Digital meets Culture

The contribution of the REACH Project to the EYCH 2018 published by the SCIRES-IT Journal

Embedding engagement: participatory approaches to cultural heritage

The article, written by Prof. Neil Forbes and Prof. Silvana Colella (both from Coventry University, REACH project coordinator and leader of the sustainability and resilience Work Package) went on-line last Saturday, in the Special Edition of the SCIRES-IT Journal titled “European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. A laboratory for heritage-based innovation”.

The paper presents the work of the REACH project and its contribution to the EYCH Initiative #9 ‘Heritage for All’. It reflects on the issue of participatory approaches to cultural heritage, focusing in particular on:
1) the REACH repository of good practices, a dataset comprising over 100 examples, European and extra European, of social participation in cultural heritage;
2) the REACH Participatory Framework, developed to provide a protocol of participatory procedures and to support the organisation of local encounters;
3) the future of heritage research, in the light of current discussions about the constitution of a new coordination structure for European heritage research.

After just few days of promotion on social media this special volume received remarkable reactions and positive feedback for gathering precious information, new perspectives and excellent contributions in support and preservation of Cultural Heritage.
The entire publication is available on line at www.sciresit.it
More References:
SCIRES-IT Vol. 9 N° 1 Special Issue – European year of Cultural-Heritage. A laboratory for heritage-based innovation
Guest Editor Erminia Sciacchitano and Editors in-Chief V.Valzano and M.Cigola.
@itScires
Download the article
Embedding Engagement Perticipatory Approaches to Cultural Heritage

26-30 August 2020, London UK

5th Biennial Conference of ACHS: “Futures”

The Association of Studies on Critical Heritage (ACHS) is an international networking that brings together people of the interdisciplinary field of heritage studies (researchers, scholars and professionals ) who are interested in contributing to a critical analysis of the role of heritage through a transdisciplinary and transversal reflection.
ACHS aims to promote and develop heritage studies as a social, cultural, economic, and political phenomenon and as an area of professional or governmental intervention from a perspective of sustainability, social and cultural equity.

During 2020, from 26th to 30th of August, ACHS will hold its Fifth Biennial Conference in London, organized by the UCL Institute of Archaeology in association with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area.
The previous four conferences held in Sweden (Gothenburg2012), Australia (Canberra 2014), Canada (Montreal 2016) and China (Hangzhou 2018) reported a and a high level of participation and a contribution by numerous international delegates: thanks to the great success has been possible to establish networks and increase the interest for this topic.

Target of this fifth conference is “Futures” and the aim is to trigger a serious and critically reflection on the role of the future in heritage to be conserved for present and future generations: or this purpose, participants will be invited to think expansively and creatively about the future of critical heritage studies.

Main sub-themes identified:

Arts and Creative Practice
Future Policies and Politics of Heritage
Environmental Change and the Anthropocene
Digital Futures in and for Heritage
Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritages
Heritage and Foodways
Conflict heritage and conflicted heritages
Urban heritage futures
Future Methods and Approaches to Critical Heritage Studies
Future Landscapes of Heritage
The Future Museum: Collections and Collecting
Heritage and time
The Futures of Heritage
Mobilities and Migration
Open Sub-theme: Open Sub-theme: intended for those who are not well represented in the other sub-themes but it is feel address the overall conference rationale

The Call for Participation is currently opened; the call for curated sessions, individual papers, posters, films and discussion panels is open and the deadline is the 15th of October.

Further informations at https://achs2020london.com/

the photographic work of David Seymour for the UNESCO reportage on the italian campaign against illiteracy is now online

Italy fights the battle against illiteracy, 1950.

text by Caterina Sbrana.

“General View of Rogiano Gravina. Rogiano Gravina is located around forty kilometers north of Cosenza, in the center of a very poor agricultural district. It counts close to 6,000 in habitants, and it is the most active community in Calabria in the fight against illitteracy. One thousand children in school age are attending school, reaching almost one hundren per cent of attendance, and 700 adults are coming every night to a school established by the Unione Per La Lotta Contro L’Analfabetismo with Government support.[…] The Government is building a large elementary school which in the future will replace the 42 private schoolrooms and workshops for the adults.”

