Digital meets Culture

The VAST project joined the UNCHARTED network

The VAST project (Values Across Space and Time) is an international collaboration between eight partners from five countries: National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos (Greece), Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa – NOVA (Portugal), Fairytale Museum (Cyprus), Semantika (Slovenia), Museo Galileo (Italy) and Athens & Epidaurus Festival (Greece).

The project aims to study the transformation of moral values across space and time with specific focus on the core European values considered fundamental for the formation of sustainable communities and peaceful coexitance such as freedom, democracy, equality, tolerance, dialogue, human dignity, the rule of law and others. VAST envisions to bring values to the forefront in the field of advanced digitisation. By providing advanced modelling, methods, techniques and digital tools, enabling the collaborative study, annotation and continuous capture and digitisation of experiences, VAST will examine narratives that represent significant moments of European culture/history and narratives stemming from citizen experiences, to study how the meaning of specific values has been expressed through different narratives (Greek tragedies, 17th century Scientific Revolution texts, folktales) and user experiences (artists, spectators, curators, museum visitors, pupils).
The new collaboration between VAST and UNCHARTED is a good opportunity to enlarge the horizon of both projects and increase the sharing of experiences and knowledge in the mutual interest of the promotion of culture.
Read more…
VAST website

The importance of cultural heritage in the design of sustainable solutions and development of EU

Slovenian Presidency of the EU: presentation of priorities to the CULT Committee of the EU Parliament

Since the 1st July, Slovenia has taken the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union and last week Slovenian ministers for education, youth and for culture presented the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency to the Culture and Education (CULT) Committee of the European Parliament.
At the meeting the ministers highlighted the key points and goals on which Slovenia will focus over the next six months and stressed the importance of cultural rights and right to heritage as a central starting point for designing sustainable solutions for the EU’s development: “in designing sustainable solutions and turning the EU development, we must not overlook the importance of cultural heritage and its diversity in the EU ” from Slovenian Presidency website.

Two main topics have been identified:

the innovative potential of culture: in particular high quality construction and architecture, a topic strongly connected with the New European Bauhaus initiative, whose goal is to improve the living environment in cities and rural areas using architectural solutions;
the competitiveness of European audiovisual and media content in the global digital market.

More information: Slovenian Presidency and CULT.

a non for profit association whose purpose is the promotion and enhancement of the culture of photography and photographic heritage.

Meet WEAVE Team: PHOTOCONSORTIUM

On a regular schedule, the WEAVE team publishes a blog post which features a partner of the WEAVE consortium. This second blog item presents partner PHOTOCONSORTIUM – International Consortium for Photographic Heritage, based in Italy.

PHOTOCONSORTIUM is a non for profit association whose purpose is the promotion and enhancement of the culture of photography and photographic heritage. It promotes and organizes conferences, exhibitions, events and training courses. PHOTOCONSORTIUM is Europeana’s accredited domain aggregator specialized in photographic content, and since 2014 has made accessible in Europeana over 500,000 photographs of famous and less famous heritage collections from prestigious public institutions and private agencies, and also unveiling hitherto unknown photographic content from crowdsourcing campaigns, private collectors and smaller local archives.

PHOTOCONSORTIUM is active in the Europeana DSI project series with a particular effort in improving the quality of metadata and digital objects provided to Europeana by the network of content providers, and promotes the high quality data in a dedicated space in Europeana, originally known as the “Europeana Photography” thematic collection, curated by PHOTOCONSORTIUM and enriched with galleries, virtual exhibitions, blogs.

PHOTOCONSORTIUM was partner in the successful GS CEF project Fifties in Europe Kaleidoscope (2018-2020), aiming at enriching the user experience in Europeana with engaging features developed under the overarching theme of the 1950s, and in the project of the Europeana Year of Cultural Heritage WeAre#EuropeForCulture (2019-2020) which realized a series of pop-up exhibitions across various European countries to showcase the diversity of European heritage and to engage with hard-to-reach age groups.

Most recent projects by PHOTOCONSORTIUM include:

PAGODE – Europeana China (2020-2021), aiming at enriching Europeana with beautiful collections and editorials about Chinese Heritage
Europeana XX – Century of Change (2020-2021), again a Europeana project with focus on high-quality content about the history of 20th century
Citizen Heritage (2020-2023), an Erasmus+ project to foster citizen science in cultural heritage
I2 Identity and Innovation (2021-2022), again a Erasmus+ project with focus on secondary school education supported with digital cultural heritage and technologies.

The Team of PHOTOCONSORTIUM involved with WEAVE is composed by Antonella Fresa, the vice president of the association; Pietro Masi, general coordination; and Valentina Bachi, project manager. Within WEAVE they are responsible for aggregation of content to Europeana and participate in the Dissemination and communication strands of the project. But next to the staff operating in the project, the entire network of PHOTOCONSORTIUM members is involved with the progress of WEAVE and closely follows the project’s developments.

