Digital meets Culture

A gamified solo project on how to rebuild life after trauma

“Dream Space” presented by exhibition platform Chimera

img. courtesy: Chimera Platform

Chimera is a female-run virtual exhibition platform and art agency, and currently its focus is on game engines and metaverses.

Chimera is glad to present their latest gamified solo project “Dream Space” by visual artist and sculptor Nata Drachinskaya and curated by Anastasia Ustrugova.

The exhibition opened on the 22nd of August, and offers a narrative on how to rebuild life after trauma: in order to cope with the related emotions and feelings, the artist has built a space referencing a lucid dream, consisting in a type of dream in which the person is in control.

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Visit the exhibition here.

For more information, download this file (PDF, 3 MB).

Pilot coordinator John Tierney was interviewed by RTÉ on their work in Cork

Radio interview on INCULTUM Ireland partner work in Carr’s Hill cemetery

LiDAR analysis by Dr Steve Davis of TII dataset showing probable grave patterns in Carr’s Hill

John Tierney, the INCULTUM pilot coorinator from Ireland, was interviewed with their national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). At this link it’s possibile to find the transcription of the interview, during which was discussed their recent work in Carr’s Hill cemetery.

INCULTUM Ireland pilot aims at promoting the online project Historic Graves, that transcripts online memorial epitaphs and offers training workshops to local communities interested in contributing to surveying and transcribing historic graveyards.

Call for papers, deadline15th September - event to take place at the FernUniversität in Hagen 23 – 24 November 2023

Digital Hermeneutics II: Sources, Analysis, Interpretation, Annotation, and Curation

CALL FOR PAPERS

Digitization has reached almost all areas of science and scholarship. And even in the cultural sciences and humanities, computers, databases and digital tools are increasingly important. Last year‘s annual conference „Digital Hermeneutics: Machines, Procedures, Meaning“ of the research cluster digital_culture dealt with the theoretical and conceptual challenges inherent in hermeneutic methods, tools, and applications. The results of the conference supported understanding and meaning, when algorithms, programs, machines, and other technical procedures contribute to it.

Following up on these initial theoretical and conceptual results, we now want to address more technical aspects of methods, technologies, tools, and applications supporting Digital Hermeneutics under the title „Digital Hermeneutics II: Sources, Analysis, Interpretation, Annotation, Curation“ and take a look at digitally supported hermeneutic research processes and anticipate the future of digitized working practices in the cultural sciences and humanities.

Without such digital support systems, it will no longer be possible to index, find, annotate, and curate the ever-growing number of digitally available resources for research data. Digital systems are also already in use for analyzing, indexing, enriching, and annotating multimedia data. But what about systems that support the analysis, annotation, and interpretation of digital research data – thus: representation of hermeneutic methods – and their results as well as supporting machine learning, reasoning, and finally automating the documentation of annotation, interpretation, and understanding?

TOPICS OF INTEREST
In an exchange between humanities scholars and computer scientists, we want to explore the possibilities and limits of the vision of digitally supported hermeneutics. The following questions should be understood as suggestions for contributions:

Digitization processes bear the risk of information loss or structural shifts and biases. How can these risks be dealt with?
The transformation of sources to data involves coding and enables the enrichment with information. How does one deal with the loss of the original source characteristics? Do standardizations promote a focus on unifying features of different sources or can nuances and deviations also be mapped?
Do the questions and epistemological interests of humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences change the availability, quality, and quantity of sources in the form of data?
How can algorithms and tools support, possibly even expand, research questions and epistemological interests in the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences?
Can computer science also benefit from the discussion of methods in the humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies?

Abstract (Position Paper, max. 500 words, please submit to dennis.moebus@fernuni-hagen.de)

Submission deadline: 15th September 2023

Download the Call for Papers adn Workshop details (PDF, 250 Kb)

Sikinos, Cyclades (Greece), 28 - 31 August 2023

Little Islands Festival | Human Geographies

For yet another year, Little Islands Festival renews its August appointment with the public in an original and multi-thematic cultural four-day event that will take place in Sikinos from 28 to 31 August.

