Digital meets Culture

Historical and traditional irrigation systems as tools for the promotion of preservation of rural communities heritage.

Learning by the past: MEMOLA animation video

Memola project studies the formation process of historical landscapes in relation to the use of natural resources, especially soil and water, in order to define strategies for the conservation, diffusion and connection between cultural heritage and environment.
The project produced two interesting animation videos illustrating the importance of shared water management and the way how it contributes to solve conflicts, promote and preserve culture identities of rural communities.

An amazing expression of participatory approaches to culture where art is used to transform the urban environment into a happier and healthier place

Stuart Semple tranforms Denver in a HAPPY CITY

“We live in a time where public space is threatened, and people seem to be more atomized and isolated than ever. I’ve always had this radical idea that could be used to bring people together … “
These are the main reasons that inspired the celebrated British artist Stuart Semple to design for May 2018 a radical intervention in the urban context of the city of Denver, with the aim “to incite widespread happiness by breaking down social barriers, increasing connection among strangers and fostering wellbeing.”
Light installations, monumental paintings, interactive graphic works and large scale public sculptures will decorate strategic areas of the city, such as Union Station, the main and busiest rail station of the city, tranformed into a Happy Station, that gives playfulness and pleasure to everyday work, or the ‘Coloring Café’ an open space where everybody can freely paint, making their own contribution to Happy City.
Many of these huge, public works, will be permanently left as monuments to happiness.
Happy City is an initiative of the Denver Theater District, curated by NINE dot ARTS and supported by many other artistic and cultural institutions of the city of Denver.

For further information about:

the artist: www.stuartsemple.com

Denver Theatre District: www.denvertheatredistrict.com

NINE dot ARTS: www.ninedotarts.com

To read more on Happy City, visit https://fadmagazine.com/2017/12/20/234014/

Fort Worth (Texas, US), 3-6 June 2018

ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries / JCDL 2018

From Data to Wisdom: Resilient Integration across Societies, Disciplines, and Systems.

The ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries in 2018 (JCDL 2018) will be held in conjunction with UNT Open Access Symposium 2018 on June 3 – 6, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas, the rustic and artistic threshold into the American West. It will be hosted by three units of the University of North Texas (UNT) — the College of Information, the UNT Health Science Center, and the UNT Libraries. Its co-organizer includes the School of Information Management at Wuhan University.

A call for participation is currenly open with deadlines on Jan. 15, 2018 (Tutorial and workshop proposal submissions; Full paper and short paper submissions) and Jan. 29, 2018 (Panel, poster and demonstration submissions).

JCDL welcomes interesting submissions ranging across theories, systems, services, and applications. We invite those managing, operating, developing, curating, evaluating, or utilizing digital libraries broadly defined, covering academic or public institutions, including archives, museums, and social networks. We seek involvement of those in iSchools, as well as working in computer or information or social sciences and technologies. Multiple tracks and sessions will ensure tailoring to researchers, practitioners, and diverse communities including data science/analytics, data curation/stewardship, information retrieval, human-computer interaction, hypertext (and Web/network science), multimedia, publishing, preservation, digital humanities, machine learning/AI, heritage/culture, health/medicine, policy, law, and privacy/intellectual property.

Website: https://2018.jcdl.org/

exploring and presenting the expanded moving image, image – in the broadest sense, including video, audio-visual performance, light art, sound art, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and multi-media formats in between – in public space.

Screen City Biennial 2017 highlights

Screen City is a biennal event dedicated to presenting the moving image in public space, and its program combines installations, screenings, art walks, an online exhibition and audio-visual program, talks and panels. It explores the relation between the moving image, sound and architecture and presents artistic formats that seek to expand the borders of cinematic experience. The Biennial is organized in Stavanger, Norway, in close collaboration with local and international art institutions and organizations. The Biennial presents a new platform that works to explore uses of the moving image in contemporary artistic practice. For the 2017 Biennial edition titled Migrating Stories, Stavanger harbor – its architectonic position in the landscape and its surroundings – was an important focus for production and presentations of the art. The Biennial presented moving image artworks from a broad range of international artists in dialogue and conjunction with the urban sphere and context in the city of Stavanger.

