Digital meets Culture

The TV and Photography pilots presented at Jerusalem Conference on the Digitisation of Cultural Heritage

E-Space at EVA/Minerva 2015

On 8 and 9 November 2015 the EVA / MINERVA 12th annual international conference for professionals in cultural heritage took place at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. At the event, focused on the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage through education and training in advanced information and communication technologies (ICT), colleague Marco Rendina presented, also on behalf of Fred Truyen, the Europeana Space project and in particular the Photo and TV pilot, in a panel together with other audiovisual related projects such as EUscreenXL, presented by Maria Drabczyk of the Polish National Audiovisual Archive, Europeana Sounds, presented by David Haskiya of the Europeana Foundation, and Forward, presented by Kerstin Herlt of the European Association of Cinematheques.

The presentation raised the attention of some Israeli memory institutions, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, that expressed their interest in joining the photography hackathon event in Leuven next February.

For more information about the conference and the program you can visit http://www.digital-heritage.org.il/digital-heritage/

E-Space Pilot on Open & Hybrid Publishing is organizing an exhibition of still and moving image works

Photomediations: a call for creative works

The editors of Photomediations: An Open Book are working with the Europeana Space Best Practice Network to curate an exhibition (both online and physical), and recently were calling out to the photographic community to submit works for consideration.

We were looking for still and/or moving image works (as well as post-digital collages, installations and sculptures), that creatively reuse – in the form of mashups, collages, montages, tributes or pastiches – one or more original image files taken from the Europeana repository of cultural artefacts. Europeana contains millions of items from a range of Europe’s leading galleries, libraries, archives and museums: books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, television and film, sculpture and crafts, diaries and maps, sheet music and recordings. Renowned names such as the British Library in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Louvre in Paris are featured alongside smaller organisations across Europe. Whether you find a celebrated piece or a lesser-known work, Europeana connects you directly to the original source material.

For further information about the exhibition please visit Photomediations website.

Should you have any questions, please contact us.

This exhibition is part of Europeana Space, a project funded by the European Union’s ICT Policy Support Programme under GA n° 621037.

Visit this new website to access to the complete set of results made available by the project!

Launched the RICHES Resources website

The RICHES Consortium launched in November 2015 a new website dedicated to the RICHES resources, where all the main outcomes of the project (reports, publications, toolkits, links, etc.) are made available for any interested users.

The results of RICHES’ research fields and activities can be classified in the following two main areas:

Resources related to RESEARCH, which include: scientific publications; co-creation practices and toolkits; a taxonomy aimed at outlining the conceptual field of digital technologies applied to cultural heritage; an interactive showcase presenting case studies related to the status of digital heritage mediated by memory institutions, such as libraries and museums, allowing interested users to contribute other relevant suggestions; other case study reports such as virtual performances.
Resources related to POLICIES, which include: policy reports and recommendations to support the development of new policy for enhancing cultural heritage; foresight studies to support the development of strategic agendas and joint programming in Europe; reports of the Policy Seminars organised by the project; information about the networking activities and how to join the RICHES network; list of useful links to European, National and International policies on cultural heritage.

Visit the RICHES resources website to access to the complete set of results made available by the project!

Next meeting of the Group is scheduled in September 2016. The Call for Papers closes on 15 January 2016.

ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group / Call for Papers

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Photographic Materials Working Group of ICOM-CC are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the 2016 Photographic Materials Working Group Interim Meeting, scheduled for 21 – 24 September 2016 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Meeting theme: Uniques & Multiples. This meeting is an important gathering of photograph conservators and historians from all over the world. Past meetings have been held in Wellington, Athens, Rochester, and Paris, among other locations. The 2016 meeting will be comprised of two days of workshops and tours (21-22 September, optional) followed by two days of lectures and a poster display (23-24 September).

The Call for Paper is available here and the deadline is 15 January 2016.

Photo, anonymous, 1884 – 1892

We’re looking for short stories related to the inscriptions featured in the EAGLE Collections

EAGLE 1st Short Storytelling Contest

A touch reading of a partially-faded inscription in the catacombs of St. Alexander on via Nomentana in Rome. Picture by Giorgio Crimi.

