Digital meets Culture

the Irish pilot in INCULTUM releases useful resources and tools, free to use to engage communities in field surveys

INCULTUM Pilot: Historic Graves recording toolkit

INCULTUM partner Eachtra is engaged in The Historic Graves project, that is a community focused, grassroots heritage project where local community groups are trained in low-cost, high-tech field surveys of historic graveyards; also recording their own oral histories. They build a multi-media, geotagged, high-resolution online record of the historic graves in their own areas and unite to form a national resource.

photo courtesy of EACHTRA

The project outlines a system and sequence which helps to coordinate and standardise a historic graveyard survey.

Since its inception, the Historic Graves project applied an open methodology approach that led, in the current framework of the H2020 INCULTUM project, to the release of the first version of the Historic Graveyards recording toolkit. This work is part of Eachtra contribution to project’s task 6.1 Local training resources produced in the pilots.

Based on archaeological methods, this simple system for historic graveyard survey has been developed by the Historic Graves Project team in collaboration with local community groups. The core system was established in 2011, and minor but significant improvements have been made ever since. In the last eleven years, over 500 community groups have surveyed over 900 graveyards and published more than 120,000 gravestones to the internet using this simple system.

The toolkit is intended as a training resource targeting local communities and stakeholders, offering them an opportunity to learn how to easily survey an historic graveyards and fast publishing the results online, contributing to a unified community heritage dataset and engaging with Irish diaspora’s descendants worldwide.

This first version of the toolkit includes:

a short ten pages manual describing the 3 simple steps methodology.
a quick camera guide, focused on the Sony HX7.
3 recording tools:
- the memorial register sheet;
- the graveyard sketch plan;
- the memorial recording form.

These simple recording tools are used by the Historic Graves team and local communities in every new survey. We release them now as a package with the intention, and the wish, that it can become a useful and inspiring kit to engage with new communities gravitating into the Historic Graveyards orbit, but also an easy-to-understand and inspiring example to train local groups on how to work with local heritage and store data in a systematic way.

Download as a zip folder (1,57 Mb)

From the Collective Management of Pastures to the Utilization of Water and Energy Resources by Local Communities.

INCULTUM pilot organized an open informative discussion in Greek village Aetomilitsa

text and photos courtesy of The High Mountains cooperative.

In the context of INCULTUM project and its pilot Aoos the shared river, The High Mountains Social Cooperative organized an open informative discussion in the village of Aetomilitsa (a nomadic village of Vlach transhumance livestock farmers population, which is located on the borders with Albania and is the highest inhabited place in Greece 1.430m altitude), in cooperation with the Cultural Association of Aetomilitsa, Electra Energy Cooperative and our associated partners P2P Lab Ioannina, in order to emphasize and support the role of the Communities, which constituted and are still the fundamental cultural and developmental cell of the region. The discussion was entitled:
Aetomilitsa: From the Collective Management of Pastures to the Utilization of Water and Energy Resources by Local Communities.

The topic of the discussion was formed after the results of the research conducted to the Cultural Associations of the Villages of Konitsa Municipality by the High Mountains research team. The research demonstrated that the foreseen privatization of the common water resources of the village of Aetomilitsa, in order to be installed Industrial Hydroelectric Plants, is considered a major threat by the local population in political, environmental, but also cultural and production terms.

The research revealed that there is a strong cultural heritage and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the area and especially in the village, linking the locals with the collective management of their common resources, such as pastures. The Customary Pasture Distribution System used by the local transhumance shepherds for centuries, preserved the biodiversity of the area and protected the environment from overgrazing. Also, the communal way of living and the historical cooperative model of “Tseligato” that was developed by the Vlach communities, suggests a collective understanding of the production and the use of the natural resources in the area. Furthermore, water was always used as a common resource to power productive activities, like communal watermills, water saws, washing machines, wool processing machines etc., working with hydropower. According to the responses of the Cultural Associations, locals believe that the water resources are of a great value and that their utilization in combination with other activities could help young people relocate in their villages. Also, they believe that cooperation is a key factor for the repopulation of the area.