Website: www.photoconsortium.net

The mapping of impact assessment practices in CH of the SoPHIA Platform

The Sophia platform, is developing a Holistic Heritage Impact Assessment Model. The recent progresses of its evaluation are referred to the identification of the three axes along which the model can be developed which are domains, people, and time. Next step was to collect and analyse existing cases of impact assessment practices for their applicability. At this puropose, members of SoPHIA’s Advisory Board as well as stakeholders were asked to reflect upon their experiences and practices of impact assessment in cultural heritage.
This shared reflection led to the identification of an extensive amounts of information on good and poorly done practices in impact assessment: their review was proved to be a crucial exercise in identifying key factors that will define the process of developing the SoPHIA model and will constitute the bases for the creation and implementation of policy recommendations, operational programmes, and guidelines for the use of the model by heritage professionals.Link to the D2.1 Mapping of Impact Assessment Practices in Cultural Heritage
More information…

a project to demonstrate the potential of Data Analytics for tourism development in the area of Black Sea

Tourism 4.0 for the Black Sea

Tourism is increasingly popular at the Black Sea, while the challenges affecting the sustainability of the sector (environmental pressures, peak visits in limited areas, poor overall visibility, etc.) are rising at the same rate.

Tourism 4.0 for the Black Sea project strives to enable local stakeholders from public and private sector in tourism to increase their understanding of current trends, patterns of tourist flows and impact of visitors as well as predict the tourist impact for taking strategic data driven decisions to foster more sustainable tourism in the future. For this reason, collaboration of all stakeholders of tourism ecosystem as well as exchange of data between them will be promoted to spur innovative touristic services and policies tailored to the regional challenges and opportunities.

The aim of the T4.0 for the Black Sea project is to demonstrate the potential of Data Analytics for tourism development in the area of Black Sea. To achieve this, pilot services will be tested and the dialogue with regional stakeholders encouraged. Tourism 4.0 for the Black Sea project will boost sectoral cooperation and allow greater usage of the Industry 4.0 technologies in tourism. Data driven tourism will enable more sustainable development of tourism in the future.

More about the project: https://www.t4bs.eu/

under the Sicilian sun, a meeting between INCULTUM partners to discuss about the local pilot

INCULTUM in Sicily

On the 6th of July 2021, INCULTUM partners Promoter and GAL Elimos met to discuss about the work ongoing in the Pilot 4 Sicilian inland: Monti di Trapani.

Scope of the Pilot is to valorise the territory and the rural and archaeological heritage of an economically depressed area far from traditional tourist circuits. With the proposed actions, the aim is also to give visibility to rural groups by empowering them as valid agents by complementing their traditional knowledge with innovative elements that attract visitors.

INCULTUM Pilot will focus on the three municipalities in the inland of the Trapani territory, which are away from traditional tourist itineraries but with great cultural potential:

1. Agrarian heritage: persistence of traditional irrigation systems, of clear Islamic legacy, especially in Calatafimi-Segesta, where previous projects (such as MEMOLA) documented numerous associated hydraulic systems and infrastructures (mills, irrigation channels, wells, fountains, watering holes), both in the urban area and the surrounding territory.

2. Rural heritage built: represented by “bagli”, these are constructions linked to agricultural activity, dispersed habitat nuclei, many of them of clear Islamic origin, which have survived until recent times.

3. Archaeological heritage: Thanks to previous projects (FP7 MEMOLA in particular) most outstanding elements of each population are known: Calatafimi-Segesta has the Castello Eufemio and the Borgo (old neighbourhood that retains part of its organizational structure despite the strong abandonment), Terravecchia (the neighbourhood from which the entire population emerges, linked to the castle) and churches of great artistic interest (Carmine, Crocifisso, etc.). Custonaci has Pizzo Monaco, a fortified granary from the Islamic era, dated to the 11th century. It is a unique structure in Italy, formed by a fortified enclosure with numerous inside cells dedicated to the storage of agricultural surpluses and the most precious goods of the members of the Islamic community that lived in a nearby settlement.

Finally, Buseto Palizzolo has Monte Luziano that seems to have been another fortified granary of Islamic times. These different archaeological elements are related to the daily activities of the different communities that have inhabited this territory over time.

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

All photos courtesy of Promoter.

Incredible pictures of Native Americans from old books to digital collections

Karen Hatzigeorgiou: U.S. History Images in public domain

text by Caterina Sbrana

Dear DIGITALMEETSCULTURE.NET readers, in these almost two years of collaboration with the magazine, I took care of proposing digital archives, online exhibitions, artistic experiences in which the digital technology meets art, dance, literature, historical events etc..

