Digital meets Culture

deadline for applicants is 31 March 2023. The report is planned for publication in September 2023.

Call for researcher – Upcoming NEMO report on climate policies for museums

The Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) is looking to hire a researcher who will conduct and compile the research for a report on climate related policies that address museums in the 27 member states of the European Union. The Study should be finalised by 1 September 2023.

Find more details in the call for proposals. Apply by sending a proposal until 31 March.

The Study will contain:

An executive summary of the research; a general introduction to the investigated climate policies and how they relate to museums generally; a compilation of climate related policies addressing museums in Europe (EU-27) on national, regional and local level; a compilation of good examples of museums from different countries implementing and utilizing climate policies in their operations; and a practical guide for museums to utilize and implement climate related policies that address them in their museum work.

the event by Scivil is organized in Brussels on 31 May 2023

Scivil Workshop: Shared challenges in citizen science

image from Scivil’s website

Scivil is a knowledge centre for citizen science in Belgium, which recently initiated a collaboration with Citizen Heritage project due to the common mission of enhancing citizen science in various domains.

In Brussels on 31st May Scivil is organizing an event to bring together three different stakeholder groups in citizen science: academia, local governments and musea, libraries or heritage institutes, to discuss common challenges they face in citizen science.

The event is composed of three workshops to discuss these challenges and come up with possible solutions together. The three parallel workshops focus on 1) museums, libraries and archives, 2) local governments, 3) supporting citizen science in your organization. The event as a learning and networking opportunity for initiators or interested parties in citizen science.

When? Wednesday 31 May 12:30 – 4:00 PM
Where? Hendrik Conscience building (King Albert II-laan 15, 1210 Brussels)
Participation price: free
Language of instruction: Dutch

Event’s webpage and registration (Dutch language): https://www.scivil.be/en/node/495

Brussels (Belgium) and online, 5th May 2023

European Tourism Day 2023

The European Tourism Day is organized on 5 May 2023 from 9:00, in the Charlemagne Building of the European Commission in Brussels and online.

This event will be an opportunity to discuss the state of tourism in the EU in the context of the green and digital transitions, to follow-up on the Tourism Transition Pathway and to share best practices for its co-implementation.

Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton will open the event and exchange with tourism stakeholders in an orientation debate entitled: ‘How to create a resilient, world-leading tourism ecosystem with innovative SMEs and thriving communities?’.

Panellists will then debate in three dedicated sessions:

Digitalisation of tourism: towards the data space for EU tourism
Green transition: sustainable tourism services and destinations
Skilling and upskilling of tourism actors

The conference will be a one-day, onsite high-level meeting with the possibility for additional audience to follow via web-streaming. The session will feature simultaneous interpretation in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

The final agenda of the European Tourism Day 2023 will soon be available on the event’s webpage.

REGISTRATION:

To attend the European Tourism Day 2023 conference onsite, you are invited to register via the link below.

https://scic.ec.europa.eu/ew/register/dgscic/European_Tourism_Day_Brussels_May_2023/e/lk/g/55940/k/

STREAMING:

Should you prefer to attend the event online, no registration is needed. You will be able to follow live on: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/events/european-tourism-day-2023-2023-05-05_en

If you wish to have additional information about:

topics and roll-out of the event, please contact: GROW-ETD@ec.europa.eu
logistics, please contact growETD2023@cecoforma.com

With the help of mixed reality, visitors and users of HoloLens 2 glasses go into the past, where they try to find their way and find all the ingredients needed to make bread.

Mixed reality educational game in the Rogatec Open-Air Museum

Text and media by Rok Kremžar, Pro Virtuala

Digitalisation of cultural heritage has been a growing trend in recent years, allowing museums and other institutions to share their collections with a wider audience. One of the latest innovations in this field is the use of mixed reality technology and HoloLens 2 smart glasses, which enable visitors to experience cultural heritage in a whole new way. One such example is the Rogatec Open-Air Museum, which has created the world’s first and only game that uses HoloLens 2 and MR technology to showcase and bring cultural heritage to life.

The museum’s interactive game takes visitors on a journey through the history of bread-making. Using the HoloLens 2 glasses, visitors can explore and solve farm tasks in a gamified experience that reveals the effort, time, and tasks that were once necessary to create bread from a grain of wheat. By completing the tasks successfully, visitors receive rewards and gain a deeper understanding of the laborious process of making bread in the past.

This innovative approach to cultural heritage offers a fun and engaging learning experience that encourages movement and coordination skills while immersing visitors in the natural surroundings of the open-air museum. The HoloLens 2 glasses are suitable for both adults and children over the age of 7, making it a perfect family activity for those interested in history and technology.