In a traditional rural setting that seems unchanged in time, the 5th edition under the title “Human Geographies” is a journey of exploring the profound and reciprocal relationship between man and nature, where the legacies of the past intersect with the rural-urban and local-global interdependencies of today.

Starting from the Cycladic landscape of Sikinos, every part of the island becomes a space for creation, discovery and knowledge in a unique and interactive cultural experience.

Site-specific research processes, hybrid tours, outdoor film screenings focusing on the environment and climate challenges, live audiovisual performances, installations, VR projects, happenings, live music & DJ sets compose a multitude of actions open to the public that invite artists, residents and visitors to become fellow travelers.

Higher academic institutions in Greece are also giving dynamic participation in the festival with project teams from the University of Western Macedonia and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki developing on-site projects in interaction with the monument of Episkopi and exploring aspects of the biotic interactions between humans, history and the environment.

The-Infinite-Library, cpourtesy of Little Island Festival

A hint of the artistic programme of the 5th Little islands Festival.

Exploratory Artistic Processes – In Search of Neiko

Project Team

George Katsaggelos: Professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Director of New Media Labs.

Yannis Ziogas: Dean – Professor, University of Western Macedonia, TEET Florina.

George Drossos: Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Fine Arts, Department of Visual and Applied Arts.

Support & Research Team: 8 Students

Focusing on the Episkopi of Sikinos as a symbol of the island’s identity, the project team of the University of Western Macedonia and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki present a series of sub-projects in the framework of the research project “Seeking Neiko”. Emphasizing gender aspects of the relationship with the natural and man-made environment, the project aims to revitalize the cultural heritage composing a special palimpsest through the conjunction of the past with the present.

Yannis Ziogas with his work “A Neiko for Sikinos” invites visitors and artists to participate in a walking retrospective of the paradoxical conditions of Neiko’s burial but also of the role of women. The dialogue is dynamically extended through the projection mapping work “Fireburnt cities” by Giorgos Drossos and the projection of the photographic documentary “Women of the World” by Giorgos Katsaggelos. Impressions, conclusions through the new technologies of artificial intelligence, augmented reality and QR code will be presented by 8 students of AUTH and UWM during the festival.

Seeking Neiko University of Western Macedonia. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, courtesy of Little Islands Festival

Audiovisual Performance + VR Experience

On the borders of installation and performance, “On Connection” by Valentina Berthelon and Flora Päär (Italy/ Mexico/ Germany) explores and revitalizes myths, symbols and rituals through sounds, virtual reality, visual effects and digital narratives. Creating a sacred spacetime, the audience is invited through waiting, silence and observation into an immersive journey of exploration and revelation of the network of symbiosis and interaction of the human-nature relationship.

Courtesy of Little Islands Festival

Audiovisual Installations

The installations compose a walking experience that connects technology, the Cycladic landscape and nature. Czech creators Mika Johnson and Ján Tompkins’ immersive VR installation “The Infinite Library” reimagines the future of libraries as interactive spaces that integrate human stories into a larger narrative of the birth of the planet and the evolution of all life forms.

In collaboration with Istorima Archive, a stone-built paraport of the settlement interacts with narratives of people and places on social and environmental issues, turning the art of Podcast into an outdoor audio experience. Memory and matter come to life through oral history and place the listener at the center of a spatio-temporal wander through alternative perspectives and experiences on timeless and universal concerns.

Courtesy of Little Islands Festival

Film Screenings

Filmmaking invests the main programme of the Festival with works by Greek and foreign directors and serves as a means of informing, raising awareness and challenging the public’s perception of social and environmental issues facing modern societies. The cinematic panorama is composed of newly produced films (documentaries, short films, animation) that deal with local environmental issues. The feature documentary “Being an Islander” by Dimitris Bouras will be the closing film of the 5th edition. The programme also includes open talks with the filmmakers.

Federika aka Flora Paar On Connection, courtesy of Little Islands Festival

Happenings

Crisis or Croesus. Is there really a crisis or is this all the result of a persistent profit tactic that puts the environment and the well-being of the people on our planet above all else? What can I as an individual and citizen do about this issue practically?

