Digital meets Culture

Initiative to celebrate European cultural heritage, fourth edition

Call for applications is now open for the European Heritage Days Stories

The European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Union, representing the most celebrated participatory cultural event shared by millions of European citizens.

During the EHD events, which are held in September each year in the 50 countries of the European Cultural Convention, European citizens have the opportunity to learn about their heritage, the richness and cultural diversity of Europe by enjoying free visits to monuments and sites, and become aware of the need to protect cultural heritage against risk.

Starting from the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, every year, the Council of Europe, the European Union and the EHD National Coordinators launch the Call for European Heritage Days Stories, to highlight the stories behind EHD events, recognize the role of people in heritage conservation and allow them to share their story.

The goals of the Call are:

Encourage people to engage with Europe’s cultural heritage and strengthen a sense of belonging to the common European space.
Collect stories that clarify how communities understand the European dimension of local heritage.
Promote communities that work with heritage in agreement with European values and with a long-term collaborative perspective.
Encourage communities to improve their Stories and reward their efforts.
Motivate and encourage participation in the European Heritage Days.

The call has just been opened, the stories can be submitted through the online application form at https://www.europeanheritagedays.com/Story/Add

The Stories that have passed the eligibility criteria will be promoted and published as European Heritage Days Stories.

If the Story has the potential to be developed into a specific one-off project, organisations will be invited to apply for a grant through a second round of applications.

To know the terms and conditions for sending Stories and Grant, read more at EHD Stories long english.pdf

online wokshop series organized by Europeana, 29 November - 13 December - 10 January

Open consultation sessions on Digital Transformation

Do you want to help shape the thinking on how the cultural sector embraces Digital Transformation? Do you have your own views about the challenges and opportunities digital brings? Can you help us shape our plan of action?

We would like to invite you to participate in one of the three open online consultation workshops held by the Europeana Digital Transformation Task Force. This is the first cross initiative taskforce for Europeana and couldn’t come at a more important time as we all face the challenges of surviving and thriving in the pandemic.

Understanding digital transformation and knowing how to build the digital capacity of individuals, organisations and networks is not simple. People’s understanding of the issues is defined in part by their own digital literacy, confidence and maturity, which for many working in the sector is still low. Added to this, the sector faces other multifaceted and complex challenges.

Each of the three consultation workshops will last for 2.5 hours and will be facilitated by Jane Finnis and Anra Kennedy from Culture24. The workshops have been shaped by the newly formed task force as a way to gather wider input from the sector, and to inform the creation of a digital transformation action plan (the main output of the DT Taskforce).

Dates are:

Workshop 1. Monday 29th November 2021 – 3.30pm and 6pm CET.
Workshop 2. Monday 13th December 2021 -3.30pm and 6pm CET.
Workshop 3. Monday 10th January 2021 – 3.30pm and 6pm CET.

The consultation workshops are open to anyone who wants to participate. You can sign up to take part in one or more workshops by filling out the form below. All workshops will take place in Zoom and details will be shared with participants a week in advance. The workshop will be run in English but there is flexibility for some break out sessions to be in other languages depending on the makeup of the group and availability of a bilingual facilitator.

The Initiative wide digital transformation task force consists of 8 members:

Rob Davies and Vera Kriezi (Europeana Network Association)
Kerstin Arnold and Chiara Latronico (Europeana Aggregators Forum)
Marta Peinador and Susanna Anas (Independent members)
Ariadna Matas and Sebastiaan ter Burg (Europeana Foundation)

The task force have taken on the task of producing an action plan for adoption across Europeana Initiative stakeholders that includes:

Recommendations for activities to support and guide the sector
Recommendations for the future of the DT Taskforce and the possibility of a longer term working group to continue to support this work
Recommendations on the assessment and measurement of digital transformation
A review of the current definition of digital transformation

They recognise the need for a united approach and a clear plan of action to help us understand how to harness the potential that digital transformation offers.

https://pro.europeana.eu/project/digital-transformation-task-force

A common European data space for cultural heritage

EU Commission recommendation to accelerate the digitisation of cultural heritage assets

A new European Commission recommendation has been published, aimed at promoting and accelerating the digitisation of cultural heritage.
The purpose is to protect and preserve it and incentive its reuse in domains such as education, cultural creative sectors and sustainable tourism.

