: solid or wireframe, steep or flat, in black and white or in colour…
Image and music respond to each other in a fusion of an emotional nature that participates in a true synesthesia.

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Extended deadline for entries: 20 April 2020

*/ 16th Athens Digital Arts Festival | Call for Entries “TECHNOTRIBALISM”.

The 16th Athens Digital Arts Festival exploring the endless possibilities of the future, through art, science, and technology, invites you to submit your proposals for its next edition, under the theme “TECHNOTRIBALISM”.

Due to the recent crisis, at the international public health sector, and trying to act accordingly, the ADAF team decided that our festival will not take place until our artists and visitors can be and feel safe from the coronavirus pandemic. Under these unique circumstances, we assess that our 16th edition will not be able to take place this May as it traditionally does, and is postponed for a later date. Believing that in time of crisis the best one can do is stay creative, we decided to extend our open call once more till the 20/4/2020, giving you the opportunity to suggest more creative projects. We hope that this initiative will make your “stay at home” a bit more pleasant and worthwhile also on a creative level. We wish courage, strength and health to each and everyone of you, stay safe, stay home and be creative.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

EXTENDED DEADLINE 20/4/2020

Submit your pieces at http://2020.adaf.gr

In this galaxy, not far away there is a “generation”, a tribe of people that are nurtured by technology. This generation has evolved its tech medium to a point where it has started to morph into its own entity, a new resource of power, a new regime, bringing humanity in the state we characterise techno-tribalism.

To enframe this world in serving us we created technology, while technology gradually enframed us in serving the data- flux. In this early hyper historic era what became the utmost necessity, is the continuous flow of information. In a causal relationship, our need to access it grows perpetually.

We, being the primitives of this era, appear pure and naive yet shaping the very foundations of this new world, where information is recognized as the super- power and data is moving towards becoming an equivalent to god – maker and regnant of everything.

Privacy and property are more and more giving into the preciousness of free access to data, shifting human heritage of all shorts in intangible flows of information, organised in massive virtual libraries. Our homo sapiens collecting fetishes are turning pale in front of the immenseness of options we can get in the collectively build digital world, shifting in relation our perception on ownership, assets, wealth and equity.

In this new period of collective production of information, our value translates in our contribution in the data flux and our access to it poses, not only as entertainment, but also as a possible key in eradicating our human sufferings. All of us, workers of this regime, dazed by the vastness of information, its potential power, we mirror ourselves in the digital world.

Algorithms, already present everywhere in the digital realm, are reading us better than ourselves, better than our friends and siblings and in the name of optimization of our virtual experience, we are gradually letting them make decisions for us, filter our perceptions predict our behavior, our bio metrics, our emotions. All manifestations of culture can now be experienced on a digitized basis, translated to a language (code, DNA) and stored for everyone who possess it to experience regardless the circumstances. Markets and Money are transfiguring into intangible algorithmic byproducts. Everything to serve the information flow.

The International festival for Digital Arts in Greece, Athens Digital Arts Festival, is calling the art world and the world of science and technology, to submit works and achievements which outline, comment, foresee, or determine this contemporary epoch in order to compose the content for the upcoming 16th edition of the festival which will take place in spring 2020.

Close your eyes and connect to your data-doppelganger your mirrored algorithmic self to your digital footprint. You are part of techno-tribalism, you are part of ADAF 2020.

#TechnoTribalism #ADAFgreece #ADAF2020

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Detailed information about the submission process and the call for entries is available at the following link: www.adaf.gr

Submission deadline for 2-page abstract: 10 March 2020

Call for book chapters: CEPROQHA Project

Data Analytics for Cultural Heritage: Current Trends and Concepts

Editors: Abdelaziz Bouras ¹, Abdelhak Belhi ^1,2, Abdulaziz Khalid Al-Ali ¹, Abdul Hamid Sadka ³

College of Engineering, Qatar University, Qatar
DISP Laboratory, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France
Brunel University, London, United Kingdom

Book Scope

In light of the recent advances and techniques in the cultural domain using artificial intelligence, the book aims at addressing new and current challenges related to the effective implementation of AI technologies in the cultural context. The book chapters are mostly related to the application of AI to the cultural heritage digitization process aiming at empowering the value of the digitized assets through advanced artificial intelligence techniques. We particularly focus on improvements to the data acquisition stage as well as the data enrichment and curation stages using advanced artificial intelligence techniques and tools.