Angeliki Pardalidou in direct interaction with the audience invites us to visualize and decide what would be the ideal situation on the issue. What kind of world we really want to live in, if everything could be magically changed the way we would like it to be.

Dimitrios Bouras Being an Islander, courtesy of Little Island Festival

Alternative Tours

Project ESC: Explore, Scan, Connect is an innovative way of touring created by the artistic duo Aristotle George Zogas and Donatella Nika (DnA), as part of the LIF Residency 2022 artistic residency and research program. Start a walk across the island, take the traditional path from the old Primary School to Alopronia, explore the country passing through the windmills to the Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi and back to Episkopi, map your route, scan the QR codes, put on your headphones and follow the dozens of narratives that await you.

Live Music & DJ sets

Sound Surfaces, Fabio Luis Amaral / Duat, Brazil, Greece 2023. Live electroniques sounds produced by the natural environment, rhythmic progressive patterns, analogue and digital compositions in an in situ listening and interaction with the perpetual ritual of nature… the sun setting…

Simun. George Daris, Athanasios Polyzos, Angelos Angelou, Greece 2023.

Simun is a partnership of diverse musical personalities with each one of them bringing their own experience. As the burning rushing wind (Simun) carries huge amounts of sand from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to Europe, Simun carries with it their own style, melodies and songs from the East, Smyrna, the Balkans and the Greek tradition.

Admission to all screenings and events is free of charge.

More information about the detailed programme of LIF 2023 and this year’s theme “Human Geographies” will be announced at https://littleislandsfest.com/

#LIF23 #greekfestival #HumanGeographies #Sikinos #Cyclades

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Strategic operator of the Little Islands Festival: Creative Islands & New Media

Co-organized by: Region of South Aegean and the Municipality of Sikinos

Under the auspices and with the support of: Ministry of Culture and Sports

Under the auspices of: Ministry of Tourism, Greek National Tourism Organisation

With the support of: Austrian Embassy in Athens,Czech Centre Athens, Embassy of Israel in Athens.

Strategic Partners: European Festivals Association

Creative Partners: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Western Macedonia.

Understanding landscapes and promoting a shared heritage in the time of climate changes

A “landscape and heritage” summerwork camp at Bibracte, August 2023

The path where the workcamp takes place. Picture @Bibracte/A. Maillier – 2022

From 20 August to 2 September 2023, young volunteers of the Fédération Rempart Bourgogne Franche-Comté, an NGO working to safeguard and restore exceptional or vernacular heritage, are taking part for the second year in a “landscape and heritage” summer workcamp at the Bibracte-Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France.

This heritage work camp is part of the pilot-project led by Bibracte in the frame of the INCULTUM project, funded by the European Union in the frame of the Horizon 2020 programme.

The camp aims to enhance more than 1,100 km of rural paths that criss-cross the territory. Carried out in collaboration with the partners of the Grand Site de France label, it aims to develop and promote an innovative tourist offer in the area, combining outdoor activities, discovery of the heritage and cultural activities.

You can download here the full press release in French and in English languages.

The brochure covers St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church, one of the most-visited historic graveyards in Ireland.

INCULTUM new historic graves brochure launched.

text courtesy: John Tierney

A new historic graves brochure has been launched for one of the most-visited historic graveyards in Ireland, St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church in Galway city. Jacinta Kiely of the Historic Graves Project and City Archaeologist, Jim Higgins produced the brochure. The brochure compliments a survey of the church’s mortuary monument which was recently published at this link and for which data entry is still taking place.
Genealogical tourism is a big element in Irish tourism development and this project lead by Jim Higgins aims to combine the history, archaeology and genealogy of a number of churches in Galway city as a unified heritage tourism resource. The brochure (attached here in PDF, 1,95 MB) is one of a series which the same team have worked on over the last few years.