The reading of this text represents the beginning of my visit to the David Seymour Photo Album exhibition. The exhibition is completely virtual and tells the extraordinary and unique photographic work done in the mid-1900s by photographer Seymour, as part of a reportage commissioned by UNESCO on the campaign against illiteracy in Calabria, Italy.

UNESCO has decided to digitalize the small album, 78 pages of contact sheets and accompanying text, and to show it on its site, creating a virtual exhibition and therefore accessible to all.

“This album is thus an invaluable document to get an insight into the way this great photographer worked. The accompanying text to the contact sheets provide an analysis of the sociological context of Seymour’s reportage commissioned by UNESCO. The ‘Seymour album’ has already become the focus of research by specialists, which will soon be made available”.

In the album we admire landscape photos, children and men at school, women, men and children engaged in daily activities such as leading the sheep to pastures or mow the lawn. It goes without saying that this is a document of extraordinary importance for the history of Italy, for the commitment in the fight against illiteracy that mostly in the south reached very high and worrying percentages.

In the introduction to the exhibition we learn that “Out of the contact sheets, a number of photographs formed the final selection to illustrate an article published in the UNESCO Courier (Vol. V, No 3, March 1952, pp. 1-5) on the fight against illiteracy in Calabria. The author of this article was no less than Carlo Levi, who had become internationally famous by the publication, in 1945, of his novel, Christ Stopped at Eboli, dealing with issues such as the ‘North-South divide’ in Italy and populations in need of economical and, indeed, educational support. UNESCO was thus employing major artists and intellectuals of the time to mobilize public opinion on domains fundamental to its mission”.

I think it is necessary to appreciate the great work that UNESCO is carrying out in the field of digitisation of a cultural heritage that must be accessible to all. “The ‘Digitizing our Shared UNESCO History’ project has been the opportunity for a survey of the audio/visual collections of which the UNESCO Archives have only recently become responsible”. This exhibition is an extraordinary example.

Visit the online resource: https://digital.archives.unesco.org/en/web-exhibitions/detail/b6e64203-92d1-4c02-8cc9-0c59de7ac54f

9 October 2019, Brussels

“Smart Specialisation and the Heritage City”, ROCK workshop at the European Week of Regions and Cities

From 7 to 10 October 2019 in Brussels, the 17th edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities will be held, this year under the heading “Regions and Cities: Pillars of the EU’s Future”.
Sessions including Workshops, Participatory labs, Regions’ talks, Q & As on presented themes, Exhibitions will be offered.

Within the framework of this event will be the workshop “Smart Specialisation and the Heritage City”organized by the H2020 project ROCK on the morning 9th October.

The workshop will be a great opportunity to discuss and strength the linkage between Cultural Heritage (CH) and the Smart Specialisation strategies (RIS3) now running all over Europe.

Smart specialization was a poor at city level, and this because local authorities were not involved adequate.

The discussion will focus on two main topics:

technology-driven challenges related to CH – which links to the RIS3 idea of prioritisation;
cross-innovation vectors involving CH – linked to the RIS3 concept of relatedness. (discussion facilitated by Prof. Christer Gustafsson from the University of Uppsala)

The workshop agenda, designed by partners of the Horizon 2020 ROCK project, including EUROCITIES and TASO, will include:

introductory statement by the European Commission (Framing CH at the innovation policy),
keynote by TASO (Talking to cities about S3)
the case study “Bologna and Emilia Romagna´s S3 joint approach to CH”, jointly presented by the Regional Development Agency (ART-ER) and Comune di Bologna.

Further informations: here

Programme and registration: here

Discover online 127 images of lithographic and chromolithographic plates portraiting ancient Indian Chiefs

History of the Indian Tribes of North America, an extraordinary historical heritage

text by Caterina Sbrana.

