Digital meets Culture

Workshop at Euromed 2024, Limassol, Cyprus, 3 December, 2024

Cultural & Creative Tourism as a Driver for Sustainable Development

The Programme of the workshop on Cultural and Creative Tourism at the international conference Euromed2024 is available online.

The workshop is organised by the Horizon Europe SECreTour project, in collaboration with the UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage at Cyprus University of Technology.

Cultural Heritage has always been a net attractor for tourists from ancient times (Pausanias’ Description of Greece 2nd century AD) through to the medieval pilgrimages (Codex Calixtinus: Iter pro peregrinis ad Compostellam – Pilgrim’s Guide to Santiago de Compostela 12th century AD) and from the “Grand Tour” of the 17th and 19th centuries to modern bucket list destination package deals. Figures for EU tourism in 2019 placed the value of the whole EU tourist market sector at approximately €572 billion, and that 40% of all destination selections are based on cultural offerings.

Tourism can significantly contribute to local economies, bring investment and infrastructure developments into regions and support employment. As a tool to revitalise marginalised or underdeveloped regions and promotion of cultural tourism can bring significant benefits to communities, but this is not without risk or consequences. Notably since the anthropause of the global pandemic, there has been a global backlash to tourism from local residents with high profile destinations like Venice, Italy, Mount Fuji, Japan and The Canary Islands, Spain, rethinking tourist activities and access.

This workshop aims to consider the role that Digital Cultural Heritage can play in supporting informed, responsible and sustainable Cultural Tourism from both sides the service provider and the consumer tourist.

The Book of Abstracts of the presentations delivered at the workshop is available for download >>.

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

Following the presentation at PPAM 2024, "Cultural Heritage 3D Object Management with Integrated Automation Workflows" will be published on FGCS journal

Paper showcasing EUreka3D to be published on FGCS journal

The Lambousa Fishing Boat case and the data managing within the scope of EUreka3D project was presented by Michał Orzechowski at the 15th International Conference on Parallel Processing & Applied Mathematics.

Following the presentation, Future Generation Computer Systems journal invited the authors of the presentation to write a paper. FGCS aims to lead the way in advances in distributed systems, collaborative environments, high performance and high performance computing, Big Data on such infrastructures as grids, clouds and the Internet of Things.

Title: Cultural Heritage 3D Object Management with Integrated Automation Workflows

Authors: Written by Michał Orzechowski, Łukasz Opioła, Ignacio Lamata Martínez, Marinos Ioannides; Panayiotis N. Panayiotou, Renata G. Słota, Łukasz Dutka and Jacek Kitowski

Abstract: The complexity of high-quality 3D digitised cultural heritage
objects creates challenges for existing data management systems as they
need to develop metadata management and processing capabilities to
provide semantic insight into the interconnectivity of data that consti-
tute cultural heritage objects. To address these challenges, we propose
a data and metadata management system, together with the federated
authentication and authorisation mechanism, and an integrated system
for designing and executing automated workflows that facilitate the pro-
cessing of both data and metadata. The solution is evaluated with a
3D digitised cultural object of Lambousa Fishing Boat and presents the
complete process from data upload to publication.

Download the paper at this link.

Collaboration agreement has started between CREATOUR Observatory at the Centre for for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, in November 2024

New collaborations of SECreTour in Coimbra

The SECreTour Network is growing!

The SECreTour project has established a new collaboration with CREATOUR^® Observatory on culture and tourism for local development at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal.

The CREATOUR Observatory is an internationally recognized leader in researching, advising on, and guiding creative tourism development in low-density territories. The CREATOUR Observatory focuses on three thematic fields:

1) Ecologies of Culture and Creativity

2) Cultural, Creative and Regenerative Tourism

3) Local, Regional and Community Development

Adopting a transdisciplinary perspective and critical reflection and informed by the creative tourism development work conducted in the research-and-application project CREATOUR (www.creatour.pt), the CREATOUR Observatory is an intersectoral platform that brings together researchers and professionals from the cultural/creative and tourism sectors.

Following a logic of capacity-building, evaluation and knowledge co-production with practitioners and decision-makers, it aims to design and promote training, capacity building, clarification and awareness-raising actions that stimulate reflection and dialogue on ideas and practices, reinforce broad knowledge and establish links between researchers, professionals and public decision-makers in these allied, but often disconnected, fields.