For this book, we consider the following focus areas in the cultural heritage domain:

Data acquisition
Data enrichment
Data management
Data preservation

MORE INFO and SUBMISSION: https://www.ceproqha.qa/call-book-chapters/

Introduction

Art and culture are some of the most reputable history transfer mediums through civilizations and generations. Cultural objects are distinguished by their higher value and attractiveness as they hold a lot of cultural and historical information. The physical preservation of cultural assets was known to be the only tool to conserve these objects for the long term. This process is reported to take a considerable amount of time and tends to be often costly. However, since the emergence of digital technologies, and thanks to their reliability and continuously dropping costs, the digital preservation of cultural objects is continuously catching the eyes of heritage organizations and is studied as an efficient and reliable alternative to the physical preservation. Cultural institutions such as museums, galleries, and heritage management organizations are currently investing a lot of efforts and resources to digitize and preserve their collections using cutting edge acquisition technologies. This process was often reported to be successful as we started to see multiple initiatives such as virtual museum tours, high-quality replicas of cultural objects, digital enrichment, linked data, etc. More recently, and with the recent breakthroughs in the AI domain, new techniques have been developed and aim at enriching the acquired data using artificial intelligence. In the past, cultural data enrichment was only possible using semantic tools or manual annotation which did not fully leverage the hidden information that can be extracted using AI technologies. Nowadays, artificial intelligence techniques for classification and content generation are being studied by multiple research groups around the world and thanks to the abundance of cultural data, some new challenges were presented to researchers to make the assets digital preservation more effective.

Throughout this book, we mainly consider the challenges related to the improvement of the data acquisition, data enrichment and data management processes in the cultural heritage data lifecycle pipeline using advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies with an emphasis on recent applications related to deep learning for visual recognition, generative models, natural language processing, super resolution, etc.

Athens (Greece), 5-6 March 2020

Interfaces Conference: Cultural Synergies, Creativity and Innovation

Cultural practitioners, policy makers, cultural managers, artists, curators and creative entrepreneurs are invited to a 2-day international event that explores how cultural synergies could contribute to innovation and creativity in the field of culture. In this final international activity of the INTERFACES network co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, we aim to explore how cultural synergies could contribute to innovation and creativity in the field of culture.

Join us at Onassis Stegi in Athens and participate in the discussion on how we can strengthen audience development as a mean of improving access to European cultural and creative works, promote transnational mobility of artists and foster capacity building through innovative approaches in the cultural sector.

This event will be a great opportunity to exchange insights with over 25 cultural practitioners, policymakers and representatives of 16 Creative Europe funded cooperation projects and of course network with fellow professionals from the field of Culture and the Arts. The main objective of the conference is to engage a discussion between the different European projects and networks and enable a transfer of knowledge and experience from within projects funded by the Creative Europe programme just before the official launch of the new programme for 2021-2027. We propose to focus on the following topics:

Inclusion, Diversity, Access, and Equity in the Arts and Culture Sector
Art, Space and the Public Sphere
Networking, Cooperation & Professionalization in the Culture Sector
Arts, Innovation & Digital Media

Day 1, Thursday 5 March 2020, 18.00-21.00

Day 2, Friday 6 March 2020, 09.00-20.00

FULL PROGRAMME: https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/interfaces-conference

REGISTRATION: https://www.eventora.com/en/Events/interfaces

Brussels, 26th February 2020

IMP Concluding Symposium: Museums and intangible heritage: towards a third space in the heritage sector

– How can museums avoid the trap of “freezing” intangible cultural heritage in time by integrating it into more static collections?

– How may we assure that heritage practitioners and communities are sufficiently being heard in display settings?

– What are the best ways to bring audiences into the museum, allowing for participatory experiences, yet avoiding the commodification of intangible heritage?