The Commission encourages Member States to digitise by 2030 all monuments and sites that are at risk and half of the most physically visited monuments and sites.

The task is to preserve the European cultural heritage, exploiting technological knowledge, artificial intelligence, data and extended reality.

This recommendation will contribute to the objectives of the Digital Decade (presented on 9 March 2021 by Commission for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030) by fostering a secure and sustainable digital infrastructure.

Europeana, the European digital cultural platform, will be the basis for building the common data space for cultural heritage:
museums, galleries and archives across Europe will be able to share and reuse digitized images as high-quality scans of paintings or 3D models of historic sites.

Read the press release on the European Commission website.
Here the link to download the recommendation and its annexes.

in collaboration with WEAVE project, INCULTUM was part of an interactive session abour communities engagement with cultural heritage

INCULTUM presented at Europeana 2021

The Europeana conference is the annual flagship event in the sector of digital cultural heritage. The Europeana 2021: Recover, Rebuild, Grow took place online in November, with 70% of the programme – over 30 sessions – co-created with cultural heritage professionals across the sector who responded to a call for proposals. Among those, the WEAVE project community was happy to present the work that is ongoing for enabling engagement of various communities with their cultural heritage, during a interactive session introduced by Antonella Fresa on 11th November.

Within WEAVE project’s presentation, the collaboration established with INCULTUM was highlighted, to showcase the effort done by INCULTUM in engaging local communities with their territory and heritage, that is of relevance also in the light of leveraging digital resources and tools to support such engagement.

The session was an occasion to communicate about INCULTUM to the over 100 session’s participants.

extract from WEAVE presentation at Europeana 2021 conference

online via zoom, 2-3 December 2021

Driving engagement – participatory approaches to digital cultural heritage

Under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council it is announced the Europeana conference ‘Driving engagement – participatory approaches to digital cultural heritage’ on 2 and 3 December.

The conference is mainly aimed at digital cultural policy makers from EU member states ministries and institutions, and the European Commission’s Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage Expert Group but it’s also open to the wider cultural heritage professionals on the first day.

An accompanying event of the Slovenian Presidency, the conference will explore aspects of public engagement and participation with digital cultural heritage in a series of speeches, presentations, and moderated Q&A sessions. A diverse line up of speakers will introduce current practices and trends in digital participation, and discuss the current opportunities and challenges in this area. We will delve into how cultural institutions are addressing the sustainability of digital participation; engaging communities with cultural heritage; crowdsourcing, citizen science, and enrichment; digital storytelling; and recommendations for audience participation and public engagement.

More info: https://pro.europeana.eu/event/driving-engagement-participatory-approaches-to-digital-cultural-heritage

conference in Turin at Palazzo Madama, 18th November 2021

“Come bianche farfalle”: visual imagery of tennis

This conference illustrates and discusses about the various motifs of visual heritage linked to tennis, which entered culture since the end of 1800 until modern times. A fine selection of paintings, sculptures and prints will support the talk, showcasing the imagery of one of the most aristocratic sports, with hints and suggestions that also touch upon emotions.

“Come bianche farfalle”: immagini del tennis nella modernità
conference by prof. Alessandro Tosi (Università degli Studi di Pisa)

Palazzo Madama, Museo Civico d’Arte Antica

Piazza Castello, 10122 Torino

18 novembre 2021, ore 17.30

https://www.palazzomadamatorino.it/it/eventi-e-mostre/conferenze-occasione-delle-atp-finals

WEAVE LabDay, online 24th November 2021

Castellers in the World: discovering a tradition that is also Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Image: «Diada castellera».Credit: Aniol Resclosa (CRDI). 1st November 2012. At the moment the human tower goes up, the group members have to push together to strengthen the structure they want to erect.