The Observatory’s work is based on methodologies and approaches of cultural mapping; strategy, ideation and prototyping in creative tourism; intersectoral collaboration and cooperation; and strategic planning and governance, involving different types of organizations and target groups, such as companies, municipalities and other territorial administration entities, cultural agents, local communities and tourists. Also, it serves also as the hub of an emerging international network – CREATOUR International.

You can find out more about the CREATOUR Observatory on:

Website: https://ces.uc.pt/observatorios/creatour/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creatour.pt/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/creatour.pt

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

online, 13th December 2024

PRESENCE Joint Business Clinic about XR/VR experiences

The PRESENCE project aims to enhance how people interact in XR environments by developing tools that make virtual experiences feel more realistic, immersive, and engaging. PRESENCE is working in three core areas:

Holoportation: We aim to improve realistic visual interactions between people in different locations. This means you can see and interact with others in 3D, as if they are right there with you, using live volumetric capturing and advanced compression techniques.
Haptics: We are working on technology that lets you feel touch in virtual environments. This includes developing new devices that provide realistic tactile feedback when you interact with virtual objects or other users.
Virtual Humans: We are creating highly realistic virtual avatars and AI agents that can mimic human behaviors and expressions. These virtual humans can represent real users or function as intelligent agents within the virtual space.

Why Join the Joint Business Clinic?
We are organizing this JBC to better understand your needs, challenges, and gather insights to guide the development of PRESENCE. It is important for us to build the right thing, so we need to know how to build the thing right. As such, we cannot do without a thorough market and problem validation. Therefore, we want to co-create PRESENCE in a feasible and future-driven way with you; your insights will help us ensure that PRESENCE meets the needs and expectations of its future users.

The objectives of the PRESENCE Joint Business Clinics are to:

Market & problem validation by identifying and verifying market and user needs.
Investigate external partnerships that may have the potential to accelerate the exploitation of PRESENCE results for future market uptake.

The session will include interactive breakouts on the following topics:

Professional Collaboration: Using VR to enhance remote teamwork and design.
Manufacturing & Training: Applying XR in training for manufacturing.
Health: Utilizing XR for pain and stress relief in medical settings.
Cultural Heritage: Enriching visitor experiences in European heritage and culture through XR.

How to Register
The Joint Business clinic will be an online co-creation session taking place on Friday, December 13th, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM CET.

If you are interested in joining, please click here to register by December 10th, 2024.

Learn more: PRESENCE project is dedicated to revolutionizing human interactions in virtual environments by enhancing the concept of presence in eXtended Reality (XR) experiences through innovative technologies and interdisciplinary research – https://presence-xr.eu/

EUreka3D project presented during Workshop 1 at EuroMed 2024 (2nd December)

Paradata, Metadata, and Data in 3D Digital Documentation for Cultural Heritage: #DigitalTwins or #MemoryTwins

Since its adoption in 2006 as part of the London Charter for the Use of 3D Visualisation in the Research and Communication of Cultural Heritage, the concept of Paradata has played an essential role in ensuring transparency in the creation of scholarly 3D Cultural Heritage assets. With further recognition by the ICOMOS Seville Charter (2017) and the European Commission’s EU VIGIE2020/654 Study on quality parameters for 3D digitisation of tangible cultural heritage, Paradata has emerged as a key aspect of 3D digital documentation.

Paradata, alongside Metadata and Geometrical Data, forms a “trinity” of elements essential for ensuring high-quality, reusable 3D digital resources. However, despite its growing importance, the Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH) community continues to grapple with fully defining and differentiating Paradata and Metadata, as well as understanding their role in supporting scholarly research, sustainability, and compliance with the European Commission’s recommendations for 3D-digitised cultural heritage.

This workshop brings together professionals from across the spectrum of Digital Cultural Heritage to share their experiences, aiming to establish a common understanding of Paradata and lay the groundwork for a community-built set of standards and best practices for its application in 3D documentation.

Download the full agenda here.

2nd-4th December 2024, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

EuroMed 2024: the 10th International Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Digital Cultural Heritage

Organized by Cyprus University of Technology, conference EuroMed 2024 offers the Cultural Heritage community the opportunity to come together and exchange our know-how, explore our research and discuss development in our field, current and future, from both regional and global perspectives. The conference, celebrating its 10th edition in 2024, provides a unique opportunity to present results, review outcomes, and draw new inspiration with our friends, colleagues and peers.

