Digital meets Culture

Berlin, 26-27 April - 5-6 July 2014

The Berlin Culture Hackathon: COD1NG DA V1NC1

The new perspectives arising from the making available cultural heritage for the digital space: Following the motto “Let them play with your toys!” (John Pugh, National Archives UK), the Culture Hackathon organizers aim at identifying in the context of the “Coding da Vinci” competition, what happens when cultural institutions start discussing and exchanging ideas with the developer community, the designer community, and the gaming community. The purpose has been to make the digital heritage available in a creative way. On the basis of open cultural data, prototypical applications shall arise in a common dialogue with cultural institutions and participants from all over Germany. The results will be awarded in the context of the competition. The organizers and participants have identified four basic challenges to address:

(1) MASH IT: The acquisition of knowledge and new insights by linking different data sets: The organizers provide 15 cultural datasets. They offer the API of the DDB. They bring forward the API Wikipedia. And they do have Open Street Map on board. The participants are now challenged to find their own way to deal with the available information and tools.

Challenge 1: What … are you doing with it? Mash it! Examples: Linked Open Data, Data Analysis, Mash-up, Establish an appropriate context

(2) MOVE IT: Allow more participation in culture and break down respective barriers: The curator selected items and work results. The museum guide shows the highlights of the collection. The audio guide provides music. And the audience usually looks and listens.

Challenge 2: Carry us an offer. Move it! Examples: User Experience, Augmented Reality, Social Media

(3) DISCOVER IT: Playful learning or assigning, cultural knowledge provision in a clear and comprehensive manner: Books are available in the library. Files and folders are in the archive. Paintings and sculptures are found in museums and galleries. There are different objects and a variety of respective approaches.

Challenge 3: How can you combine these objects together so that everyone can get access to them? Discover it! Examples: Guides, EduGames, Locate and Situate in Time and Space

(4) IMPROVE IT: Getting the collections of institutions offered and displayed in a more beautiful way or allowing to make better use of their – met and fulfil them a wish. Some memory institutions archive films, others preserve music or collect plants. Everything has to do with anything.

Challenge 4: How can you take a fresh look at stocks? How can we enrich the collections to the world’s knowledge? How should the tool box ¬ ¬ a culture device look like today? Improve it! Examples: Build Scrapers, Improve Data Quality, Tagging, Geo-Location

For further information visit codingdavinci.de.

http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PREFORMA_D2.1_Overall-Roadmap_v2.5.pdf

D2.1 Overall Roadmap

PREFORMA (PREservation FORMAts for culture information/e-archives) is a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) project co-funded by the European Commission under its FP7-ICT Programme. The main objective of the project is to give memory institutions full control of the process for testing the conformity of files to be ingested into their archives.

This shall be obtained by developing a set of tools which will enable the testing process to happen within an iteration that is under full control of the memory institutions. Research and development will be done by suppliers selected in a procurement process that follows the rules for tenders in public sector.

This deliverable provides an overall roadmap for the preparation of the request for tender and the selection of the technology suppliers that will be invited to take part in the project. It offers and overview of the legal and operational procedures and describes the process for gathering, analysing and defining the functional and technical specifications to be used in the Invitation to Tender. Furthermore, it gives guidelines for the tender procedure.

A separate section concludes with a general review of the main results in this deliverable.

University of Bologna, 27 May 2014

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

On the 27^th of May 2014, at Cappella Farnese of Palazzo d’Accursio, in Bologna, Electrical Engineer and Cognitive Psychologist Donald Norman presented his book The Design of Everyday Things, extended version of the initial edition The Psychology of Everyday Things (Italian title La caffettiera del masochista – il design degli oggetti quotidiani).

The event was organised by the University of Bologna, Degree Course in Design and Industrial Product, and was part of an open-to-all meeting cycle devoted to investigating the meaning of the surrounding things, the future preview, the sense of the human-centred design. The meeting cycle programme was the following:

14 March 2014, “Things between nature and artifice” – Italian Philosopher Remo Bodei talks with Andrea Borsari, Associate Professor of Architecture at Bologna’s University
2 May 2014, “Preview and building of the futures” – Professor of Social Prevision and Science Philosophy at Trento’s University Roberto Poli talks with Flaviano Celaschi, Professor of Design and Industrial Product at Bologna’s University
27 May 2014, “The design of Everyday Things” – Donald Norman talks with Sebastiano Bagnara, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Architecture Faculty of University of Sassari.