In the framework of the WEAVE LabDay series, an online event hosted by CRDI, the Centre for Image Research and Diffusion in Girona, will present the tradition of castellers. CRDI owns a large Image Archive that holds a wealth of materials reflecting different aspects of daily life in Girona and its rich cultural heritage, and for WEAVE it has curated a collection of 6.500 photographs and 186 videos about castellers (human castles). It has also curated a collection of daguerreotype photographs and plans to digitise more than 100 in 3D and aggregate them to Europeana.

CRDI is a Department inside the Record Management, Archives and Publications Service of Girona City Council . It is a member of Photoconsortium Association and very involved in different international initiatives regarding Photography Heritage. Its mission is to know, to protect, to promote, to offer and to disseminate the Image Heritage of Girona. The main services it provides are: preservation and conservation; on-site and online consultation: reproduction of original images; advice on the organization and management of fonds and collections; assessment and selection; implementation of technologies; management of intellectual property rights; guided tours for schools and specialists, and collaboration on outreach and training activities in connection with images.

This introductory panel about Castellers Culture will explain the values implicitly involved in this activity. This is something very specific to Catalan culture, although Castellers groups exist around the world. In this LabDay we will connect with Castellers’ associations in different countries and share experiences and points of view. The aim is to explain the phenomena of the Casteller.

More information and registration: https://weave-culture.eu/2021/11/04/castellers-labday/

Fires i Festes de Sant Narcís 2016. Pilar de 4 dels Marrecs de Salt a les escales de la Catedral de Girona. Credit: CRDI – Ajuntament de Girona

The content it provides to the project are relevant for the cultural communities represented, that is: castellers (human castles) and communities linked to early photography. Regarding castellers it must be taken into account that in 2010 UNESCO approved the inclusion of castellers in its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In this way, castells acquired a universal status, with the highest possible recognition to which a popular culture element can aspire. After a long selection process, the final decision was made in Nairobi (Kenya) on the 16th of November 2010. In its decision, among other elements, the Committee highlighted that: “Human towers are recognized by Catalan people as an integral part of their cultural identity, transmitted from generation to generation and providing community members a sense of continuity, social cohesion and solidarity”.

8-10 December 2021, Les Futurs Fantastiques Conference

Artificial intelligence: opportunities for libraries, archives and museums

From 8 to 10 December 2021, the international conference “Les Futurs Fantastiques “ on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Libraries, Archives and Museums, will take place in Paris, organized by the National Library of France in collaboration with Université Paris-Saclay and the ai4lam (artificial intelligence for libraries, archives and museums) community.
The conference addresses the libraries, archives and museums professionals as well as researchers, users, and artists who work with data, digital collections and projects using AI.

The event intends to explore and delve into the opportunities offered by AI in cultural institutions galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs). Various topics will be on the agenda and will concern not only examples of tools, models and best practices, but also ethical considerations regarding AI and its use.

Two pre-conference days, December 8 and 9, are organized on “Feedbacks about practical and technical issue”; during the first day a visit to the campus of the Paris Saclay University is planned.
Furthemore one week before the event, the conference will make available a series of online tutorials and workshops focusing on:

basic concepts of artificial intelligence in the GLAM sector
concrete uses and practices of AI in the GLAM sector
technologies and tools applicable to the GLAM sector’s data and collections

The main event, December 10, will take place at the National Library of France in Paris and will be streamed online on You Tube.
The theme will be “AI challenges for galeries, libraries, archives and museums” and the three sessions will cover:

Presentation of projects followed with a round-table
Ethical and legal issues
Organisational and institutional issues

More information at https://www.bnf.fr/en/les-futurs-fantastiques

first steps in mapping the rural tracks network of Morvan (France) for their future protection, management and valorisation

Participatory inventory of the territory’s heritage of Morvan

original text BIBRACTE, images by Antoine Maillier courtesy of BIBRACTE.

One of the proposed actions of Bibracte-Morvan: ancient paths into the future in the INCULTUM project aims at mapping the Grand Site de France Bibracte – Mont Beuvray rural tracks and bringing insights for their future protection, management and valorisation. A look back at the actions that the INCULTUM Pilot leverages for further development in tourism promotion of the area.