Deadline: January 26, 2016

We’re looking for short stories! Think you can write a winning story in 2500 words or less? Enter the 1st EAGLE Short Story Contest for your chance to win Euro Amazon Voucher for up to 200 Euross, get published in EAGLE Portal and Storytelling Application and participate in the EAGLE 2016 Conference! Stories must be related to one (or more) of the inscriptions featured in one (or more) of the EAGLE Collections. Stories can be in English or any other European language, as long as you provide a 250 word abstract in English. Stories must be accessible to the public and must make use of as much multimedia (music, videos, interactive presentations, linked open data) as possible. Authors are strongly encouraged to make use of the Storytelling App. Examples can be found here.

Prizes

One First Place Winner will receive:

200 Euro Amazon Voucher
Publication of the short story title on the EAGLE portal and featured in the EAGLE Storytelling application.
A digital copy of the 2nd EAGLE International Conference Proceedings.

One Second Place Winner will receive:

100 Euro Amazon Voucher
Publication of the short story title on the EAGLE portal and featured in the EAGLE Storytelling application.
A digital copy of the 2nd EAGLE International Conference Proceedings.

How to Enter

Enter online through the EAGLE Storytelling App or submit your entry via regular email to: info@eagle-network.eu.
All entries must be accompanied by an Entry Form.
You may enter more than one story.
Your entry must be original, in English or any other European language but accompanied by an 250 word abstract in English.
Your story must be unpublished at the time of submission.
CHECK YOUR WORD COUNT! Entries exceeding the word limit will be disqualified.
For more information on the Storytelling App visit our Tutorial Center.
Click here for a Entry form. It is to be used for entries submitted via regular email.

Info:

Francesco Mambrini – francesco.mambrini@dainst.de

Raffaella Santucci – raffaella.santucci@uniroma1.it

a project plenary + a public workshop were hosted by partner SPK

Important RICHES days in Berlin

Jointed with the Civic Epistemologies final conference, partner SPK hosted the RICHES consortium for a double event in Berklin: the project plenary and the workshop session during the conference. On the 10 and 11 November 2015, the plenary meeting of the RICHES partners allowed the group to look back to the progress of the project so far, and to plan the next important steps, especially the next events to be organized in 2016:

a second policy seminar in Brussels (read more on the outcomes of the first one here)
the final conference of the project in Amsterdam (to be announced soon!)

An important research action was inaugurated in the plenary and will involve all the partners and affiliate partners of the project: a questionnaire about PPP Public-Private Partnerships, which will constitute the basis of the RICHES task on developing guidelines about this particular form of agreements for project implementation.

On the 12 and 13, the final conference of Civic Epistemologies took place at the museum of contemporary art of Hamburger-Bahnhof, entitled Digital Heritage and Innovation, Engagement and Identity. A session of the conference was organized together with RICHES in the form of a workshop presenting various case studies of community engagement and co-creation with cultural heritage and practices. The workshop, entitled Community-Led Redesign of Cultural Heritage, was very interesting, especially for its multidisciplinary and multisectorial approcah, that enriched the Civic Epistemologies conference with different perspectives on the wide theme of citizen participation in cultural heritage.

The presentations discussed during the session are available in the conference page and video recordings will be published soon.

practical on-field activity by MEMOLA project partner

Reconstructing historical dwellings in Albania

MEMOLA project (MEditerranean Mountainous LAndscapes) is an interdisciplinary approach to cultural landscapes of Mediterranean mountainous areas, taking as a central axis the historical study of two natural resources essential to generate agro-systems: water and soil. During October 2015, CeRPHAAL (MEMOLA partner), in collaboration with the municipality of Përmet, students from “University of “Aleksandër Xhuvani”, Elbasan, and volunteers from the Vlahos community of the Valley, constructed an historical Vlahos dwelling, locally known as Kalidhe or Kalive.

The main scope of the activity was to materialize and reify the construction memory of these historical dwelling, which have been in use in the area until the 60’s of the last century. Its construction was important as it enabled to transmit to the new generations many of the forgotten historical knowledge’s and wisdoms, regarding the traditions, customs and ways of life of this community, which is an integral part of the history of the Upper Vjosa Valley.