Most of the archives that I have proposed on my latest articles are made by universities, research centers, government agencies or partnerships among many organizations.
Today I would like to suggest the consultation of a site that was created by a single woman, whose name is Karen Hatzigeorgiou.

The site http://ushistoryimages.com/index.shtml , named U.S. History Images, collects drawings and engravings of United States history, which she found in ancient books.

“I decided that this was a special niche that should be shared with others. What better way to learn about and appreciate the history of the United States than through the illustrations of artists from the last century and a half?”, she said.

The Home page of U.S. History Images by Karen Hatzigeorgiou ; on the left there is the list of topics, the first of which is Native Americans; http://ushistoryimages.com/index.shtml

The digital images that we find on the website primarily come from books published from as early as 1842 up to 1922. Of course those books are affected by the stereotypes of that time, but Karen says herself that, even if she doesn’t agree with those views, she wanted to present “the images as authentically as possible, without censorship”. Karen suggests users to keep in mind the prejudices that could have affected the authors, while browsing the site.

In Karen’s website I focused my attention on images of Native Americans. To appreciate the iconography of the different tribes, you can start from the Site Map and entering the section ‘Native Americans Tribes’.

Geronimo, the chief of the Apaches; below the picture, Karen indicates the Source: Wood, Norman B. The Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs. Aurora: American Indian Historical Publishing Company, 1906.

The name “Geronimo” opens the Native American section. This section contains an assortment of seven black and white and color images. On the site there are other Indian leaders such as Tecumseh or King Philip.

You can also find drawings related to the art of Native Americans, paintings of clothes, artifacts as stone pipe, flutes, jewelry, illustrations, etc.

The list of American Indian tribes is long. There are illustrations of Indians, belonging to different tribes. Karen counts 38 tribes, and places them in alphabetical order, from the little known (to the writer) Algonquin, Ponca, Zuni to the most known Cherokee, Kiowa, Navajo, Sioux.

Native american clothes: Kiowa moccasins; Source Humfreville, J. Lee. Twenty Years Among Our Savage Indians. Hartford: The Hartford Publishing Company, 1897; http://ushistoryimages.com/native-american-clothes.shtm

A small section is dedicated to paintings of Native Americans women showing clothes, jewelry, everyday life scenes like the one you can see in the image below:

Native American Women; Wood, Norman B. The Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs. Aurora: American Indian Historical Publishing Company, 1906; http://ushistoryimages.com/native-american-women.shtm

Karen’s site on U.S. History Images starts with the section named Native Americans and then continues with Native American Tribes, Native American Culture up to the Civil War with 3 dedicated sections about the outbreak of the war and the battles of 1861 and 1862. In the site, as explained in the caption that opens the U.S. History Images section, there are many other sections that are related to later periods of American history. Other sections concern colonies, slavery, agriculture.

It is not difficult to understand what Karen writes about her commitment: “This website is a work in progress and new images will be added, in chronological order, over time.”

I really appreciate the work that Karen is doing because I think it’s important to make accessible the documents that many students often can not find, because they are contained in rare books. I think that the effort of all of us for digitising the cultural heritage contained in rare books that we own, and for making them available as part of a collective heritage is a interesting step towards a modern, democratic and participatory society.

https://guides.library.upenn.edu/c.php?g=475958&p=3255323

http://ushistoryimages.com/index.shtml

http://ushistoryimages.com/geronimo.shtm

http://ushistoryimages.com/native-american-clothes.shtm

http://ushistoryimages.com/native-american-women.shtm

Bio

Call for nomination is open

Let’s save Europe’s endangered heritage: the 7 Most Endangered Programme 2022

The last 29th June, EuropaNostra launched the Call for Nominations for the 7 Most Endangered programme 2022 which will be open until 17th September 2021.

It is a civil society campaign, launched for the first time in 2013, to save Europe’s endangered heritage; it is run by Europa Nostra in partnership with the European Investment Bank Institute and with the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
The scope of the initiative is to raise awareness, propose recommendations for action and seeks to rally support to save the selected endangered sites.
In addition, the 7 Most Endangered Program provides the possibility for the 7 selected sites to be eligible for an EIB Heritage Grant of up to 10,000 euros to start the implementation of actions, studies or assistance measures for the threatened site.
The applications will be discussed by an international advisory panel, comprising specialists in history, archaeology, architecture, conservation and finance, who shortlist the most endangered monuments and sites; the final list of 7 sites will be selected by the Board of Europa Nostra.
Each case will be evaluated by teams of experts representing Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank Institute, together with the organizations that nominated the sites. These multidisciplinary teams will provide expert advice, identify possible sources of funding and help mobilize broad support to save these heritage landmarks. They will also provide a number of recommendations for future action.