The meetings with the three international scholars were devoted to strengthening the technical and cultural competences of the young contemporary designers; the initiative was patronised by University of Bologna, Bologna Municipality, ADI (Association for Industrial Design), Urban Center Bologna (communication centre of Bologna city) and Italian publishing house Giunti Editore.

For more information:

http://www.magazine.unibo.it/calendario/2014/pensiero_e_progetto

download the programme

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London, 29 May and 5 June 2014

Capturing the intangible

Capturing the Intangible was a two-part event taking place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in London, on the 29th May and 5th June 2014, at 6-8pm.

A unique panel of speakers attended each evening. The panel consisted of four speakers and the evening begun with each speaker taking approximately ten minutes to introducing their relevant area of expertise in relation to the evening’s theme. A discussion session followed, including the opportunity for members of the audience to put questions to the panel.

The theme of the 29th May was The Heritage of Performance and Performance of Heritage.

A recent shift can be identified in the wider field of heritage discourse, which challenges materialist approaches to heritage and re-conceptualises heritage as a cultural process. No longer universally accepted as being inherently contained within the physical and tangible fabric of historic sites, buildings and objects, heritage is now being re-defined as the practice and discourse which take place at sites and with objects. Some might even suggest that all ‘heritage’ is, in fact, intangible.

One of the topical discussion areas which have emerged from this relatively new debate centres on performance – and performativity – in heritage:

Heritage wasn’t only about the past – though it was that too – it also wasn’t just about material things – though it was that as well – heritage was a process of engagement, an act of communication and an act of making meaning in and for the present
(Smith, Laurajane (2006) The Uses of Heritage, Oxon, Routledge, p. 1).

The aim of the panel discussion was to introduce the notion of intangible heritage and its relationship with performance. From this starting point, it focused on specific examples of the use of performance within heritage practice.

The theme of the 5th June was The Relevance of Memory to Creativity and Cultural Development in the Digital Age.

The evening consisted of guest speakers presenting/interpreting the title of the talk from their own discipline perspective. There was then space for discussion, debate and audience participation.

This studio talk engaged with new media narrative and investigated how new connectivity is changing cultural interpretation. The focus was on how increased digital connectivity is changing common notions of memory, identity and culture.

Memory was explored through the developing relationship between material and virtual culture, considering why the storing and reconstitution of memory is relevant to cultural development. The talk explored the evolution of creativity, communication and the new order of declassification.

Keynote speakers from the fields of Creativity, Science, Technology and Education were invited, with the aim of developing networks and fields of common interest. The event organisers are interested in expanding the potential of transdisciplinary research in Art & Design History, Material Culture, Memory, Narrative, Simulation, Identity, Technology, Curation and Education.

The aim of the panel discussion was to discuss the relevance of material knowledge to virtual culture, whilst considering the future role of the Cultural Institution.

For more information visit: http://capturingtheintangible.wordpress.com/home/

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Mainz, Germany, 7 May 2014

PREFORMA presented at the Yearly Assembly of German Museum Association

On 7 May 2014 PREFORMA project was presented at the Yearly Assembly of German Museum Association.

The event, organised by the German Museum Association (DMB), brought together IT and documentation professionals in museums as well as representatives of German national projects in the cultural heritage sector.

A presentation of the project was delivered by Stefan Rohde-Enslin from SPK (Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) with the aim to familiarise the audience with the project and raise awareness that files have to be checked before being preserved.

Download here the presentation of PREFORMA.

the conferences of the EVA series are always a good moment of interaction with experts from all over the world

Eva Florence 2014, dissemination

Europeana Photography was present once again to the EVA conference in Florence, held on 7 – 8 May 2014.

A nice presentation by Emanuela Sesti of Fondazione Alinari highlighted to the present audience the progress of the project, and disseminated about the exhibition All Our Yesterdays, currently on show in Pisa until the 2nd June, and then travelling through Europe (next appointment: Leuven, January 2015).

The EVA Florence conference this year had as ususal a nice program of interesting speeches, and it is intended to be a forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology.

The 2014 event included a plenary conference and 3 workshops dedicated to International Cooperation, to Innovation and Enterprise and to e-Infrastructures for cultural content.