The president of the High Mountains Social Cooperative, Sotiris Tsoukarelis, opened the event by presenting INCULTUM and proceeding on the issue of Culture, Tourism and Energy: Connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. During his presentation he explained that culture, tourism and energy are “commons” or they base their existence in “commons”. As he said, hydropower is a part of the local culture and production, thus it is a part of thetouristic narrative for the area. He suggested that mild technologies for energy production are closer to the local culture and tradition, they respect the environment and they can also give solutions to the transhumance shepherds in of grid places. Finally, he announced that on the 3rd of September The High Mountains will revisit the area with an expert on DIY mild technologies renewable energy solutions, in order to help shepherds to apply off grid small scale technologies and to check if there are possibilities in traditional Hydropower infrastructures to be transformed into small scale Hydroelectric plants. Two of the attendees declared their interest on the issue.

The Cultural Association of Aetomilitsa followed with an Update on the Planned Hydroelectric Projects in the Streams of Aetomilitsa and informed the locals about the threats rising from the privatization of the water resources of their village and the foreseen construction of industrial hydroelectric plants. They focused on environmental, but also on productive issues that have to do with the water use permits and the change of the traditional perception on water as a common resource.

Finally, Chris Giotitsas from P2P Lab Ioannina and Dimitris Kitsikopoulos from Electra Energy Cooperative presented The Alternative of Energy Communities, explaining the legal context, the different models of Energy Communities and the possibilities that are raising for local societies to collectively invest, manage and protect their natural resources from overexploitation, by producing the amount of energy they need for self-consumption, reducing energy poverty.

A very interesting conversation followed between the 30 people who physically attended the event. This was almost the total number of the inhabitants of the village at this time. This is because Aetomilitsa is a nomadic village and most of the inhabitants depart for the cities at the end of the summer. Although, an amazing number of 1.000 people watched the event live online and since then the video has reached more than 3.000 views. The big number of people that sawed their interest on the event can be explained partially by the importance of the issue due to the energy crisis, but also by the will of local societies to find integrated solutions in the multidimensional problems they face.

Download Press Release (PDF)

More about the Aoos Pilot:

The Vjosa/Aoos River, considered as ‘one of Europe’s last living wild rivers’, springs from Mt. Pindus in Greece, and then enters Albania. On both sides of the river banks, extends a terrain of agrarian field terraces alternated with hilly lands of rich Mediterranean vegetation where the traditional settlements are situated, followed by high mountain massifs dominated by continental climate with rich water sources, forests, flora and fauna, and broad prominent pastures.

On the Greek side, Konitsa is the main town of the area and the capital of the municipality surrounded by some of the highest mountains of Greece. It is built on the edge of Vikos Canyon, core of the National Park of Vikos-Aoos and one of the four Greek Geoparks, which became a member of the European and Global Geopark Networks in 2010. Numerous geosites within the territory are situated in landscapes of incomparable beauty.

In the INCULTUM pilot 7, the main expected action relates to the mapping of the natural, social, cultural and productive resources of the area, analysis of the data gathered during the mapping and their visualization using Business Intelligence tools. With this digital platform we are going to give the ability to citizens, local authorities and stakeholders, but also to visitors, to virtually combine resources of the area and propose their own evidence-based development actions and policies. Furthermore, the database is going to be participatory and always open to new inputs, collected by questionnaires, free text, business registrations, comments for the area etc.

Discover all the INCULTUM Pilots: https://incultum.eu/pilots/

register now to learn about the tools for cultural heritage institutions that help collections management and curation: 7/9 - 8/9 - 9/9 - 12/9

Discover the WEAVE toolkit – online workshops

DISCOVER THE WEAVE TOOLKIT

A hands-on series of online workshops is being organised to showcase the capabilities of the different tools made available by the WEAVE project towards new forms of engagement with 3D content and intangible heritage from Europeana. Through a number of specific tasks that the participants will accomplish together with the presenter the user journey is explained in detail and questions can be answered. At the end of the workshop there will be space for a discussion to be had between the participants.

7th September at 11:30 CET: SAGE data management and enrichment platform.Discover the new functionalities of SAGE and learn how to structure and semantically enrich data. Additionally, we will demonstrate the validation system integrated into the platform used to evaluate the results of the automatic enrichment and discuss different validation approaches.
8th September at 13.00 CET: WEAVER 3D Asset Manager. We will demonstrate how the 3D content can be uploaded, managed, visualised and shared.
9th September 15:00 CET: MotionNotes tool for video annotation. Participants will learn how videos, in particular of dance, can be effectively annotated and how 3D can be brought into the workflow.
12th September at 13:00 CET: WEAVEx tool for content re-use and storytelling. During this session we will explore how Europeana content can be brought into new forms of storytelling and what new forms of engagement these can create.

this acknowledgement is the result of two years of consultation with the territory's stakeholders, the third round of labelling is underway with clearly increased ambitions, both from the point of view of the themes covered and that of the territory considered.

Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France label renewed for a period of 6 years

Press release – images courtesy of Bibracte, by Antoine Maillier.

30th August 2022

Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France label renewed for a period of 6 years

Christophe Béchu, Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, has renewed the Grand Site de France label for Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets by ministerial decision dated 5 August 2022. The result of two years of consultation with the territory’s stakeholders, the third round of labelling is underway with clearly increased ambitions, both from the point of view of the themes covered and that of the territory considered.

A historical site with a strong symbolic value – as the site of the ancient city of Bibracte, capital of the Aeduan Gallic people in the 1st century BC – and an archaeological centre of reference on a European scale, Mont Beuvray also benefits from an exceptional landscape. It has therefore been classified as a site since 1990. In 2007, Bibracte – Mont Beuvray was awarded the Grand Site de France label, which was renewed in 2014. This selective and demanding label is awarded for a renewable period of 6 years by the ministry in charge of landscape policy to the manager of a remarkable site, protected by its classification under the law of 2 May 1930. It recognises its great heritage value, the quality of its maintenance and the interest of the preservation, management and development project.

The Grand Site de France label: a distinction for the sustainable management of the most beautiful landscapes in France

“The “Grand Site de France” label may be awarded by the minister responsible for sites to a listed site of great renown and high visitor numbers. The awarding of the label is subject to the implementation of a project for the preservation, management and development of the site, in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. The perimeter of the territory concerned by the label may include municipalities other than those that include the classified site, as long as they participate in the project. This label is awarded, at its request, to a local authority, a public establishment, a mixed syndicate or a management body including the local authorities concerned. (article L341-15-1 of the Environment Code). The Grand Site de France label does not entail any specific regulatory constraints. It recognises a collective approach to preserving landscape quality based on the goodwill and commitment of the parties involved. Since its introduction in 2001, this demanding label has been awarded to only 21 Grands Sites. Their managers are federated by the Réseau des Grands Sites de France, an association that also includes some thirty territories working to obtain the label.

See: www.grandsitedefrance.com

The Burgundy-Franche-Comté region has two labelled sites (Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets and Solutré – Pouilly – Vergisson), as well as four others on the way to being labelled: the Ballon d’Alsace, the Vallée du Hérisson – Plateau des Sept Lacs, Vézelay, and the Vignobles et Reculées du Jura.

A process extended to 12 municipalities in the “Morvan des Sommets” area

As part of the preparation for the renewal of the label, a landscape diagnosis combined with close consultation with local elected representatives led to the proposal of a project territory extended to twelve rural communes of the Morvan Regional Nature Park forming a coherent geographical grouping that encloses the three main peaks of the Morvan: Haut-Folin (901 m), Le Préneley (855 m) and Beuvray (821 m). These communes are divided between the Nièvre department (Arleuf, Fâchin, Glux-en-Glenne, Larochemillay, Millay, Poil, Villapourçon) and the Saône-et-Loire department (La Comelle, La Grande-Verrière, Roussillon-en-Morvan, Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray, Saint-Prix). They concern three communities of communes: Bazois-Loire-Morvan, Grand Autunois-Morvan and Morvan des Sommets et Grands Lacs. Their territory covers approximately 42,000 ha for a population of 3,800 inhabitants.
Within this territory, the classified site of Mont-Préneley and the Sources de l’Yonne, owned by the Nièvre Department, is of particular importance because of its high heritage value, which complements that of Mont Beuvray. This change of scale has led to the adoption of a new name for the Grand Site de France: Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets, which replaces Bibracte – Mont-Beuvray.

A territorial laboratory for ecological and solidarity-based transition within the Morvan Regional Nature Park
Following on from the ambitions expressed during the previous labelling cycles, the Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France has been given the role of an experimental territory within the Morvan Regional Nature Park. In addition to constituting the “landscape setting” of two listed sites, this territory, which corresponds to the most mountainous part of the Morvan massif, expresses all its heritage value in the form of a remarkable but threatened landscape. The Grand Site de France approach is a particularly suitable tool for its preservation.

Voluntary consideration of agricultural and forestry issues
Three priority issues have been identified, all of which have an impact on the quality of the landscape

ensuring a viable future for farms in order to halt the decline in agricultural activity that has been underway for a century, which has resulted in the reduction by half of the area under cultivation and grazing;
to bring about forestry practices that are more respectful of the landscape and able to cope with the new impact of climate change;
at a time when the region is experiencing a revival of residential and tourist attraction, to conduct its development in a strictly controlled manner.