The call requires to provide a series of specific information to evaluate the state of the site: in addition to the description of the designated site, its specific value for the local community and in the European dimension must be specified as well as the damage already incurred, its current state, what are the threats (natural, man-made or both) and the likely path of deterioration, if corrective measures are not taken;
further information to be provided concern the actions necessary to save the site and the short and long term strategy for their implement.

What are you waiting for? Do you know an endangered heritage gem in Europe? Nominate it for the 7 Most Endangered Programme 2022!

Here the call.

For more information about the 7 Most Endangered programme, visit the dedicated website and read the latest news.

online, 21st July 2021 h. 1 pm

Digital Storytelling Festival

Europeana, the European gateway to digital cultural heritage, is reflecting about digital storytelling since a long time, also thanks to a dedicated task force on the topic, run by the Europeana Communicators Community with 26 members from 14 countries. Storytelling is important to engage various types of audiences with a variety of tools such as online exhibitions, apps and videogames, video content and podcasts with entertainment or educational purposes.

Effective storytelling can really be crucial in reaching better and more audiences, sharing knowledge and enablying participation in cultural heritage. Cultural Heritage audiences want to feel informed by digital stories, but also curious, immersed, inspired and connected by them. It is this that sets storytelling apart from other content types; and it is this that gives storytelling such a role to play in engagement and community-building across the cultural heritage sector.

Digital Storytelling Festival

Among the initiatives aiming at exploring and promoting Digital Storytelling, the Festival was created as an online event inviting cultural heritage professionals to discover resources and tools to create digital content, explore ways to boost audience engagement online and discover the value of Open GLAM.

More about the Digital Storytelling Festival: https://medium.com/digital-storytelling-festival

This first edition of the Europeana Digital Storytelling Festival actively encouraged people to create digital stories from openly licensed cultural heritage collections in Europeana.

During this Closing Online Event, we will:

announce the contest winners
explore the submissions
discuss the opportunities and challenges related to storytelling and work with openly licensed cultural heritage collections
showcase inspiring examples of storytelling by professionals from the culture sector

Registration to the Closing Online Event: https://pro.europeana.eu/event/digital-storytelling-festival-closing-online-event

adding richer and interlinked metadata to existing collections in Europeana helps to make them come to surface and be more visible and easily searchable

PAGODE, an effort for annotating digital heritage collections

image: Wereldculturen Museum CC-BY via Europeana

PAGODE – Europeana China is a project aiming to highlight digital collections of Chinese heritage, with a particular attention on those made available by various cultural heritage institutions in Europeana, the European digital library. Many of those collections would benefit from additional and richer information (i.e. metadata) to make the resources more visible and easily searchable.

Among the activities in PAGODE, a big effort is deployed to annotate and enrich with additional metadata a selection of existing collections from Europeana. This is done in two different actions:

Automated semantic enrichment: by the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence, additional metadata are extracted from the existing records. The additional metadata are then re-associated to the cultural resource, also adding links to authority files and established LOD thesauri. A human-in-the-loop approach in the validation of the enrichments guarantees the highest level of confidence for these AI-generated information, thus sending back to Europeana trustable metadata. This task is coordinated by partner PostScriptum.

Deep curatorial annotation on selected objects: this is also called the PAGODE Annotation Pilot, and the action makes use of a crowdsourcing platform, where users can access curated collections sourced from Europeana and manually “tag” each record with appropriate keywords about places, subjects and highly-specific terms related to Chinese heritage. This task is coordinated by partner Photoconsortium.

Both actions are based on specific lists of keywords developed by the Sinologists, specialized in Chinese heritage semantics, of the University of Ljubljana.

Expected outcomes:

While the automated semantic enrichments are now completed, offering additional metadata to over 20.000 existing records in Europeana, the Annotation Pilot is continuing all across the summer, expecting to offer back to Europeana over 3.000 items with curated annotations.

Two campaigns were deployed in the past months: Scenes and People of China, consisting in ca. 1.900 records annotated with over 26.000 tags; and Artefacts, consisting in ca. 600 records with over 6.900 tags.

Additionaly, a summer annotation sprint is currently ongoing with participation of students of digital humanities master courses at the University of Ljubljana and at KU Leuven. Expected result from the students’ annotation sprint is to achieve additional 1.000 objects enriched with about 24.000 tags.

A dedicated seminar in the PAGODE Digital Festival series, set on 31st August 2021 h. 10.30, will showcase the impact of this crowdsourced annotation activity in terms of user engagement with digital cultural heritage and also in education.

PAGODE – Europeana China is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility Programme of the European Union, under GA n. INEA/CEF/ICT/A2019/1931839