The meeting was organised to plan in bigger detail the upcoming activities of the 6 themed Pilots of the project.

EuropeanaSpace, creative & organizational meeting in Amsterdam

by Tiziana Lombardo, FST

On 15 and 16 May 2014 took place at Noterik‘s premises in Amsterdam the ESpace WP4 partners’ meeting. The event was organised to plan in bigger detail the upcoming activities of the 6 themed Pilots of the project (Museums, Open & Hybrid Publishing, Games, Dance, Photography, Europeana TV), to deeply discuss their scenarios and to prepare for the project’s Deliverable 4.2 that is exactly dedicated to the Pilots’ planning.

The first day was occupied with an interactive brainstorming session, facilitated by partner and WP4 leader iMinds, that saw 12 consortium members being busy with imagining future scenarios and visionary applications for the 6 pilots.

Thanks to a massive use of post-it and discussion, the “brainstorming” team exercised in developing 6 use cases scenarios, their applications, their feasibility and possible business model.

The brainstorming team has been rewarded with plenty of candies and mashmallows that were the brain gasoline of the whole afternoon session.

The second day saw an in-depth discussion on planning the delivery of the project market analisys and the structure and contents for deliverable 4.2. Hackathons and monetizing workshops, which will be organized later in the project to boost the pilots’ prototypes and results, were also roughly planned. The occasion of the meeting was also the good place to preliminary present and discuss the upcoming Opening Conference of Europeana Space, to be held in Venice in mid-October 2014 hosted by University of Venice.

The project members left the meeting with a full agenda for the upcoming weeks that will make the project run at full steam…. hopefully we still have some candies left!!

[Show as slideshow]

Colloquium held at Troubleyn and the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp

Thinking bodies, moving minds

From 15 to 17 May 2014, in Belgium, at the Troubleyn Theater (15-16 May) and the Royal Conservatoire (17 May) of Antwerp, it was held the colloquium Thinking bodies – Moving minds, which is a collaboration between the European platform Labo21, the Research Centre for Visual Poetics of the University of Antwerp and CORPoREAL, the research group of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerpen. The project is supported by the European Commission.

The event was focussed on the theme of performing arts; in the last years this field has witnessed a proliferation of research on artistic practice. Both within the artistic community and in the academic field there is a growing interest in the development of modes of documenting, analysing and archiving the stage-oeuvre and the methodologies of contemporary choreographers, directors and performance artists.

This colloquium aimed to make a current state of this new field of research and to critically reflect the position of artistic research in respect to the artistic practice and the academic field. In doing so it wanted to create new perspectives and enhance the dialogue with other fields of knowledge production.

LABO 21, or the laboratorium of the 21th century, is a European research platform that encompasses and contextualises the research projects on artistic methodologies of Wayne McGregor/Random Dance (UK), ICK Amsterdam (NL), Coventry University (UK), BADco. (HR) and Troubleyn/Jan Fabre (BE).

Despite of the variety of the propositions, the partners share the same objectives. They want to enhance and generate new understandings in performing arts by bringing the knowledge of performance and dance in conjunction with other fields such as cognitive science, biology and technology research, social science and philosophy. Labo21 focuses on interdisciplinary in which each partner brings in his own network and expertise. By bridging the gaps between these different disciplines the projects of Labo21 want to be a free space for performance as well as for the other sciences. LABO21 is funded with support from the European Commission.

Visual Poetics is a research group in theatre, film and related artistic media at the University of Antwerp, divided in 4 areas of research: performative, intermedial, artist’s and textual poetics.

CORPoREAL (Kathleen Coessens, Neal Leemput, Niko Raes, Aline Veiga Loureiro, Jan Schacher, Adilia Jip on Ying) is a collaborative interdisciplinary and trans-arts (music-dance-drama) artistic research group at the Conservatoire of Antwerp. CORPoREAL focusses upon embodied and sensorial interaction and knowledge in performance, investigating the ‘presentness’ of the artistic body in performance as the pivotal point, the point of oscillation that allows for the artistic act/work. The different artist researchers of CORPoREAL share, communicate and elaborate their experience and knowledge in dialogue and from their own diverse perspectives.