The INCULTUM Pilot set in Albania aims at recording, promoting and disseminating lost symbolic aspects of the Vlach culture

Vlachs ‘Open days’ program of activities taking place in the area of the Upper Vjosa valley

Article and images courtesy of Eglantina Serjani (CeRPHAAL)

The Upper Vjosa valley, in southeast Albania, for many centuries has been a ‘transhumance route’ used by the Vlach communities. Vlach are a historic people who speak a language that derives from Latin and by their ways of living, based primarily on nomadic pastoralism. Twice a year, groups of Vlach families along with their flocks migrated from winter pastures in the Ionian coast towards summer pastures in the mountainous areas of south-east Albania. Quite often, Vlach families built their summer encampments in the mountain areas extended to the southwest and northeast of the valley. This way of living persisted up to the 50s of the last century, when the economic policies established by the Albanian communist regime banned Vlach transhumance. Many Vlach families were then settled in the villages of the valley, ultimately losing their nomadic lifestyle but not their language.

Vlachs have historically suffered a cultural discrimination, which eventually hampered the preservation of many of the symbolic aspects of their culture, including their traditions, customs, rituals and material culture. Therefore, one of the main goals of CeRPHAAL, the Albanian partner institution in the INCULTUM project that coordinates Pilot 8 Vjosa the shared river, is to undertake activities aiming at recording, promoting and disseminating these lost symbolic aspects of the Vlach culture.

Part of these activities included designing Vlach transhumance trails as well as reconstructing their typical historic dwelling – the kalive. The dwelling was reconstructed last year in a camping site on the outskirts of the town of Përmet, a location that correlates with one of the Vlachs’ temporary daily camps set during their seasonal transhumance movements towards summer and winter pastures. The dwelling was a structure built of ephemeral material, and as such, according to those people who once lived in nomadic life required to be either repaired or reconstructed every time the Vlachs migrated to their encampment. To follow in these footsteps, in early July 2023, CeRPHAAL team undertook amendment works in the roof and the interiors walls and floors of the dwelling. This process, likewise the construction, was a learning experience, involving once again the elderly Vlachs, researchers, young specialists, students and volunteers.

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Succeeding the repair works of the kalive, during the 7-8th of July 2023, a number of dynamic cross-cultural activities took place at the dwelling site. One of the main domestic activities of the Vlach society in the past was wool processing, which was mainly a woman’s domain. Some of the objects displayed today in the hut are implements used for making homespun clothes, such as the wool brush, distaff, hand spinning wheel, etc. By getting use of these instruments, the elderly Vlach women of the Vjosa valley demonstrated how the wool is processed and turned into yarn, while also allowing students and visitors to interact and learn by experimenting.

During the Vlach ‘open days’, a photo documentary titled ‘The Vlachs: a short history as seen through the lens of photography’ was displayed in a wide-screen projection at the site. Also, a film documentary, featuring precious and rare moments of the Vlachs’ lives in Albania from 1940 until 1970 was shown to the visitors.

The activities concluded with a large celebration that involved a wider participation of Vlachs, local stakeholders, representatives of cultural institutions, and visitors at the site.

Madrid and online, 20-22 September 2023

EOSC Symposium 2023, the European Open Science Cloud annual event

From 20-22 September 2023, the EOSC Symposium will take place in Madrid, in the context of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The EOSC Symposium is organised by the EOSC Future project, together with the EOSC Tripartite collaboration (the EOSC Association, the EOSC Steering Board and the European Commission).

This year’s event will be fully hybrid, facilitating broader exchanges between stakeholders from ministries, policy makers, research organisations, service providers, research infrastructures and research communities driving the development of – and engagement with – the European Open Science Cloud. In the context of the EOSC Future project, the EOSC Symposium will also be a critical platform to showcase project achievements and key exploitable results.

Under the heading ‘Taking EOSC into the future’, the Symposium will take on pressing topics and more around EOSC’s sustainability:

EOSC after 2027
Governance and guidelines
Impact on the European Data and Infrastructure
ecosystem
…and more!