EuroMed 2024 focus is on interdisciplinary research – cutting-edge technologies for the protection, preservation, conservation, and massive digitalisation of Cultural Heritage – and the emerging cross-sector Cultural Heritage Knowledge Economy – innovations ready for market exploitation, novel sustainable approaches towards heritage management, and new technologies available to user communities, SMEs, owners, managers and conservators of cultural patrimony.

Learn more and discover the programme at this link.

Collaboration agreement has started between Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University in November 2024

New collaborations of SECreTour in Coventry

The SECreTour Network is growing!

The SECreTour project has established a new collaboration with the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University.

C-DaRE specialises in an inclusive interdisciplinary approach to artistic and scholarly dance research in areas like cultural heritage, computing and AI, intellectual property, health and well-being and practice research.

The Centre participates in many projects that focus on cultural heritage, and particularly intangible cultural heritage that involves performance-based practices, and which may well have a tourism dimension. The Centre’s partners include cultural organisations, artists and artist groups, research organisations and policy-led organisations, in the UK and across Europe.

You can find out more on:

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

The contest aims to raise awareness and promote the culture of industry, the memory of work, the architectural, technological and landscape heritage of industrial archaeology

Winner of AIPAI Photo Contest 2024 announced

Following the AIPAI Photocontest 2024, the winners were annouced through a press release on the 13rd of November.

The first prize was assigned to Erica La Placa’s photographic project “Geometrie dell’Aridità: visioni interrotte”.

Read the press release here (ITALIAN).

The paper describes fundamental concepts to enable the Federation of EOSC Nodes that can deliver services and resources to European researchers collaboratively

Concept Paper “EOSC Federation: Architecture and Federating Capabilities”

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) at its core was a catalogue of “research products”, such as datasets relating to various disciplines, and “services”, such as EGI Check-in and EGI DataHub, used in EUreka3D to operate its suite of services and tools dedicated to cultural heritage institutions who need to store, safely access, manage and share collections of 3D cultural heritage.

The EOSC landscape has changed dramatically in the last year, due to a process of redesign initiated by the European Commission. The EOSC Portal, which is where researchers could find services onboarded to EOSC, is no longer available, and has been replaced by the EOSC Federation of Nodes. The EOSC Federation is re-developed in the form of multiple EOSC Nodes that are interconnected and can collaborate to share and manage scientific data, knowledge, and resources within and across thematic and geographical research communities.

Project EOSC Beyond, with which a collaboration has been established for the integration of EUreka3D services and tools, published a concept paper which describes fundamental concepts to enable the Federation of EOSC Nodes, especially technical aspects, and defines key terms. It presents the EOSC Federation Architecture and introduces the concepts of EOSC Federating Capabilities describing how the Nodes of the Federation should interact to deliver them jointly. It also details how to develop a network of Nodes that can deliver services and resources to European researchers collaboratively.

ACCESS PAPER ON ZENODO>>> EOSC Federation: Architecture and Federating Capabilities, authored by Diego Scardaci (EGI Foundation), Mark Dietrich (EGI Foundation), and Paolo Manghi (OpenAIRE) on behalf of the EOSC Beyond Technical Coordination Board

Community feedback: To enhance and fine-tune the paper, we are also launching a survey to gather community feedback. The survey is available until 29 November 2024, and an updated version of the document will be presented by Q2 2025. Researchers, service providers, and stakeholders are invited to participate and contribute to shaping the future of EOSC.

Online, November 13th, 11:00-16:00 (CET)

Europeana Network Association Outreach Event 2024

img. courtesy: Europeana Pro website

The Europeana Network Association (ENA) is excited to invite you to join the ENA Outreach Event to learn more about how ENA can support your skills, networks and career. The event, running between 11:00-16:00 (CET) on 13 November will cover three main areas; ENA in your country and region, ENA and networking and training, and ENA specialist communities.

The first two sessions will focus on how ENA can support you and colleagues in your country (11:15-12:30 CET), and on the benefits of being an ENA member, including how to access networking opportunities, training and Europeana’s tools and services (14:30-16:00 CET). Participating is going to connect you with a 5,000+ strong community of experts working in, with or around the cultural heritage sector.

The day’s final session (14:30-16:00 CET) will focus on the seven seven specialist ENA communities (Climate Action, Communicators, Copyright, Education, Impact, Research and EuropeanaTech) to explore the connection between ENA and the common European data space for cultural heritage, a great opportunity for the participants to hear from ENA members, share your experiences and discover new initiatives.

The event is free to join, online, and once you register for a ticket you will be able to join for specific sessions or the whole event. You can register at this link.