To experience this one-of-a-kind game, visitors must reserve a time slot through the museum’s website, www.rogatec.si. The glasses are available in good weather conditions and at temperatures above 10⁰ C and below 32⁰ C also with the possibility of playing in different languages (Slovenian, English, German, Italian, Croatian, Serbian and Russian). This use of HoloLens 2 technology at the Rogatec Open-Air Museum showcases the limitless possibilities of digitalisation in the cultural heritage field and offers a glimpse into the future of immersive museum experiences.

More information: https://www.rogatec.si/en/unique-experience-with-hololens-glasses/

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CitizenHeritage multiplier event - Rotterdam, 24th March 2023

CitizenHeritage: A new participatory practice

Hosted by the Erasmus University and preceded by a variety of students’ activities, this multiplier event of the CitizenHeritage project delivered selected presentations from academic colleagues at the University as well as presentations by CitizenHeritage partners who shared with the audience recent research on participatory approaches in cultural heritage and stories from the project’s journey so far, also in the light of gaining feedback from participant students, CHIs, colleagues, and the general audience. The presentations are available in the project’s website.

23 March: Workshop sessions

24 March:

9.00-12.30 Conference

14.00-17.00 Transnational project meeting (Citizen Heritage partners only)

Event’s webpage: https://www.citizenheritage.eu/multiplier-events/rotterdam/

led by Matej Bel University, creative training for the University students was organised with a challenge to create proposals for the logo of Slovakia Mining Treasures

Training students in the creation of a visual identity for the local cultural heritage

The mining site in Spania Dolina – photo by Pietro Masi CC-BY-SA

Matej Bel University is coordinating an impressive action for territorial and tourist promotion in the INCULTUM Pilot 3 Mining Treasures of Central Slovakia in the region which has significant cultural and technical heritage related to its mining history. As part of this work, a new website was recently developed in the Pilot to offer information and other servics that promote the area and its touristic offer. In the context of this action, in the period February-march 2022 a creative training for the University students was organised together with the ICT company that is in charge of the web platform, with the scope of engaging students in a challenge to create proposals for the logo and visual identity of the website “Mining Treasures of Central Slovakia” (mining treasures = banícke poklady).

Elements of the visual identity

The main communication channel is the website, which already has a predefined font and colour palette. These two brand codes should be used in the resulting visual identity and should not be replaced by other colours and fonts.

Training for logo design: The mining treasure logo should have an information function, not a communication function. A logo is not a sentence; a logo is a period at the end of a sentence, therefore, it must meet the following criteria:

Appropriateness: the logo must be appropriate, not expressive, the less it communicates, the better. The logo must fit exactly into the identity.
Distinctiveness: The logo must be distinctive enough and clear.
Simplicity: The logo must not contain many layers that complicate it. It must be easy to read, it must work in very small and large sizes, and at the same time in a monochrome version.

The final logo design was completed together with a professional typographer. Therefore, the quality of the concept was important, not the final visual processing. Furthermore, the students received training on font and colour palette. This was important because on the website, we use a wider colour palette, primarily from a functional point of view, so that we can distinguish the categories of activities. A more concise version is sufficient for communication. For the identity, it is necessary to select from the web palette the primary colour or colours that we will use on the communication media and define how to use them. Finally, the importance of the graphic element was explained. A graphic element can be part of a logo, a pattern, or anything else that helps us unify identity applications. It is necessary to define how all these brand codes will be used on social networks, as banners, in presentations or videos. Therefore, it is necessary to show the identity in context, for example, on social media post activity, universal cover, as a title page of a printed brochure about mining treasures or gift bag.

Outcomes

Based on the training received, 31 students created small working groups and worked several weeks independently on the visual identity of the mining treasures. Their work led to the creation of 19 proposals for the visual identity, logo, and design manual of the interactive mining treasures platform. Numerous interesting and relevant proposals for the logo were received, so it was quite challenging to choose the winning logo that will represent the “Mining Treasures of Central Slovakia” (mining treasures = banícke poklady).

The winning logo design is:

The logotype consists of the abstract symbolism of mining, a hammer, which is interspersed with a cross as a sign used in the context of marking a place, a goal, etc. (treasure). The logotype as a whole thus refers to the discovery and wandering of “mining treasures”.

The winning logo design was modified by the designers into the final form that we use on the platform, social networks, in presentations, materials, and documents. The winning logo was embedded with a pin symbol, which we use to indicate activity on the platform map. The pin sign also appeared in other student logo designs.

Number of students trained: 31

Number of proposals for visual identity: 19

Final visual identity and logo design: 1

Language: Slovak

All students who participated in this training received participation certificates.

In February-March 2023 the partners had online meetings for four days, with the participating of the teachers and the students.

Update on Erasmus+ Project “From Intangible Expression to Digital Cultural Heritage”

text and images in this post courtesy of the project “From Intangible Expression to Digital Cultural Heritage”.