More photos, documentation and video:

http://2017.screencitybiennial.org/documentation/

Screen City is produced by Art Republic – Norway. Art Republic is a platform dedicated to digital art & public space. Inspired by the encounters between art and new technology, and the contemporary expression constantly being born through this meeting point. Art Republic consults, curates and produce projects that seek new approaches towards expanded cinematic experiences. Art Republic empowers research & projects dedicated to the creation of new exhibition & distribution models for the moving image, and enforcing the line of art-tech entrepreneurship.

In these artworks, the viewer enters into the added reality created by the painter, that empowers the static picture with realistic dynamic details.

Augmented Reality vs. classical painting: the works of Dražen Turković

Dražen Turković is a painter who likes to explore new technical possibilities in contemporary art, and in facts his most recent and innovative works start from “classical” painting on acrylic. The paintings are characterized with intense colors and decorated abstract lines with a striving on a linear composition, framed by clear and sharp paint brushes, either in a horizontal or vertical direction.

These artworks “function” either independently as they are, or as the basis for experimenting with digital technology, and are thus empowered with Augmented Reality, to be discovered by the viewer using “special weapons” in his/her hands: a smartphone with a dedicated app. Through the Aurasma application, the user enters into an active view of the image, immersed in the added reality created by the painter, that empowers the static picture with realistic dynamic details.

Dražen has been been researching the possibilities of integration of IT technology and fine arts for some years, experiencing and revealing classic painting techniques through new means of expression. In this research there is also an innovative aspect that is connected to the concept of originals and duplicates. In facts, each copy of Dražen’s work is as authentic as compared to the original painting, because the application works in the same way either with the original work or with its copy. Thus, AR makes the artwork accessible to everyone in its full experience, but indeed the original painting always remains unique in the classical sense of being a picture on the wall. Also, despite duplicates of the painting can be infinite, the artwork’s life is linked to the short-term technology currently available in the market, which would possibly be replaced soon with more advanced tools and developments.

Dražen Turković was born in Pribanjci (Hr) in 1950. He graduated in Ljubljana, after which he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan (Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera – Milan) and graduated in 1975. He graduated in painting, graphic design, digital graphics and design. He has been grouped and independently exhibited since 1974 at home and abroad. He has been awarded numerous awards at international exhibitions. He lives and works in Pula.

Website: www.drazenturkovic.wordpress.com

digital tour technology helps audiences with accessibility needs understand the spaces and routes in advance, before stepping inside the building

Auckland Live launches the first Accessibility Virtual Tour of the city’s Town Hall

Auckland Live is a part of Regional Facilities Auckland, committed to promoting the arts, and supporting inclusiveness and access to the arts for all.

In early December 2017, Auckland Live launched the first Accessibility Virtual Tour for the Town Hall– the first of a New Zealand venue to assist disabled and mobility-impaired concertgoers. This online tour is an intuitive vehicle for audiences with accessibility needs to become familiar with the historic venue before stepping inside.

Built around 3-D images of the Town Hall’s Baroque-style interiors, the tour begins in the venue’s foyer, where virtual visitors can choose to navigate wheelchair and mobility-impaired pathways taking them to seating in the Great Hall and Chamber Concert. Step counts along the way, coupled with elevator access, floor plans and pathways to the box office, public toilets and the bar offer an enhanced and fulsome experience of the Auckland Council A and Category 1 Heritage NZ listed building.

User-centric and innovative, AVT is the culmination of hours of research and analysis by Auckland Live and virtual tour developers Property3D, as well as consultation and testing with the disabled community.

[Show as slideshow]

“By coupling the latest in digital tour technology with a 106-year-old building we’ve opened up the doors of the Town Hall wider than ever before. The enhanced accessibility allows more Aucklanders, particularly those with disability issues and the elderly, to enjoy the iconic Town Hall as well as experience the magic and memories created by the live arts experience. We believe this is only the first step to the future of more accessibility and inclusive”, said Auckland Live director, Robbie Macrae.

Accessibility Virtual Tours will be launched online in 2018 for The Civic, Aotea Centre and Bruce Mason Centre in Auckland.

The Town Hall tour can be taken here: https://goo.gl/3pNNqX
Website: aucklandlive.co.nz

the consultation is open until 14th January: go have your say about how can digital culture enrich your life and work

Developing Europe’s Digital Platform for cultural heritage: public consultation on Europeana opens

How can digital culture enrich your daily life and work? Do you share, access or use cultural heritage materials online? Today, the Commission launches a public consultation to hear the opinions from citizens and organisations with a personal or professional interest in digital culture available online.

