Digital meets Culture

The Church of San Pellegrino hosted the first training session of the pilot.

First training session of INCULTUM’s San Pellegrino in Alpe

Text and images courtesy of University of Pisa.

img. courtesy: University of Pisa

On 15th May 2023, from 6pm to 8pm (CEST), took place the first of a series of training sessions organized by the University of Pisa with the local stakeholders, hosted in the Church of San Pellegrino in Alpe, where the exhibition “San Pellegrino: una storia di confine” is set up.

[Show as slideshow]

Tourism and economic operators and hotel managers of San Pellegrino in Alpe were glad to participate in the meetings, in which were discussed various topics, including INCULTUM project, the activities already completed regarding the Garfagnana pilot, the importance of connecting the stakeholders, and more.

Download the presentation (PDF, 6 Mb, Italian language)

Another part of the meeting provided an interactive session, where both the potential and threats of Garfagnana as a tourist destination were analysed. The stakeholders have been crucial in this part of the training session, proposing solutions about the local tourist offer and information and ideas that could be implemented during the next summer season.

The next meeting was held in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana on the 29th of May.

promoting rural and peri-urban areas in the Swedish archipelago and the great lakes of Sweden

Travelling to Sweden to visit the INCULTUM Pilot

All photos in this blog courtesy of Pietro Masi (Promoter s.r.l.)

On the occasion of the third project meeeting organized in Uppsala in April 2023, partner Promoter traveled to Sweden to visit the location of INCULTUM Pilot 10 Escape into the Archipelago Landscape. A unique feature of Swedish tourism is that Sweden has more than 250,000 islands (far more than any other country) located along the coasts or in the ca. 100,000 lakes.

Due to the low population density and a tourism that is mostly concentrated in urban areas, several parts of Sweden have rich archipelago amenities with low exposure to visitors. This unique under-developed rural landscape offers a number of coastal areas for recreation and tourism.

Three of the destinations facing this issue in Sweden are the island of Gotland, the Roslagen area, with its close geographical proximity to the capital of Sweden, and the largest inland island area of Torsö. With different distances to larger urban attractions, these places will constitute a comparative case. With an amplified understanding of tourists’ interests and behaviour patterns, the Pilot aims at gaining insight into how information and selection of activities can be designed during the tourists’ stay, so as to be able to meet their wishes. Understanding how to attract tourism to the more remote areas is highly prioritized among politicians and residents in Sweden.

The areas selected for the INCULTUM analysis are rural to peri-urban in nature and have a rich heritage of farming and forestry, mining/foundry or lake/canal sailing or fishing employment. A training and participative programme of encounters with local guides and other stakeholders, in Torsö, in Öregrund, and with students of Uppsala University is supporting the research, by sharing the insights on tourism behavious and discussing ideas of potential tourism development especially on sights and activities, information and communication, and transport and infrastructure.

The project will be displayed during Valentine Charles (Europeana Foundation) speech.

EUreka3D presented at “Shaping the world of 3D” workshop on 29 June

DANS, a Dutch institute specializing in research data management and based in The Hague, is organizing a workshop on 3D, ‘Shaping the world of 3D’, to discuss data management issues related to 3D datasets in cultural heritage and archaeological research, such as data storage and data formats.

The workshop will address the issues regarding the production of 3D models and visualisations, and more, by bringing together the Dutch research community dealing with 3D research data in cultural heritage. This day-long specific focus on 3D digital data with presentations by experts and open discussions, will result in a roadmap to improve the infrastructure for 3D dataset management and reuse.

Valentine Charles, Data Services Director at Europeana Foundation, will have the pleasure to intervene during this eminent workshop presenting EUreka3D, a project that supports the digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector, offering capacity building, training, and more to Cultural Heritage Institutions facing the challenge of advancing in the digitization effort.

To discover more about the workshop, its agenda and to register, follow this link.

Pisa, 27 May 2023, h. 9.00 - 21.00

XXI Maratona Fotografica IMAGO

Pisa’s cultural association Imago presents its XXI photographic marathon: 12 hours, 4 subjects, 1 passion.

The event is taking place in Pisa, on 27 May 2023, from 9.00 to 21.00 CEST.

Website: http://www.imagopisa.it/xxi-maratona-fotografica/

The Marathon will also be available as an online event for those who cannot participate in Pisa. Two sections are available: analogue photograph and digital photograph.

At the opening, the organizing committe will provide participants in the analogue section with a film for 36 shots, and will check the memory cards of participants in the digital section.

Organisers will communicate to the participants one subject every three hours (9.00, 12.00, 15.00, 18.00), which the participants are invited to immortalize in their photographs. The 4 subjects will be communicated also on the IMAGO’s online channels.

The historical bar in Pisa “La Tazza D’Oro” will offer creakfast and light lunch to the participants.

Within 21.00 o’clock the shots produced (max 36 images) will be submitted to the Organizing committe.

Attaining-Expertise-In-Professional-Photography

photo courtesy imago association

Additionally, out of the 36 images, participants are invited to deliver to the organisers 4 black & white or coloured photos (20×30 cm), fixed on black cardboards (30×40 cm), by the 14th of July. The images collected will be part of the exhibition in the XIII IMAGO PHOTOGRAPHIC MARATHON SHOW, being held in autumn 2023.

Registration fee: € 15,00 (digital) € 23,00 (analogue)

Deadline: 24th May 2023

Both projects are focused on the promotion of lesser-known areas, so that visitors can discover hidden heritage sites, rural museums and heritage stories, generating benefits to the local enviroment.

rurAllure and INCULTUM establish collaboration

INCULTUM and rurAllure projects recently established a collaboration agreement due to common themes, aims and actions. While rurAllure is more specifically focused on historical pilgrimage routes and INCULTUM expands to other types of lesser-known tourism, the promotion of cultural heritage in rural areas is a common thematic framework of both projects, This sets the basis for big opportunities for collaboration, synergies and cross-dissemination actions in the two projects.

The principal aim in INCULTUM is to foster bottom-up local strategies for sustainable cultural tourism, focusing, on the one hand, on hidden potentials in remote, peripheral or deindustrialized areas usually not taken into account and, on the other hand, on the experience, knowledge and participation of visitors. This is a value that rurAllure shares in the promotion of lesser-known areas, so that visitors can discover hidden heritage sites, rural museums and heritage stories, generating benefits to the local enviroment in terms of tourism and economic development.

The rurAllure project is focused on the promotion of rural museums and heritage sites in the vicinity of European pilgrimage routes, which have undoubtedly become a significant economic and political asset for Europe, but their impact is almost exclusively perceived in the places located directly on the paths, rarely permeating into the surrounding rural areas. Thus, entire provinces and regions of a predominantly rural nature, which are facing significant economic and demographic challenges all over Europe become passive witnesses of the flows of pilgrims, whereas they could actually add much of content and value to the experiences.

The rurAllure pilgrims’ portal allows walkers and travellers build customised travel itineraries, planning their trips along the historic routes according to their interests and learn more about the surrounding heritage. The portal also provides local economic actors with a space to share their services to the world-wide pilgrim community.

Read more on rurAllure website: https://rurallure.eu/

CitizenHeritage multiplier event - Athens, 29th May 2023

Citizen Science in Cultural Heritage: practices and digital technologies

Wedding dance, Litohoro, Olympus di Άγνωστος δημιουργός – 1979 – Greece – CC BY-NC-ND.

Athens, 29 May 2023

Hybrid event at the National Technical University of Athens Library and online

h. 14-17 CEST

The event organized by the National Technical University of Athens, explores good practices of citizen science in cultural heritage and the use of digital technologies in this context. It is an hybrid event organized in Athens and online.

As part of CitizenHeritage, this workshop will explore citizen science practices in cultural heritage, drawing from various successful case studies in the field and considering methodological aspects, the use of digital technologies, and lessons learnt in this context.

The event approaches the topic from a multidisciplinary perspective, featuring presenters with various expertise, from humanities and education to technical providers and computer science researchers.

Agenda and registration link: https://www.citizenheritage.eu/multiplier-events/athens/

The event was organized in collaboration with the municipality for stakeholders interested in destination development.

INCULTUM Pilot: training workshop in Öregrund (Sweden)

text and images courtesy of dr. Sabine Gebert Persson, Associatate professor
Uppsala University

On April 4^th 2023 Uppsala University team responsible for INCULTUM Pilot 10 Escape into the Archipelago Landscape, participated in a workshop in Öregrund arranged with the DMO of Östhammar municipality for actors interested in destination development. At the workshop, Pilot 10 together with students from Uppsala University presented results from the summer of 2022 analysis and initiated discussions with 25 representatives from among others Öregrundsrådet, pensionat Ankargården, Hotell Floras Trädgård, Öregrund folklore society, and Tallparkens Vänner. As a result, two work groups will be responsible for developing itineraries through Öregrund (as a way to make visitors see and experience more), and one group working on where and how to use signs and maps at different locations.

View Presentation (Swedish language) – PDF 5Mb

online, 15 May 2023

Be.CULTOUR webinar: Values-based innovative marketing for less-known cultural tourism destinations

The Be.CULTOUR project, focused on enhancing cultural heritage and landscape values for sustainable cultural tourism, is launching a new series of webinars to boost peer learning among its Community of Interest and other followers. Various experts and on-field stakeholders will be invited to present and discuss their innovative ideas, their progress and their challenges concerning cultural tourism and beyond. The main purpose is to learn from peers and acknowledge the best practices from the field: where the challenges lay and how to face them. Given that Be.CULTOUR and INCULTUM established a cooperation agreement for cross-dissemination and knowledge exchange, the webinar series is promoted also via the INCULTUM channels and and in the INCULTUM network.

Webinar 4: Values-based innovative marketing for less-known cultural tourism destinations – 15 May 2023

Among the trends that are shaping the future of travel and the emerging visitors’ need, sustainability plays a key role. A recent Amadeus-commissioned survey found that two-thirds of consumers consider sustainable travel a priority, and 37% of respondents think opportunities for travellers to be involved in the preservation of tourist destinations will help the industry to become more sustainable in the long-term. At the same time, cultural tourism represents a great opportunity for smaller and lesser-known destinations. According to the UNWTO, 50% of travellers are driven by the desire to visit and experience the cultural heritage of the destinations they visit.
Therefore, it becomes increasingly important for destinations to create, develop and promote a sustainable and creative offer to attract new and conscious visitors.
In this webinar we will look at international examples of effective tourism promotion based on culture and sustainability and we’ll get to know the case study of the Ruhr region and the Gelsenkirchen area, that will bring a practical perspective to participants to develop their tourism offer.

Registration is accessible from https://becultour.eu/becultour-webinars

The list of all other topics addressed includes:

Understanding the European value of cultural heritage: Power of networks – 24 March 2023
Innovative solutions for circular cultural tourism – 21 April 2023
Values-based innovative marketing for less-known cultural tourism destinations – 15 May 2023
Community-led and innovative entrepreneurship for circular cultural tourism – 23 June 2023
Creative tourism and the role of arts, interpretation and storytelling – September 2023
Circular economy implementation in the tourism sector – October 2023
Innovative finance for circular cultural tourism – November 2023
Smart data management for circular cultural tourism assessment and monitoring – December 2023

Relevant information will be published in due time on the website of the project here.

Be.CULTOUR stands for “Beyond CULtural TOURism: heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centred and circular tourism economy”. It expresses the goal to move beyond tourism through a longer-term human-centred development perspective, enhancing cultural heritage and landscape values.

Read more about the project in the official website: https://becultour.eu/

The Festival will take place from 6 to 10 September 2023

Ars Electronica Festival 2023: “Who Owns The Truth?”

Ars Electronica Festival 2023 / Photo: Created with the AI-System DALL·E2

From 6 to 1o September 2023, the Ars Electronica Festival for art, technology and society once again invites artists, scientists, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and activists from all over the world to Linz, Austria, to attend the festival.

Ars Electronica has accompanied the ongoing digitalization of our lives since 1979. It poses questions about the political, social, ecological, and economic consequences, and speculates on the future forms that technological progress will take. Embedded in a worldwide network of artists, scientists, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and activists, Ars Electronica constantly advances this research – both within and together with the widest possible public. Whether with exhibitions, conferences, concerts, performances, or interventions – the goal has always been to push forward a discourse and promote inclusive and sustainable visions of the future.

This year’s theme by Europe’s largest festival for art, technology and society will focus on the following question: “Who Owns the Truth?”. This theme aims directly at key disputed topics of our time: truth and ownership, interpretive authority and sovereignty, specifically focusing on Artificial Intelligence performances: Ars Electronica 2023 is about demonstrating how artists from all over the world, through collaboration as well as confrontation with technology and society, are working on this topic.

This year, the festival has secured numerous partnerships with leading names in the arts and culture industry, such as the Museo Nacional del Prado and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Grand Palais Immersif in Paris, the Salzburg Festival, and the Biennale Musica 2023 Venezia. Additionally, renowned organizations like MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan, WRO Media Art Biennale in Wrocław, Leonardo – The International Society of Arts, Sciences, and Technology, and Arizona State University will also be participating. Notably, two European Capitals of Culture, Bad Ischl 2024 and Oulu (Finland) 2026, will also be involved in the festival this autumn.

Discover more about the festival at this link.

the third project meeting took place 27-29 April 2023

INCULTUM meeting, impressions from Uppsala

Hosted by partner Uppsala University, also leading the INCULTUM Pilot 10 Escape into the Archipelago Landscape, a friendly project meeting was organized to mark the conclusion of INCULTUM’s second year of work, and to review the progress and challenges. All the partners gathered on the occasion, to present the achievements in the various tasks and to discuss about innovation in cultural tourism, participatory approaches to local promotion and impact of the actions on the various stakeholders.

In specific, the 10 Pilots were illustrated in detail, focusing on the activities deployed to foster participation and training of the local communities in managing the territories and enhancing their tourism potential.

[Show as slideshow]