To meet these challenges, five lines of action have been selected:
– Axis 1: carry out exemplary management of the listed sites at the heart of the project area
– Axis 2: work alongside the players in the world of agriculture and forestry with a view to preserving the landscape quality of the area
– Axis 3: work alongside the municipalities and service providers to preserve the area’s heritage resources and make the Grand Site de France an attractive and welcoming area
– Axis 4: develop a territorial project that leaves no inhabitant behind
– Axis 5: continuously evaluate performance in order to adjust actions and share experience

The choice of a collegial leadership and a flexible and agile working method

The extension of the project’s territory and the increase in the ambitions of the approach require the mobilisation of an increased number of actors. The proposed project governance scheme is designed to ensure that consultation and decisions are widely shared with a wide range of stakeholders. This plan includes several bodies in addition to the executive committee that guarantees the approach, which brings together BIBRACTE EPCC, the lead partner, the Morvan Regional Nature Park and the Nièvre Department. A small inter-institutional operational team is dedicated to leading the process. An assembly of communes ensures the relay with the inhabitants. A strategic committee brings together correspondents from the various organisations concerned (State services, major local authorities, professional organisations, etc.). A committee of wise men brings together independent experts. Finally, a plenary assembly has the task of validating the major stages of the process.

The Bibracte – Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France currently benefits from specific support from the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Region, the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (DREAL) and the Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs (DRAC). In addition, there is substantial support from the European Union through various channels: the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) under the LEADER Morvan programme and the European Partnership for Innovation in Agriculture and Forestry (PEI AGRI); the Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation within the framework of BIBRACTE’s participation in the INCULTUM European research-action project.

Extended press release (French Language): PDF

Prague, 25-27 September 2022

European Cultural Heritage Summit

The European Cultural Heritage Summit 2022 is part of the official programme of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union and it will take place from 25 to 27 September in Prague.

It is organised by Europa Nostra – the European Voice of Civil Society Committed to Cultural Heritage – and Europa Nostra Czech Republic, in cooperation with the European Commission and the Czech Ministry of Culture.

The programme includes:

Presentations by the Winners of the 2022 European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards
Cultural Visits: Wallenstein Palace (Seat of Czech Senate), Palace Gardens Below Prague Castle, National Museum, Old Wastewater Treatment plant in Prague-Bubeneč
European Heritage Awards Ceremony 2022
European Heritage Policy Agora: organized in cooperation with the European Commission and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in the frame of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Pavilion programme of the European Cultural Foundation (tbc) as a contribution to the European Year of Youth 2022 & the New European Bauhaus.

On the occasion of the Summit in Prague, ‘The Future is Heritage’ initiative, coordinated by Dutch heritage organizations, in collaboration and with the support of Europa Nostra and ESACH – Association of European Students for Cultural Heritage, organizes a four-day capacity building event for young heritage students and professionals. It will take place from 24 to 27 September.

Where to find more information:
updated programme
event registration
summit web page

Jasná (Slovakia), 5-7 September 2022

ilide Innovative Library in Digital Era, conference 2022

The aim of the ilide or Innovative Library in Digital Era conferences is to bring subjects fully reflecting its name and present visionary and original ideas based on an extensive experience of the participating experts and institutions. The presentations will be given by leading representatives of the most important institutions dedicated to librarianship, archiving, information technology, cultural and collecting activities.

Main themes of this year’s conference are:
• library as a consultancy
• library as a repository
• library as a meeting space / commons
• library as a publishing agent
• library as an analytics engine
• library as user of artificial intelligence
• changing the paradigm of Research(er) Assessments

The conference agenda is available here: https://www.ilide.eu/agenda/

Application deadline: 15 October 2022

Cultural Heritage in Action programme: call for best practices

Cultural Heritage in Action is a peer-learning programme started in 2020. It is one of the actions of the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage of the European Commission.

The programme has already produced a catalogue of 32 good practices from EU cities, regions, urban, non-urban and rural areas, and organised 10 online peer-learning visits.

In its second phase, the project will continue to empower cities and regions to strengthen their cultural heritage policies and initiatives as well as develop innovative solutions to preserve cultural heritage assets.

In 2022, Cultural Heritage in Action aims to enrich the catalogue with 30 more good practices and organise a set of peer-learning activities, including webinars, online workshops and onsite peer learning visits.