Reactivate the interest in the network of rural paths

In 2018 Bibracte and its partner the Morvan Regional Natural Park decided to carry out a detailed and operational analysis of the heritage of rural paths on the scale of the Grand Site de France Bibracte Mont-Beuvray (12 villages, 42,163 ha).
A preliminary work was conducted between 2018 and 2020. Working sessions on the rural tracks with stakeholders of the territory, including elected representatives, inhabitants, local tourism actors, etc. were organised in four villages territories. This study revealed that for the local communities, the network of rural paths appeared as the most federating elements of the attachment to the territory and its landscape, and can therefore be considered as a common good to be reappropriated.

The comparison of the early 19th c. “Napoleonic” cadastres and the current cadastres of the Grand Site de France territory revealed an exceptional density of the network of rural roads: 1,000 km on the scale of the 12 villages, that is to say 2,7 km roads/km². This density can be explained by the historical dispersion of the population in the Morvan and the absence of agricultural land reparceling which has allowed the rural paths to persist through the ages. Considering an average width of 4m, this is an exceptional communal heritage, representing about 400 ha of communal land (or 33 ha on average per village).

This preliminary work that led to the proposal for INCULTUM helped us to define a common objective: bringing the rural paths out of oblivion.

On the road to a shared map

Two academic studies conducted in 2018 and 2020 have allowed the development and validation of an inventory and characterization protocol and lead to the creation of a GIS project. A first mission was conducted between February and March 2021. A reliable database of the network of rural paths of the 12 villages of the Grand Site de France has been collected, which allowed us to develop a management tool for local stakeholders.
A “theoretical” map was produced for each of the twelve villages based on the public Plan Cadastral Informatisé (PCI) delivered by the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI) and using the EDIGéO standard. These maps constituted an initial inventory of the network of rural paths with precise legal criteria.

This stage was followed by the development of a methodology for collecting data in the field and for characterising and evaluating the real state of the network (i.e. the existence and practicability of the paths).

The methodology is available at this link.

Then, in order to operate the characterization of rural roads in the field and to record their condition, a GIS project was embedded on an Android tablet through the QFIELD application, built with all the data (scan25, orthophoto, cadastre, departmental and communal roads, rural roads). For each project, a GPS plot is generated for each path in order to compare the data.

Thus, the village of Glux-en-Glenne was selected as a “pilot” territory to carry out the field work. This test revealed, that out of 73 km of rural tracks, 18 km (25% of the network) is affected by management concerns and may be subject to regularisation (of which 10 km of tracks have disappeared), and 62% of the network is in a “correct” state, but more than 20% of it is poorly maintained.

These research outcomes are the basis for the work to be done in INCULTUM Pilot 6 across 2021-2023.

Discover INCULTUM Pilot 6 – Bibracte-Morvan: ancient paths into the future

online, 3rd December 2021

WEAVE LabDay with Early Dance Circle

COVUNI (Centre for Dance Research, C-DaRE) and the Early Dance Circle (EDC) are collaborating to organise an Early Dance LabDay where we learned more about the work the charity is doing across the UK, got a sense of the various periods they cover, gained insight into their online activities and also learned more about the content they are providing for the WEAVE project.

Historical dance revival is important in a cultural perspective as it is not only a way to interact with intangible heritage and culture, but also a social activity that creates bonds among persons. A key question in the LabDay was in facts how we can get young generations engaged with this topic, which is not only reserved to conoissuers and fans.

The LabDay also revisited the EDC Baroque Dance MOOC developed under the CEF CultureMoves project. For the Early Dance Module where a collaboration with the Early Dance Circle and Chalemie took place, the module provided an introduction to Baroque dance focused on its more formal couple dances, rather than its professional, stage and comedic (more virtuosic) sides, or its rich and various heritage of country dances involving sets of dancers.

The LabDay also explored how the EDC and the content provided to Europeana is opening up a conversation about the importance of historical dance and music because of its relevance for engagement in historic buildings and other cultural heritage sites. The LabDay offered participants the opportunity to learn more about historical dance and join a conversation on the ways in which archival material can be reimagined in a modern context.

More info: https://weave-culture.eu/2021/11/17/early-dance-circle-labday/