Erasmus+ Project “From Intangible Expression to Digital Cultural Heritage” includes partners from Turkey, Italy and Bulgaria and aims at boosting introduction of national as well as European intangible cultural heritage subjects with innovative technological methods in primary schools.

On 27th of February the team had its first meeting. One the first day of the event started with a story of Tim’s Adventures in Italy, duty of the Italian partner. During the visit to Italy the team did their activities while visiting many cultural sites.

On the second day of the meeting Turkey team had to write an article about The Caves of Stiffe, which the team visited on its fifth day in Italy. The article was read by the participants from Turkey and it was shared with the other partners.

On the third day of the meeting both Turkey and Bulgaria teams had the pleasure to write articles about the places which had been visited during the first horizontal meeting in Italy. Firstly Bulgaria team shared their article about Celebration of European Cultural Heritage, and with the help of this article an opportunity to remmeber The Celebration of European Cultural day was given, taking place in Italian school Instituto Comprensivo “B. Croce”. On this same day every group presented their culture to the others, displaying their stands presenting materials from each countries, such as traditional games, folk dances, foods, costumes and so on.

Afterwards Turkey team gave some information about the fascinating village Aielli, which they visited trying to find wall paintings by different artists with a map, like a orienteering game. In Aielli the team also visited the Astronomical Observatory tower, “Torre Delle Stelle”.

On the last day of the meeting Bulgaria team presented their article about the Italian Capital Culture 2022, Procida.

You can find out all the articles that were shared on the online meeting by following this link.

Two days of fruitful discussion guest to Goldsmiths, University of London

UNCHARTED Central Event in London

The members of Uncharted Consortium – Courtesy of Goldsmiths

The UNCHARTHED Central Event was held last 12-13 January 2023 in the fantastic location of Goldsmith University of London and saw the participation of entire consortium, project advisory board members and many invited stakeholders involved in the project.

It was an opportunity to discuss and debate collectively about the tensions in societal values of culture reflecting if the value conflicts be managed or mitigated.

The event opened with a Symposium, a one-day public debate to present the findings of the project to a broader

A moment of Symposium

audience which was also attended by invited stakeholders. The conference also included a poster exhibition which showcases empirical findings from primary case studies undertaken by the nine partners. The second day was dedicate to co-creation workshop of the UNCHARTED project, which has led to a productive comparison of the research and work planned by the five work packages.

The appointment is at the next meetings.

Poster exhibition, presentations delivered in London and video recording of the event are accessible online at the dedicated page on the project website. Stay tuned!

Goldsmiths Campus

The project and the Pilot of Campina del Faro are illustrated in the special edition of the newsletter special edition dedicated to Water, in March 2023

INCULTUM Pilot in Portugal presented at Almargem’s Newsletter

text and images in this post courtesy of University of Algarve.

INCULTUM project and Portuguese Pilot are disseminated in the news in the last issue of Almargem’s Newsletter (nº 36, March 2023), a special edition dedicated to Water. Almargem’s Newsletter has more than three thousand readers interested in subjects related to the landscape, heritage and local communities.

Entitled “Campina of Faro: Water heritage as a basis for community-based cultural tourism, in the scope of the INCULTUM European project“, the text written by prof. Desidério Batista focuses on the objectives of the INCULTUM and the Portuguese Pilot, the methodology used in its development and the innovative activities and solutions carried out in the pilot with the participation-collaboration of stakeholders and local communities.

Almargem – Association for the Defense of Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Algarve has a large experience of good practices of natural and cultural heritage revovery, and will participate in the next workshop (April 2023) that the University of Algarve is organizing in the scope of the Portuguese Pilot, in partnership with IN LOCO, an INCULTUM associated partner.

To read the last issue of Almargem’s Newsletter (Portuguese language), you can download the information bulletin here (PDF, 355 Kb)

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Share your thoughts about improving cultural heritage data in this survey open until March 27

Europeana survey about enrichments to cultural collections

img. CC-BY Wellcome Collection via Europeana. Geology: various uncut gemstones, and the substrate in which they are found.

In recent years, the volume of enrichment activities in the Europeana ecosystem has increased significantly, by adding new human and machine-generated metadata, transcriptions, subtitles, and other types of enrichments to cultural heritage data published in the Europeana website. As more and more enrichments are being produced by the Europeana Foundation and partners, the need for defining clear goals and expectations around them is also growing.

For this reason, Europeana has started working towards a policy for enrichments and has the necessity and the pleasure to invite cultural insstitutions in the process. To achieve that, infacts, it’s fundamental to understand the various stakes, practices, thoughts and opinions in the area of enrichments, and to do that, we would like to invite you to fill out a survey designed specifically for this purpose.

The survey has 22 questions, out of which nine are mandatory. The answers will help shape a vision and principles that will guide decisions and requirements for future enrichment activities.

The survey will be available until 27th of March.

More information and the link to the survey, which should not take more than 15 minutes to fill in, are available at this link.