: img. Public Domain via Wikipedia

“History of the Indian Tribes of North America” is a three-volume collection of Native American biographies and portraits originally published in the United States from 1838 to 1844, by Thomas McKenney and James Hall. McKenney served as Commissioner for Indian Affairs from 1824 to 1830 and during this time he commissioned and collected portraits of Native Americans for his gallery, in the War Department.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created on March 11, 1824 without authorization from the Congress. McKenney, formerly superintendent of Indian trade, was appointed to head the office, with two assistants. “McKenney was instructed to take charge of the appropriations for annuities and current expenses, to examine and approve all vouchers for expenditures, to administer the funds for the civilization of the Indians, to decide on claims arising between Indians and whites under the intercourse act, and to handle the ordinary Indian correspondence of the War Department”, it is explained in a blog about the history of the Bureau published in the journal of the American Studies Resources Centre at Liverpool John Moores University.

: Pa She Pa Haw, a Sauk chief

During his duties, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs understood that the future of Native American was at risk, as a consequence of unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the Native Americans for profit. His many journeys to deal with the Chippewa or Menominee, to define mining rights on their land, allowed him to know the culture of these Indian tribes, and possibly for this reason McKenney decided to publish a record of such vanishing peoples: portraits, biographical sketches, anecdotes and a history of North American Indians. The book was enriched with the portraits he had commissioned.

The oil portraits of Indian leaders, realized on the occasion of their visits to Washington for negotiating treaties with the American government, were made by Charles Bird King and other American painters, while the texts were written by James Hall.

: Ma has kah, chief of the Ioways

Unfortunately, most of the original paintings were destroyed in a fire after the Civil War, so the few remaining copies of this ancient book, containing the lithographies from those paintings, are the only resource left to preserve such an important heritage. But once again digital technology comes to help: in the Digital Collections of the University of Cincinnati we can access the digitized images, each with a wide description of the location, measurements, material, repository, description etc. and the images can be downloaded.

The images were digitized from a copy of the edition held in the Archives & Rare Books Library of the University.

Access the digital collection: http://digital.libraries.uc.edu/luna/servlet/univcincin~24~24
Blog about the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs: http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/indians.htm

Lisbon (Portugal), 27-29 November 2019

Europeana 2019: Connect Communities

Europeana 2019 from Sebastiaan ter Burg on Vimeo.

Europeana 2019 was held at the historic National Library of Portugal, Lisbon, whose vast and diversified heritage covers almost ten centuries of Portuguese history and culture.

Europeana 2019 sold out in record time but if was performed in free live stream. There is a different link for each day. Enjoy the conference and follow via #Europeana2019 on twitter!

Wednesday 27 November
https://youtu.be/KktelA8sYb4

Thursday 28 November
https://youtu.be/r9-QHb7hkps

Friday 29 November
https://youtu.be/l2TCt2cgitE

Website and programme: https://pro.europeana.eu/page/europeana-2019

The Biblioteca digital memoriademadrid will be hosting the 14th edition of the annual PASIG (Preservation and Archiving Interest Group) meeting, 19-21 May 2020

Save the Date for PASIG 2020 in Madrid

The next Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG) meeting will take place in Madrid on 19-21 May 2020.

The Biblioteca Digital Memoria de Madrid, Centro Cultural Conde Duque is the event host. The PASIG Steering Committee is pleased to connect with colleagues in Conde Duque, which is the most important cultural center in Madrid and home to some of the city’s main libraries and archives. Like last year in Mexico City, this PASIG will offer bi-lingual translation services in English and Spanish.

The Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG) is dedicated to advancing the practice of digital preservation and archiving. It brings together practitioners, industry experts and researchers to share experience on how to put preservation and archiving into practice.

The event website is: http://www.pasig2020memoriademadrid.es. Agenda drafts, sponsorship information, registration, and travel and hotel options will be added in the coming months. The Program Committee is in its initial planning phase, but if you have a topic you want to be considered or would like to enquire about sponsorship, please email (c.mumma@austin.utexas.edu) and the Program Committee Chairs, Gilberto Pedreira Campillo (pedreiracg@madrid.es) and Carlos Villarrubia Rodríguez (villarrubiarc@madrid.es).

The Program Committee for Madrid and the PASIG Steering Committee are working closely together on this event. We would like to thank the members of both for all their effort and commitment! If you have an interest in digital preservation and want to be a part of a great community, make sure you save this date!

PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRS / PRESIDENTES DEL COMITE DE PROGRAMA

Co-chairs: Gilberto Pedreira Campillo (pedreiracg@madrid.es), Director of Digital Library Memoria de Madrid and Carlos Villarrubia Rodríguez (villarrubiarc@madrid.es), Head of IT Technicians and Assistant in Digitalizing Area

STEERING COMMITTEE / COMITE DIRECTIVO

Natalie Baur, El Colegio de México
Tom Cramer, Stanford University
Ben Fino-Radin, Small Data Industries
Neil Jefferies, University of Oxford
Thomas Ledoux, Bibliotheque Nationale de France
Sarah Mason, Artefactual Systems
Becky McGuinness, Open Preservation Foundation
David Minor, UC San Diego Library
Courtney Mumma, Texas Digital Library
Matthias Razum, FIZ Karlsruhe

How improve resilience and sustainable reconstruction of historic areas to deal with extreme events and climate change

Hyperion: a new European project for the preservation of tangible cultural heritage

Hyperion is a new project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020, it is just started in June and will last until November 2022.

The purpose of Hyperion is to provide an integrated resilience assessment platform that, through the evaluation and understanding of risk, provides guidance on the best preparation for dealing with the danger and offers a faster, adapted and efficient response to the sustainable reconstruction of historical areas.

The deterioration of Cultural Heritage sites is one of the biggest challenges in conservation; landslides and earthquakes as well as climate change could have very strong impact on historic areas.The project, leveraging existing tools and new technologies, will focus on this aspects, considering the role of building technologies/materials, structural responses, preventive measures and restoration strategies, resilience and adaptation methodologies.

Currently there is no specific process for understanding and quantifying the effects of climate change on historical areas; Hyperion aims to introduce a research framework for climate and atmospheric composition downscaling.

The project will collect data and perform analyses that will help provide adequate adaptation and mitigation strategies and support sustainable reconstruction plans for CH damage.

A vulnerability map (based on the produced climate risk regional models) will be produced to guide the local authorities in their strategies to preserve heritage sites.

In Hyperion ”resilience” is a fundamental concept that offers an overarching strategy:

risk management,
identification of threats
prevention of damages through protection and preparation
planning and promotion of reconstruction strategies
preparation and promotion of long-term strategic approaches to adapt to Climate Change and to wield policy tools for economic resilience

The project will provide specific tools to support resilience:

physical tools
organizational tools
financial tools.

Hyperion will work closely with Pluggy, another important and successful European project.

More information for the project are available on the project official website: https://www.hyperion-project.eu/

Deadline for application: 28th July

TWA Heritage Digitisation Grant – Increased award amounts for 2019

Following strong interest and some excellent applications from archives and other memory institutions over the last three years, the TWA Digitisation Grant has relaunched in 2019. We are very pleased to be increasing the fund this year and now grants of up to £6000 will be offered for UK libraries and special collections to digitise their holdings.

The TWA Digitisation Grant opens for applications on 19^th June 2019 and welcomes applications from public, private, and special collections libraries based in the UK.

Last year’s esteemed judging panel will return to assess the applications and select the winners: including ARA chief executive – John Chambers; HLF appointed special advisor – Claire Adler; and senior digitisation consultant at TownsWeb Archiving – Paul Sugden.

The Grant can be used to fund the digitisation of bound books, manuscripts, oversize maps and plans, 35mm slides, microfilm/fiche, glass plate negatives, and other two-dimensional cultural heritage media.

The deadline for applications is 28^th July 2019 with announcements of winners at the ARA on 28^th August 2019.

Find out how to apply and for more details please go to:

https://www.townswebarchiving.com/twa-digitisation-grant/

applications are open for video makers and video artists

Fiaticorti, the international short film festival

Applications are now open for the 20^th edition of Fiaticorti, the international short film festival based in Istana, one of the most important short film festival in Italy. You have until 31^th August 2019 to sign up.

Three sections are available:

Fiaticorti: a section devoted to national and international short films.
Fiaticomici: a section devoted to humorous and satirical short films.
FiatiVeneti: a special section devoted to short films which have been shot by directors from Veneto or short films generally concerning Veneto.

You can freely choose the topic of your short film, regardless of the section it belongs to. We will accept only short films lasting up to 20 minutes and shot since 1^st January 2018. We will also accept works which have already been presented in other festivals.

Fiaticorti Jury will choose 4 winners: