Digital meets Culture

calling all artists experimenting with hybrid artistic practices at the boundaries of the performing and digital arts

Open Call for Artists: Little Islands Festival 2023

The Festival that connects the Aegean landscape and nature with Audiovisual Arts, Little Islands Festival (LIF) is addressing an open call towards all artistic communities experimenting with hybrid artistic practices at the boundaries of the performing and digital arts.

Can a small island be a source of inspiration for modern thought?

The 5th Little Islands Festival invites artists from the field of new media to submit proposals that engage with ecology, anthropology, and science in the enduring dialogue about the relationship between humanity and nature. The island frontier, which like life itself emerges from the liquid element, becomes the principal space for exploring modern contradictions of human geography through art.

In the Cyclades, Nature’s symbols and archetypal patterns -from habitation and cultivation to the need for connection with the sacred, indicated the human imprint on space. Natural constraints imposed by climate and geomorphology led human creativity to capture the “unpretentious”, the “primary” and the “essential” as a claim to the ”necessary”, composing a landscape that mirrors the islanders’ culture, history and values.

In this traditional rural landscape, which seems like it has remained unchanged, contemporary socio-cultural and economic transformations are reflected today. Hyper Tourism, climate change and globalization, as imprinted on space, emphasize the interdependencies between rural-urban and local-global. Yet, at the same time that they tend to erase legacies of the past, they contribute to their re-emergence.

With the power of art and technology, Little Islands Festival explores these interdependencies to rethink life, work, and cohabitation. The cycle of nature becomes the field of understanding and emergence of an imaginary that connects sense, mind, and knowledge and articulates what seems to be missing: an ecology as a common practice and under common control, multicultural, diverse and transcendent of the “human” world we live in.

Indicative fields of research

Site specific projects that explore cultural heritage in relation to the natural environment of Sikinos and the Cyclades in general: windmills, threshing floors, rural dwellings, dry stone walls, terraces, sacred and archaeological sites.
Works inspired by traditions, rituals, myths, customs in conversation with nature.
Works that explore movements and directions such as: Environmental Sociology, Eco-anarchism, Ecofeminism, Eco-communalism, Deep Ecology.
Artistic practices with an emphasis on participation.
Artistic workshops for children and adults on environmental awareness.

Included in the open call is the LIF Residency and Research Program 2023 where participants will be hosted in Sikinos island to create works inspired by the natural and cultural landscape of the island.

Proposal Categories

AudioVisual Performance – Silent Film & Live Soundscapes – Sound Art – music – Installation – Virtual Reality – Augmented Reality – 3D Projection Mapping -Site Specific Art – Workshops, Residency.

For more information and the application form: https://littleislandsfest.com/open-call-2023/

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#ecology #nature #environment #NewMediaArt #ART #digitalart #immersive #artist # sustainability # festival #cosmos #local #cyclades #sikinos #LIF # HumanGeographies

The book tells a path of participation and human-urban regeneration activated by the Municipality as part of Volterra 2022 Tuscan City of Culture

“L’Altra Volterra” presented at Palazzo dei Priori: a territorial exploration

Volterra, studied by UNCHARTED as a main case of WP5 experimental and demonstrations, returns to be talked about as a place where culture and participation meet, this time in the trace of urban regeneration.

The occasion was the presentation of the book “L’Altra Volterra: un’esplorazione territoriale tra attesa e rigenerazione” hold on on the 9th of December 2022. The volume tells the participatory process promoted by the Municipal Administration of the city of Volterra in 2021, with the support of the Tuscany Region, in continuity with the Human Regeneration project conceived for the candidacy of Volterra as Italian Capital of Culture. The process aimed at creating the context conditions favorable to the activation of a process of territorial regeneration through the rediscovery and reactivation of the underused or abandoned material heritage present in the municipal territory and the construction of possible strategies for its re-appropriation by the local communities.

The book, written by the professionals of Avventura Urbana srl, company that took care of the participatory process, according to the Mayor and the Councilor “represents a reference for the reconstruction of the collective history of Volterra and its territory” thanks to the restitution “analysis, lived stories, collective memory, suggestions, emotions and possible projects of human-urban regeneration: giving meaning to Volterra visible through the invisible Volterra”.

The presentation was attended by the authors of the book, Maddalena Rossi and Giulia Fiorentini, the Councillor for Participation of the Tuscany Region, Stefano Ciuoffo, and the Councillor for Cultures of the Municipality of Volterra Dario Danti.

To learn more see the news in Italian language of Il Tirreno – Pisa.

The analysis involves the use of quantitative and qualitative data from official statistics, as well as novel data collected through innovative data collection processes.

Sharing the intermediate findings of INCULTUM Data Analysis

It is now available in the project’s website the recently released D3.2 Intermediate findings presentation for Data Analysis, an extensive document which provides apreliminary results of data analysis focused on the 10 Pilot cases study areas in INCULTUM project. We focus on three key areas that help us to establish a pre-pilot baseline: pre-pilot data collection by the pilot partners, pre-pilot trends in urban and regional development and tourism, and identification of proposed control regions.

This deliverable was curated by Data Analysis WP leader SDU and presented findings from before the pilot phases for destinations where innovative approaches are introduced and for the proposed control regions. In particular, we discussed the data collection processes being implemented on the pilot level, we illustrated the urban and regional development and tourism activity of the pilot regions, and we presented the proposed control regions that will be used as a counterfactual to shed light on the short- to medium-term effects of the pilot actions.

We also outlined a number of challenges faced during the completion of the deliverable. We identified a number of issues related to data availability, as well as the impact of COVID. We also outlined a number of challenges that we may face as we progress with the remainder of the working package tasks. Where possible, we have discussed solutions
to these challenges and ways that we may turn these challenges into opportunities.

The full deliverable can be consulted from this page along with all the other public deliverables produced in the project.

Alicante (Spain) and online, 28 August - 01 September 2023

Urban Challenges and Sustainable Technological Revolution

The European Regional Science Association (ERSA) is the supranational grouping of national regional science associations across Europe.

ERSA Congress 2023: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION OPEN UNTIL 8 January 2023

This year’s edition will focus on “Urban Challenges and Sustainable Technological Revolution” with a comprehensive programme including a wide range of sessions by researchers and experts from all around the world.

The congress is aiming to feature the numerous urban challenges and innovation that will promote the sustainability on technological revolution in cities. It will bring together researchers from academia, the private and public sectors, also non-governmental organizations, in an effort to present and discuss prevalent urban and regional development issues and to share knowledge, viewpoints, methods and research outcomes.

With approximately 800 participants every year from all continents, the ERSA congress has become the largest academic conference in regional science worldwide. There is simply no better place to present your research results, get precious feedback and network as well as find out about new developments in the field, and also meet colleagues and friends.

Website: https://ersa.eventsair.com/ersa2023/

The conference, focused on the implementation of European data spaces, brought together concrete use cases from both the public and the private sector

SEMIC: Data Spaces in an Interoperable Europe

SEMIC2022, the annual semantic interoperability conference, was held on 6th December 2022 at the Square Meeting Center in Brussels! This year’s topic was “SEMIC: Data Spaces in an Interoperable Europe”. The conference is organised by the Interoperability Unit of DIGIT of the European Commission, in collaboration with the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The central focus of #SEMIC2022 revolves around the implementation of data spaces, bringing together concrete use cases from both the public and the private sector, to understand opportunities and challenges and to overcome obstacles in implementing data spaces, also clarifying how interoperability within and across sectors can be achieved.

The rich programme included:

– Success stories: Concrete data stories from different Member States to demonstrate how aggregated data can play a key role in gathering business intelligence and risk management processes.
– Use cases: Parallel sessions to present technical deep dives based on use cases and semantic specifications.
– Knowledge sharing: High-profile policy makers to talk about their experience in the sharing & reuse of data
– Academic angel: Novel academic research to be showcased at the Interoperability Academy Speaking Corner
– Networking.

Website: https://semic2022.eu/

Final conference of the HERIWELL project

The contribution of cultural heritage to societal well-being: evidences and challenges

The HERIWELL team is glad to inform that the HERIWELL final conference “Thecontribution of cultural heritage to societal well-being: evidences and challenges” will take place on Thursday 15 December 2022, from 14.30 to 17.30 CET.

HERIWELL is a project launched by ESPON EGTC (Luxembourg) and carried out by a partnership led by Istituto per la ricerca sociale (IRS, Milano). Many experts from across Europe were involved in the project that developed a pan-European methodology and territorial analysis of impacts of Cultural Heritage that can be associated with societal well-being. More details on the HERIWELL project and its deliverables are available on the ESPON website.

The final conference aims to discuss the main findings of the HERIWELL project on the contribution of cultural heritage to individual and societal well–being at various territorial levels with policymakers and stakeholders.
The Conference will focus on three main topics:

Cultural Heritage conditions, experiences and perceptions influencing societal well–being (or potentially triggering the opposite): Can a more integrated – and “integrating” – approach to heritage be achieved?
How can public investments in cultural heritage influence societal well–being: policies, conditions and methods (evidence from EU programmes and territorial case–studies)?
Are econometric models and big data an opportunity to produce empirical evidence on the contribution of heritage to societal well–being and homogeneous and comparable data in the domain of culture/heritage (evidences from the method used in the research and from case–studies)?

Registration is open until the 10th of December 2022.

Click here for the HERIWELL Final Conference agenda.

Recommendations to policy makers to help tap the full potential of museums in the sustainable transition of Europe

NEMO report on museums and climate change

The Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) new report on museums and climate change provides recommendations for including museums in the sustainable transition of Europe. This report reflects the status quo of European museums in the climate crisis. To help tap the full potential of museums as contributors and allies in the sustainable transition of Europe, the report includes seven key recommendations for policy makers and the sector.

NEMO writes that to develop the full potential of museums, it is key to understand where they most need support, and where their power and opportunity lie. Therefore, the network circulated a survey from April to June 2022 that 578 museums from 38 European countries answered. The survey data and the final report show that, if prioritized and supported adequately, museums can be powerful partners in the sustainable, just and green transformation of Europe.

NEMO urges policy makers to consider the seven recommendations to create conditions for museums where they can contribute to fighting climate change while reducing their negative impact on the environment. Climate change will transform our world dramatically, and every sector, including museums, must collectively advocate and adapt to this unequalled challenge.

In short, NEMO calls upon policy makers and the sector to consider these seven recommendations that have been derived from the survey data:

Policy Coherence: Increase communication between governing and funding bodies and museums, encourage cooperation and develop cohesive, comprehensive frameworks for museum work.
Relevance: Acknowledge and support the potential of museums as allies to help the public better understand climate change and become active.
Infrastructure: Facilitate funds for investments in the infrastructure of museums, so that buildings can be maintained in a more energy-efficient, ecological and sustainable manner. Financial support should be streamlined and coupled with financial relief in consideration of the current energy crisis impacting museums across Europe.
Frameworks and Guidance: Ensure that guidelines, standards and reporting requirements reflect all aspects of museum work and are aligned to support sustainable goals.
Risk Awareness: Invest in future citizens’ sustained access to European shared heritage by funding and encouraging risk assessment, adaptation and mitigation for museums.
Alliances: Fund global, cross-sector, climate-focused networks and umbrella organisations that address and enable mutual sharing of skills, knowledge, and expertise – supporting and empowering the sector to address climate change.
Skills and Training: Allocate financial support to upskill and train staff to contribute to the museums’ sustainable transition and to support society’s just transition.

More information:

Read the handy 2-pager that highlights the main findings and recommendations
All findings, survey results and recommendations can be accessed in the full report Museums in the climate crisis – Recommendations for the sustainable transition of Europe
Learn more about NEMO at ne-mo.org

The conference was organized by the ACEP Association for Cultural Economics Poland in Warsaw on 24th November 2022

INCULTUM presented at conference on Cultural Economics

The 1st Polish Conference on Cultural Economics was a relevant event on November 24, that constituted an opportunity for meeting cultural researchers, exchange ideas and present ongoing projects, also to enable future collaboration of researchers of various affiliations.

The ACEP organized the event with the University of Warsaw, including a number of keynotes and relevant presentations and workshops.

Prof. Karol Jan Borowiecki (University of Southern Denmark) delivered the opening speech, and also talked about INCULTUM research and activities in the workshop session “Mapping applied cultural economics research”.

More about the conference: https://www.acep.uw.edu.pl/polish-conference-of-cultural-economics-2022/

THE CO-CONSTRUCTION OF NEW INSTRUMENTS

UNCHARTED survey on Portuguese cultural practice

The first co-creation workshop of the axis of work package 5 of UNCHARTED project, related to the study of the impact of Cultural information system on the identification and mapping of cultural audiences, is taking place on the 29th November 2022 at Casa dos Livros in Porto.

Under the coordination of the Instituto de Sociologia of the University of Porto, key stakeholders and professionals are invited to contribute to the design of new instruments to answer the needs of administrations and of cultural agents involved in the various phases of policy making and concrete implementation of initiatives, aiming at surveying and monitoring population participation in culture.

The co-creation of a mixed-method survey on cultural practices in Portugal will be further developed in the course of the following phases of the project, in order to be proposed for replication in other countries, for the accomplishment of a real international level of impact.

A series of thematic networking events in November and December are organized to share project ideas and kickstart the search for new project partners

Join networking events for INTERREG upcoming calls

Two online events are organized by INTERREG Europe in sight of the second call for project proposals. The call will be open from 15 March to 9 June 2023.

A series of thematic networking events in November and December are organized to share project ideas and kickstart the search for new project partners. The events take place online. Each session will be dedicated to a different topic:

29 Nov (10-12:00 CET): ‘greener Europe’
1 Dec (10-12:00 CET): ‘more connected Europe’, ‘Europe closer to citizens’, and ‘better regional governance’

More information: https://www.interregeurope.eu/news-and-events/news/tips-for-pre-call-networking

Save the date for the launch of the second call on 15 March 2023 during ‘Europe, let’s cooperate! interregional cooperation forum’ in Stockholm, Sweden.

In addition to projects, INTERREG services can help find solutions and inspiration for better policies in many other ways too. Join the Policy Learning Platform on 5 December (14:00-15:30 CET) to learn more about the ‘Next generation policymakers‘ and how the Platform’s services assist them.