For more information visit:

http://troubleynjanfabre.tumblr.com/

http://www.labo21.eu/

http://www.visualpoetics.be/

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A Europeana Photography Exhibition in Sofia

by Evgeni Dimitrov, NALIS

In Bulgaria the whole month of May is a period when literature and culture in general are celebrated in a series of cultural events. This year one of the events in this series is the exhibition “Writers through the photographers’ lens“. It is organized by NALIS in the scope of the EuropeanaPhotography project.

40 luxury posters, with images of Bulgarian writers and literary groups from the time between the late 19^th and the early 20^th century, are exhibited in a passageway to the Sofia University underground station. This is a central location featuring institutions like the National Library, the Academy of Fine Arts etc.

During the next month the posters will be exhibited in other underground stations as well. The exhibition is organized in close cooperation with the National Museum of Literature.

The opening took place on the 15^th May 2014. Among the guests was Mr. Martin Ivanov – the President’s Secretary of Culture.

Mr. Dincho Krastev – CEO of NALIS – and Mrs. Katya Zografova – director of the National Museum of Literature presented the exhibition and the EuropenaPhotography project.

The opening and the exhibition received wide media coverage.

[Show as slideshow]

London, 16 July 2014

REMIX Summit for Culture, Tech, Entrepreneurship

The event brings together world class speakers from across industries to discover, share and explore new ways to build big ideas in the cultural and creative industries.

ABOUT REMIX

SUMMITS

REMIX Summits tackle the big ideas shaping the future of the cultural and creative industries. By brings together leaders from across industries they facilitate the exchange of ideas and insights, fostering dialog and collaboration.

ACADEMY

A radically new approach to cultural sector training. The Academy bringing the tools, knowledge and experience from entrepreneurs and world leading experts from a wide range of industries and packages them into master classes and workshops that help cultural organisations excel. Online master classes available soon via our partnership with The Guardian.

INSIGHTS

Our blog and videos from past REMIX summits are full of ideas and insights about the intersection of culture, technology and entrepreneurship. A source of inspiration for every cultural professional who wants to break the mould. Our latest book REMIX published by The Guardian explores emerging consumer and tech trends impacting culture. Intelligent Naivety our first publication is a handbook for the would-be cultural entrepreneur.

We are delighted to welcome some amazing speakers including:

Andrew Miller, CEO of Guardian Media Group
Leonora Thomson, Director of Audiences and Development, BarbicanPeter Williams, Founder and CEO of Jack Wills
Sally Tallant, Director of Liverpool Biennial
Stephen Godfroy, Co-Owner/Co-Director of Rough Trade
Brie Rogers Lowery, Country Director, UK, Change.org
Yana Peel, CEO of Intelligence Squared and Co-founder of Outset
Jo Vidler, Founder and Creative Director, Wilderness Festival
Ben Barokas, GM, Global Marketplace Development, Google
Susie Donaldson, Marketing Director, Canon UK
Rytis Vitkauskas, Co-founder and CEO of YPlan
Chris Whiteley, VP Digital Strategy & New Business Development, BBC Worldwide
Daniel Priestley, Author of the ‘Key Person of Influence’ and ‘Entrepreneur Revolution’
Hannah Barry, Founder, Hannah Barry Gallery and Bold Tendancies
Jon Bradford, Managing Director, Techstars
Diana Verde Nieto, CEO of Positiveluxury.com
Eric Van der Kleij, Technology entrepreneur and Head of Level39
Gavin Strange, Senior Designer, Aardman Animations
Andy Hewitt, Co-Founder, Gather.ly
Jenny Griffiths, Founder and CEO of Snap Fashion
Mary-Alice Stack, Chief Executive of Creative United

There will be over 30 speakers in total with more announced each week leading up to the event.

For information and tickets visit: www.remixsummit.com (early bid ticket deadline: 16/05/2014)

email: remix@culturelabel.com

We are the cultural entrepreneurs behind CultureLabel.com. A unique online superstore officially partnered with the leading museums and galleries from around the world including Tate, V&A, British Museum, Royal Academy, Saatchi Gallery.

We have always been passionate about combining culture, technology and entrepreneurship. We created REMIX as platform for this type of thinking and to be a bridge, connecting the different sectors together.

Venue: Level39 is Europe’s largest Financial Technology accelerator attracting entrepreneurial talent from around the world to the heart of London’s business community. On the 39th floor of the iconic One Canada Square tower, the state of the art venue has dramatic views across London that take the breath away.

One Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London E14 5AP
United Kingdom