The public consultation will be open in all EU languages until 14 January 2018, go have your say here.

The Commission wants to know how citizens, professionals and organisations use Europeana, the European online platform for culture heritage that is visited approximately 700,000 times per month. The platform gives access to over 53 million items including image, text, sound, video and 3D material from the collections of over 3,700 libraries, archives, museums, galleries and audio-visual collections across Europe. The platform can be used by teachers, artists, data professionals in cultural institutions and creative fields but also everyone looking for information on culture.

The public consultation will help to identify through an independent evaluation how Europeana is currently used and how this can be improved and made more accessible for everyone. For example, the platform provides content also for re-use in the education, research or creative sectors of which many people are not yet aware. The results of the consultation will contribute to further develop Europeana’s offers and increase its visibility and use for the European culture heritage online. Europeana will also be closely associated to the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018.

More about the consultation: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-europeana-europes-digital-platform-cultural-heritage_en

A digital project by Europeana invites museums and people to show the contribution migration makes to culture for European Year of Cultural Heritage

Europeana Migration, to show that culture is the product of multicultural influences down the centuries

2018 will be the European Year of Cultural Heritage when citizens across Europe are invited to explore what it offers in all its forms. Europeana, the digital face of Europe’s cultural heritage, partners the Year and will supply the cross-border and cross-generational element to activities.

The Year will spotlight cultural heritage as a part of people’s everyday lives, ‘where the past meets the future’; in 2018 Europeana will focus on migration to show that culture is the product of multicultural influences down the centuries – from the food people cook and eat, to the music they listen and dance, and even the clothes they wear.

Europeana invites people young and old to be part of its Europe-wide project to build an online collection dedicated to migration.

Throughout the Year people will be able to share and upload their family stories and memorabilia online to Europeana Migration Collection– building it together with migration museums across Europe.
All of the content on the site will relate to migration and, from photos to films and letters to artworks, it will tell the stories of the people who have journeyed to, from and across Europe, uncovering the contribution of migration to our cultural heritage.
The items will be an important online testament to Europe’s rich history of migration, freely available for anyone to discover and use for education, research, inspiration and pleasure.

Participation activity begins in March 2018 and as the Collection builds throughout the Year people will be encouraged take part

– by exploring their cultural heritage, sharing what they discover, through exhibitions and galleries

– via social media with the hashtags #EuropeanaMigration and #EuropeforCulture

– and also through working with schools and retirement homes.

Elisabeth Niggemann, Chair of the Europeana Foundation and General Director of the German National Library, explains: ‘Europe’s cultural heritage has shaped the collective memory and identity of European citizens through the centuries. From folklore and traditions to visual arts and fashion, our diversity is an invaluable resource that can stimulate connections between people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures. Europeana and Europe’s citizens will help tell this story as part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage.’

No time to wait – Conference on Open Source Software in (Digital) Archives

Open Source Tools for Validation in the Digital Archive Workflow

By Merle Friedrichsen from the German National Library of Science and Technology (view original post)

On 9 / 10 November I was able to attend the “No Time to Wait 2”, a conference on open source software in (film) archives held at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna. In contrast to the first “No Time to Wait” conference the scope was widened to audiovisual preservation, open formats, and standardization of formats. As part of the program, I had the chance to present on “Open Source Tools in the Digital Archive Workflow” from our perspective.

Requirements for Open Source Tools for Validation

When we receive a file for our collection we will test if it fulfills the requests of the standard (e.g. does the PDF-file conform to the PDF-Standards?). There are different scenarios in which we use open source software for validation, and from each of these different requirements occur.

One requirement is that the tool is easy to implement into existing software and workflows, as we want to use the validation software within our archive framework. If we have implemented the tool, we can validate the files upon ingest into out archive. In another business case, we require a simple graphical user interface (GUI). With such a tool the acquisitions team can test the files as soon as they are received, and maybe even ask for another (valid) file – if this is possible. When we are working together with other institutions or as a service provider, we typically receive a large amount of files which we validate before we ingest them into out archive. Due to this is we require a command line interface (CLI) in order to automate the validation of a large amount of files recursively through different folders.

Of course the validation software should fulfill its purpose: checking against the standard of the format. But apart from the standard, an institution might have other requests – for example a specific resolution in TIFF files for a digitization project or a rule against embedded objects other than images and AV in PDF/A files. In order to easily enforce these, the tool should be able to check the files against a custom policy. As we want to store the report (success or failure) of the validation as preservation metadata, the report should be available in XML or a different structured format, to make it easy to integrate or process the output further. Any metadata schema will be appreciated, as it makes it more readable and (if applicable) the mapping to any other metadata schema would be easier (or already existing). The performance of the tool is another requirement.

In an ideal world, we would only receive valid files from data producers and service partners. A step to reach this goal would be an easy way to allow external providers to validate their files before they hand it over to the library. A web service, where anybody could upload files and check them against the standard (and a custom policy) would serve such a purpose. If the file is not valid, a repair-possibility for the error encountered in the file would help the data producer/provider, to hand over only valid files.

So, in no particular order a short overview of the requirements have regarding open source software for validation (besides from being open source):

easy implementation into existing software and workflows
simple Graphical User Interface
Command Line Interface
checking against file format standards
checking against custom policy
use standards for reports
perform (fast) on a large amount of files
webservice (standards and policies)
repair-possibility

We‘ve tested two open source tools for different file formats: veraPDF (PDF/A), and mediaConch (for Matroska/FFV1 – for film). I am very happy to state that all of our requirements are fulfilled (or are possible to fulfill) by these tools.

VeraPDF

We have tested most of the requirements and the tool performs well. As we receive a lot of PDFs that do not need to fulfill the PDF/A standard but nevertheless must be without password, we created our own policy that checks whether a pdf is password encrypted or not. What we haven’t tested yet is the integration into our existing software, but the implementation is discussed in the Rosetta Format Library Working Group (FLWG), a user group responsible for – amongst other things – deciding which tools should be rolled out within the Rosetta archive framework. Until now I haven’t seen a web service based on veraPDF, but as the software is open source and well documented, it should be feasible to build one. Due to the fact that we could not find a file that could be repaired by veraPDF, we haven’t tested the given repair functionality. But it is possible to fix the PDF document metadata, e.g. if a file does not conform to the standard, the PDF/A flag can be removed automatically.

MediaConch

Most of our requirements were tested and are fulfilled by MediaConch. There are only a few requirements that we have not tested yet. One of these is the implementation into existing software – as with veraPDF, the FLWG is also discussing the integration of MediaConch. On the other hand we do not have special requirements for mkv / ffv1 files yet, so we couldn’t test a custom policy – simply because we currently do not have a custom policy. Due to the implemented checksums in ffv1 and Matroska there are several “repair-possibilities” for a file with a bitflip. But as we haven’t encountered a corrupted file (yet), we haven’t tested this possibility.

Conclusion

Both veraPDF and MediaConch are suitable for our needs regarding digital object validation. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun testing these new tools, looking into the reports and figuring out how to write my own policy. It is worthwhile to work with open source tools – especially when they are designed to fit the needs of a (digital) archive. And it is worth investing (money and / or time) to foster or to enhance these tools!

If you are interested in the conference you will find the recordings on the youtube channel of the conference.

Thanks to the organizers of this conference – it was inspiring and encouraging!

Sound and effective policy discussion on future standards needs to be founded on solid common understandings, thus you are all invited to take this survey

ViMM Virtual Multimodal Museum launches a survey on Metadata, Terminology and Identifiers Standards

Virtual Multimodal Museum (ViMM) is a high-visibility and participative Coordination and Support Action (CSA), funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme (CULT-COOP-8-2016). ViMM brings together Europe and the world’s leading public and private sector organizations working on Virtual Museums and in the wider sector of Digital Cultural Heritage, to support high quality policy development, decision making and the use of technical advances.

A common understanding and language is needed in order to have a fundamental basis and reach common standards; modernize the legal framework; promote re-use; identify research and innovation needs; and obtain complementary investments. Above all, sound and effective policy discussion needs to be founded on solid common understandings.

This 10 minutes survey aims to gather your advice concerning the current and future METADATA, TERMINOLOGY AND IDENTIFIER STANDARDS. We would appreciate your taking the time to complete it. Your responses are voluntary and will be confidential. Responses will not be identified by individual. All responses will be compiled together and analyzed as a group.

The compiled results will be published on the ViMM Platform https://www.vi-mm.eu, where you can also register to join the ViMM community.

Please take the survey here.