Event’s website: https://symposium23.eoscfuture.eu/

The transborder route of INCULTUM between Greece and Albania is ready to be visited

The Vlach transumance is on Wikiloc

images by The High Mountains

Within the framework of the #INCULTUM project and the pilot “Aoos/Vjosa the shared river”, which aims to develop cross border innovative cultural tourism, the pastoral routes in both sides of the border (Greek and Albanian) were mapped on Wikiloc.

These routes, created by Vlachs through the centuries, connect the Aoos/Vjosa Valley with Grammos mountain grazelands, and their promotion can help to promote transborder hiking, trekking and cultural tourism.

The basic characteristic of Vlachs is the semi-nomadic life that dictates a special way of life and identifies the characteristics of their society and economy. It is about a way of life indicated by the ecological conditions that sealed the collective life of these people. Until the beginning of the 20th century only the Vlachs of Aetomilitsa had about 40,000 sheep and goats, from which they produced milk and wool products. There are six Vlach villages in Konitsa and until today there are people speaking the Vlach language, which is a language that derives from Latin.

There are Vlachs all over the Balkans and of course on both sides of the border in Greece and Albania, but for them there was no border, they used the same routes to graze their sheep long before the borders even existed.

Visit the Wikiloc page of the Vlachs Transhumance path Grammos by The High Mountains @INCULTUM to find more information on the route.

Discover all the INCULTUM Pilots: https://incultum.eu/pilots/

The old legend about little lizards (Salamandra salamandra) that gave Banská Štiavnica its wealth and fame and that completely changed the life of the region

Discovering INCULTUM Pilot in Slovakia: legend of the Banská Štiavnica lizards

text by prof. PhDr. Alexandra Bitušíková (Head of University Center for International Projects at Matej Bel University), images by Pietro Masi (Promoter s.r.l).

Coordinated by Matej Bel University, the INCULTUM Pilot 3 Mining Treasures of Central Slovakia aims at supporting territorial and tourist promotion in this region which has significant cultural and technical heritage related to its mining history. One result of this Pilot is the participatory process with students and local operators for the realization of the website http://www.banickepoklady.eu/ including an interactive map of the mining heritage and many informative resources about museums, activities, hicking routes and events for tourists in the area.

The legend of the Banská Štiavnica lizards

The city of Banská Štiavnica has been connected with mining and rich deposits of precious metals since ancient times. No one really remembered when exactly it all started, but there is an old legend about little lizards (Salamandra salamandra) that gave Banská Štiavnica its wealth and fame. “Supposedly it was the shepherd who first saw them up on the hillside, shining more brightly than the sun in the sky”, this is how mothers were telling their children a good night legend of Banská Štiavnica lizards.

The event that completely changed the life of the region of Banská Štiavnica is said to have happened a long time ago (approx. in the 13th century) when this region was mostly covered by dense forests, small meadows and a few settlements. As the legend says, the shepherd Ján lived right in the middle of this. One day he drove the herd out to pasture again. On the way, he pulled out a whistle from his pocket and started playing with his nimble fingers. And when he was already high on the hillside and far from his native settlement, he stopped to look at the enchanting landscape. He enjoyed how pleasant the sunny day was and his game attracted even the small inhabitants of the forest. He sat on a rock and looked at the animals.

Then suddenly, there were lizards basking in the sun on a big rock in a distance. He had never seen such a wonderful thing before. Two of them shone with a kind of strange light as if they were forged from silver or gold. Ján was surprised and wanted to take a closer look at them, but they hid under a rock. The boulder was big, but the shepherd’s curiosity didn’t let him rest. He rolled it away with great difficulty. What he saw under the rock changed the history of the region. A lump of gold as huge as a hat was hiding under a boulder. The shepherd pinched his cheek, kicked his ankle to see if he was dreaming.

The rumor about its discovery spread with the speed of the wind, and so people began to converge from all sides. They dug into the ground, dug shafts, and later whole mines and settlements were created next to them. They built beautiful houses, churches, schools and gave birth to a city nestled in a valley, a city that bears a proud name Banská Štiavnica.

Based on:

Marec, Anton. 2000. Hnali sa veky nad hradbami. Martin: Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej. https://www.banskastiavnica.sk/mesto/zvyky-a-zaujimavosti/#