These are some of the main themes faced by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Project and that will represent the basis of its conclusive symposium which aims to identify the best way for establish a solid liaison and cooperation between Intangible Cultural Heritage and museums for a mutual benefit.

The project started in 2017 and over the past three years it explored the interaction of museum work and intangible heritage practices in a comparative European context.
It organized 5 previous conferences which featured in depth theoretical contributions, workshops, artistic co-creations, numerous discussions and many inspirational testimonies from the fields of museums and intangible cultural heritage.

This concluding symposium is addressed to key stakeholders from the fields of intangible heritage and museums, such as heritage practitioners, museum professionals, policy makers, academics and representatives of transnational networks.
The aim is to explore the various ways in which museums and safeguarding living heritage go together and to step into reciprocal understanding of different methods, possibilities and approaches.
The outcomes of the public forum will be used for drafting future-oriented recommendations and methodologies for both policies and practice.

More information:
Symposium webpage
Symposium programme

IMP Concluding Symposium

Museums and intangible heritage: towards a third space in the heritage sector

On February 26, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Project will hold its final symposium in Brussels.
The conference aims to draft the conclusions of the cognitive and investigative activities started in 2017 and developed through a series of meetings all focused on identifying the best way to combine the tangible cultural heritage preserved in museums with the tangible cultural heritage related to practice and way of living. The symposium organizers explain that cooperation between intangible heritage and museums can bring enormous benefit to both sides. For example, museums can enrich their object-based collections by including testimonies and practices relating to living, intangible heritage. Heritage practitioners and communities, on the other hand, can gain a wider audience, and can benefit from museum documentation and preservation expertise in order to safeguard their particular branch of intangible cultural heritage.
But often, misunderstandings and conflicts take the place of a fruitful collaboration. The Intangible Cultural Heritage and Museums Project (IMP) faced the causes of this lack of communication and look for solutions to overcome them.
The final symposium addresses key stakeholders from the fields of intangible heritage and museums, such as heritage practitioners, museum professionals, policy makers, academics and representatives of transnational networks.
The main topics of discussion will regard the best ways to bring audience into museum and to promote participatory experiences.

The outcomes of the public forum will be used for drafting future-oriented recommendations and methodologies for both policies and practice.
Symposium webpage
Discover more about IMP

Registration is open!

CultureMoves MOOC “Creating a Digital Cultural Heritage Community”

The MOOC “Creating a Digital Cultural Heritage Community” is now open for registrations. Here students can learn more about how to create a community for digital cultural heritage through innovative practices for user engagement: https://www.edx.org/course/creating-a-digital-cultural-heritage-community.

Developed in collaboration with the Kaleidoscope project, the MOOC will last for 8 weeks, with learners being able to join at any point and go through the coursework at their own pace, choosing and picking the modules they are most interested in, choosing either a dance or photography-focussed pathway, to explore digital curation and annotation.

The CultureMoves team have written a series of dance-specific modules for the MOOC exploring Cultural Heritage; Intangible Cultural Heritage and Annotation; Dance and Site; Im/material Cultural Heritage – Costumes, Masks and Museums; as well as a Historical Dance Module, developed in collaboration with Early Dance Circle and Chalemie (UK), with guest tutors Barbara Segal and Sharon Butler. These modules offer a series of activities for learners at different stages, ranging from undergraduates to PGR students, to showcase and encourage uptake of the CultureMoves tools. Learners will be encouraged to critically engage with and discuss the intersections between culture, dance, tourism and digital technologies, with a particular focus on dance in unconventional spaces and in relation to touristic landmarks. Reading lists and links to other tools, materials and resources are also available. Assignments will include philosophical and theoretical discussions, practical questions and tasks, reviews to check learning and a discussion forum.

Dance and Cultural Heritage: the material from Europeana to create new choreographies!

The LabDays of CultureMoves

In December 2019 and January 2020, the CultureMoves team held its final project LabDays, working with a range of choreographers, dance artists and dance students across the West Midlands region.