In addition, the construction is an experiment in the field of archaeology, which attempts to generate constructions elements and features from residential or service structures of the Early Medieval Period identified in the region.

http://www.memolaproject.eu/node/1036

Brussels, 16 December 2015

Thinking ahead sustainability – FLAGSHIP Final Conference

The FLAGSHIP final public conference will be held on December 16, 2015, at CEPS premises (Centre for European Policy Studies), Congresplaats 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, with the title of “Thinking ahead sustainably: Policies, Scenarios and Models to address Grand Societal Challenges”.

FLAGSHIP is an FP7 project, funded by the European Commission (DG RESEARCH) under the “Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities” theme, with the aim of developing a “Forward Looking Analysis of Grand Societal Challenges and Innovative Policies”. The FLAGSHIP project thus aims at driving change, supporting the policy shift from adapting to changes through short-term policy responses, towards anticipating, welcoming and managing changes properly.

FLAGSHIP expected impacts:

Development of policy applications, through the production of a set of concrete policy recommendations for European institutions, and all stakeholders striving to exploit the potential of transition and change for the future of the European Union;
Enhancement of FLA methodological approaches, through the development of an enhanced set of FLA quantitative and qualitative tools, methods and models.

The event welcomes scientists and researchers, representatives of the European Commission, policy makers, civil society and other relevant stakeholders.

Download the programme (PDF, 749 Kb)

During this event, the FLAGSHIP Reference Document will be presented. This document is the main output of the project and it includes a set of EU-relevant policy recommendations on the potential of transition and change for the future of the EU. Information exchanged during the conference will lead to an updated (and a definitive final version) of the FLAGSHIP Reference Document.

Registrations at FLAGSHIP website.

Brussels, 15 December 2015

The human factor in energy transition & security towards 2050 – seminar by MILESECURE project

The International Seminar “THE HUMAN FACTOR IN ENERGY TRANSITION & SECURITY TOWARDS 2050” aims at discussing the above topic, presenting the final results of the EU MILESECURE-2050 project.

The project work-programme was articulated in three main stages. At the first stage, both a study of European main trends and policies and an analysis of a set of 90 “anticipatory experiences” of the transition towards low carbon society were conducted. At the second stage, the knowledge deriving from the above two studies was embodied in innovative forecasting models and scenarios. At the third stage, policy guidelines and a manifesto on the transition were drafted.

Following the project structure, this Seminar is organized around three key issues: Multidimensional Knowledge, Innovative Models and Effective Policies. For each of these issues, a paper highlights the main research outputs and stimulates discussion with European experts, energy stakeholders and policy makers in a specific working session.

Programme and Registrations: http://www.milesecure2050.eu/en/international-seminars

One experienced researcher needed at Cyprus University of Technology in Limassol

4D-CH-World Marie Curie IAPP Programme seeking for candidates – deadline 16th November 2015

Applications are invited from candidates who possess the necessary qualifications in order to fill one full time Marie Curie Research Fellow Position within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Informatics in the field of 3D Reconstruction and Computer Vision in Cultural Heritage:

The Marie Curie Fellow will work within the 4D-CH-World Marie Curie IAPP Programme. 4D-CH-World is a major EU funded programme which brings together six (6) leading European partners in a transnational network, aiming at implementing a multidisciplinary and intersectorial research and training programme between the academic and the industrial partners in the field of Computer Graphics, Digital Libraries and Cultural Heritage.
The project 4D-CH-World will analyze, design, research, develop and validate an innovative system integrating the latest advances in computer vision and learning, as well as, 3D modeling and virtual reality for the rapid and cost-effective 4D maps reconstruction in the wild for personal use, and support the aim of our European Commons and the digital libraries EUROPEANA and UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) to build a sense of a shared European cultural history and identity. Specifically, we are interested in the development of a fully automated time-varying 3D model engine for cultural heritage urban environments from a large collection of historical images, in order to fulfill professionals and organizations needs for more versatile functionalities, offering not only access and retrieval of high quality content but also supporting more sophisticated functionalities such as interoperable (metadata) cultural object descriptions, immersion of content into diverse (educational / cultural / research) contexts, 3D reconstruction of (partially) damaged artefacts.

The Marie Curie Fellow (One Experienced Researcher-ER) will be based at the Cyprus University of Technology/Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Informatics (Digital Heritage Research Lab) in Limassol, Cyprus and will benefit also from the projects transfer of knowledge and other complementary training activities and short placements at other European partners of the 4D-CH-World Consortium.

Download the call (PDF, 196 Kb)