The call is open to local and regional administrations of all sizes (rural areas, medium size cities, large and capital cities, regions) who want share their best practices throughout Europe and beyond.

Practices can be policies, projects, events or organisational structures developed by local and regional authorities.

In particular, practices with the following characteristics are required:

that are innovative
that are inspiring for other cities and regions
that have a real impact on the ground

Among all the applications received, 30 practices will then be selected for publication and promotion through the EU-funded Cultural Heritage in Action programme.

Information on the call are available at https://culturalheritageinaction.eu/event/open-call-for-good-practices/

The Hague (Netherlands), 26-28 October 2022

No Time to Wait – conference

The 6th edition of the No Time to Wait conference will be hosted by the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision and MediaArea.net on October 26th – 28th, 2022 at Sound & Vision’s media museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

This year’s theme is Transparency, Teaching & Trust. Sharing open source solutions, contributing to open standards, and maintaining open workflows can build a participatory, responsive, and sustainable foundation against the challenges of audiovisual preservation work. However, if funders, managers, supporters, and the communities we support don’t understand how it all works, then skepticism, confusion, or exclusion can enter the environment. At this year’s No Time to Wait we focus on cultivating Transparency, Teaching & Trust, working in a way that is sensible to onlookers, advocating for open solutions, and the challenge to sustain and evolve workflows from all perspectives.

Please see the No Time to Wait 6 website for more information.

The registration form is now online as is the call for proposals.

No Time to Wait will be a free-registration and remote-accessible event. This is made possible thanks to the generosity of our sponsors:

Padua (Italy), 20-23 September 2022

TPDL 26th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries

Over the years TPDL established an important international forum focused on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues. TPDL encompasses the many meanings of the term “digital libraries”, including new forms of information institutions; operational information systems with all manner of digital content; new means of selecting, collecting, organizing, and distributing digital content; and theoretical models of information media, including document genres and electronic publishing. Digital libraries may be viewed as a new form of information institution or as an extension of the services libraries currently provide.

TPDL historically approached on “Digital libraries” embracing the field at large also comprehending three key areas of interest that can be synthesized as scholarly communication (e.g. research data, research software, digital experiments, digital libraries), e-science/computationally-intense research (e.g. scientific workflows, Virtual Research Environments, reproducibility) and library, archive and information science (e.g. governance, policies, open access, open science).

TPDL 2022 is hosted by the University of Padua and will take place in Padua, Italy from 20 to 23 September 2022.

TPDL 2022 accepted 60 contributions after rigorous peer-review: http://tpdl2022.dei.unipd.it/accepted-papers.html

We present two keynote talks: http://tpdl2022.dei.unipd.it/index.html#keynotes

1) Roberto Di Cosmo (INRIA, France): “Should we preserve the world’s software history, and can we?”
2) Georgia Koutrika (Athena Research Center, Greece): Democratizing Data Access: What if we could just talk to our data?

Moreover, there are two workshops:
1) The 1st International Workshop on Digital Platforms and Resources for Access to Literary Heritage
2) Linked Archives 2022 – The 2nd International Workshop on Archives and Linked Data

Registrations are open. The conference can be followed also online: http://tpdl2022.dei.unipd.it/registration.html

Based on the evidence from the research work carried out in the project

The second UNCHARTED Policy Brief

UNCHARTED recently published the second of three policy briefs aimed at policy makers who have an interest in formulating or influencing policies about future research and valuating culture.

This policy brief focuses on evidence and analysis of the emergence of values linked to culture in practical contexts and it is based mostly on the results of the investigation and the outcomes of the WP2 researches as well as on the content of the co-creation workshop held in Porto on 16-17 September 2021.

Research shows that for a deeper understanding of the role that the values of culture play in social constructions within different types of context, it is important to adopt a pragmatic view of values. More critical reflections and a broader approach can help address multiple assessments and their tensions better.

Two are the key factors identified that show an important role in shaping the evaluation of culture: the diversity as a value, and the generation of new marks created, for example, by digitization, by spatial segregation ….

The document proposes recommendations focused mainly on the field of cultural production and heritage management and it provides five policy implications: Actors and Contexts, Multiple visions, Power imbalance, Trade-off different values, Portfolio approach.

The policy brief is now available for consultation and download on the UNCHARTED website. The direct link to the document is: https://uncharted-culture.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/D6.5-Second-Policy-Brief.pdf

The first policy brief is available at https://uncharted-culture.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/D6.3-First-Policy-brief.pdf