On 2nd December 2019, a CultureMoves LabDay co-ordinated in conjunction with Birmingham Dance Network and took place at DanceXchange, Birmingham (UK), where we held one of the very first CultureMoves LabDay Coffee and Conversation events last year. The CultureMoves C-DaRE team was thrilled to be working alongside BDN and six locally-based dance artists and choreographers – Sophie Barraclough, Rosie (Rosanna) Cook, Steph (Stephanie) Donohoe, Shelley Eva Haden, Fleur Hall, and Rob (Robert) Hemming. During this LabDay, we invited the dancers to engage with digital content and consider the relationship between dance, public space, tourism and cultural heritage. The dancers explored the European online cultural heritage library, Europeana, thinking about space, memory, place, body and trace, and what heritage / intangible cultural heritage means to them as dance artists and choreographers. The dancers then familiarised themselves with MovesScrapbook and MovesCollect plug-in to curate material from Europeana and use this to create new choreographic scores in the studio.

On Tuesday 28th January 2020, the COVUNI CultureMoves team spent an enjoyable afternoon at the University of Worcester for the project’s final Educational LabDay workshop, exploring the value of the CultureMoves digital toolkit in a dance educational setting.

The participants were five very engaged final year Dance undergraduates working on a specialist Dance and Technology module and their lecturer. The CultureMoves team first gave an overview of the project and all three of the CultureMoves digital tools, and then the students worked on developing movement scores from Europeana content, also using MovesCollect and MovesScrapbook to document how they used this content as a springboard for creating new choreographic phrases and sequences. We ended the afternoon with a lively discussion about how we archive, document, annotate and remember dance. We discussed how digital annotators might be useful for this and the students are now very keen to try out MotionNotes as well!
The CultureMoves team would like to thank Megan Caine for co-ordinating the Birmingham LabDay on the BDN side and to DanceXchange for hosting us, and Dr. Paul Golz, Course Lead and Senior Lecturer for the Dance and Applied Practice, Physical Education and Dance at the University of Worcester, for inviting the CultureMoves team to Worcester for the Educational LabDay workshop.

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Idrija (Slovenia), 13-15 March

Idrija 2020 promotes HeritageHack , the hackathon for cultural Heritage.

The Idrija 2020 Association organized, from the 13th to the 15th March, a 3-day hackathon for cultural Heritage called HeritageHack.

The Association was founded in 2012 when 5 professionals, highly educated and native to Idrija, rethought the cultural heritage of their small former mining town, nowadays a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the aim to develop the municipality of Idrija into a youth-friendly municipality, that attracting the young and bringing people together.

Idrija 2020 Association and the story connected to it was selected as a good example at the Heritage Days Stories contest that enabled its to receive the financial support of the European Commission and the Council of Europe for organising the HeritageHack.
Idrija 2020 co-founded the ID20 Istitution that gathers a team of young highly skilled and experienced young professionals in the fields of architecture, business development, design and heritage innovation; the aim of ID20 was to unite and provide opportunities and support at other organisations and individuals in taking one step further in innovation of cultural heritage and transform heritage from a thing of the past to a matter of future.
The activities promoted by ID20 comprise:

HeritageLab: where young people create new products and services, based on local heritage. In 2018, HeritageLab won the European Social Innovation Competition.
Support for organisations that build on the rich cultural and natural heritage of their surrounding (heritage institutions, municipalities, tourist and non-governmental organisations) in reaching and engaging their customers and partners.
lasting, meaningful design that brings value to existing buildings, to leave the environment better than today.

The call is open to creative and inspirational ideas from different sectors, to give answers to the challenges of cultural heritage and to find entrepreneurial ideas for generations to come.

The deadline is the 29th February 2020.

Young people between 18 and 30 can participate at Hackathon and tackle the challenges that the heritage institutions in the town (museums, Municipality,..) are dealing with. They will be provided with data and experienced mentors and will get the chance to discover the heritage in Idrija first hand and try out different digital devices (AR, VR,..).

The best ideas will be generously rewarded!

Further information:

Leaflet
Location: Inzaghi Shaft Machine House, Vodnikova 3, Idrija, Slovenia
Link to event web page (Slovene): https://www.id20.si/heritagehack/
Facebook event (Slovene): https://www.facebook.com/events/463456994362607/
Association & Institute web page (English): https://www.id20.si/en/home/