Keynote Speakers
UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace
Newcastle University
The United Kingdom
President
Blue Shield International
The Netherlands
Professor Peter Stone OBE
Peter is currently the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle – the only such Chair in the world. In August 2020, Peter was elected as President of the Blue Shield having served as Vice President between 2017 and 2020. The Blue Shield is the international NGO created in 1996 to advise UNESCO on the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict. He was Chair of the UK national committee of the Blue Shield between 2013 and 2020. Peter was previously Head of the School of Arts and Cultures and Professor of Heritage Studies in the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle. Before joining Newcastle he had worked for English Heritage, as a field archaeologist, and history teacher.
In 2003 Peter was advisor to the UK’s Ministry of Defence regarding the identification and protection of the archaeological cultural heritage in Iraq. He has remained active in working with the military to refine attitudes and develop processes for the better protection of cultural property in times of conflict. He has written extensively on this topic including co-editing, with Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq (2008) and editing Cultural Heritage, Ethics and the Military (2011). His article ‘The 4 Tier approach’ led directly to the establishment of a Joint Service Cultural Property Protection Unit in UK forces to become operational in 2019/20.
Peter was appointed to the University in 1997, as Director of the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS) in the School of Arts and Cultures in 2001, and as Head of School in 2006 (until December 2015). Between 1998 and 2008 he was Honorary Chief Executive Officer of the World Archaeological Congress. He was awarded an OBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to heritage education.
Saving Cultural Property In Armed Conflict: The Work Of The Blue Shield
In 1953 Luther Evans, Director General of UNESCO, addressed those drafting what was to become the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, stressing that they had been brought together not only to draft the convention but also to create the “Red Cross for Cultural Property”. Evans realised that cultural property protection (CPP) could not be delivered by the fledgling UNESCO but would need an independent, impartial, and neutral organisation. While the assembled experts renamed Evans’ organisation the ‘Blue and White Shield’ after the formal emblem of the organisation it was not to be until 42 years later that the International Committee of the Blue Shield was actually established.
This presentation introduces the work of the international NGO, now simply referred to as ‘The Blue Shield’, which is committed to working in partnership with the heritage, uniformed, and humanitarian’ sectors, encouraging them to see the relevance and importance of CPP to their disparate agendas. The Blue Shield stresses the intertwined nature and indivisibility of the protection of people and their cultural heritage and argues that cultural and natural heritage can be used as a vehicle for peace and reconciliation rather than simply as an excuse for conflict. Such work cannot be left until conflict breaks out but must become an integral facet of peacetime activity, concentrating on what unites, rather than what divides, us.
Independent Digital Heritage Consultant
The United Kingdom
Thomas Flynn
Thomas is a well-known and respected cultural heritage practitioner specialising in 3D digitisation, online publishing, open access, storytelling, and interoperability. He was the Cultural Heritage Lead at Sketchfab/Epic Games and cofounder of Museum in a Box Ltd.
He has previously worked for the British Museum and acted as a consultant on 3D Cultural Heritage matters for UNESCO, The European Commission, Oxford University, Creative Commons, UK Research & Innovation, Columbia University, and University College London to list but a few.
Currently, he is an independent consultant to the Cultural Heritage community and serves as co-chair of the IIIF 3D Community Group and the advisory board of the Rijksmuseum’s 2&3D conference. He also produces The Spatial Heritage Review, a monthly round-up of all things happening at the intersection of Cultural Heritage + Digital 3D.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
Digitisation technology, workflows, and standards continue to steadily advance, facilitating increases in the quality, depth, and volume of digital cultural heritage data being created. In parallel, new platforms for publishing and disseminating heritage data are connecting audiences new and old with this data in novel and engaging ways. With a focus on 3D data, and drawing on experience and examples from both the heritage and commercial sectors, this keynote will highlight some key challenges and opportunities apparent at the intersection of modern technology and historical knowledge.
