EuroMed2024 Workshops

Digital Repatriation & Reunification of Cultural Heritage

The digitalisation of cultural heritage has undoubtedly widened access to the hidden histories and cultural memories of marginalised societies providing opportunities for cultural renaissance, identity building and global awareness of those cultures, histories and societies considered ‘peripheral’ to humankind’s past.

With many museums and knowledge institutions founded on extraterritorial cultural materials, and sometimes of unclear or dubious provenance, can digital surrogates help bridge the gap between institutions and communities of origin? Recalling the principles of FAIR and CARE how can collection holders approach the digitisation process to avoid a new digital colonialism?

This special workshop will draw on the unique experience of a digital repatriation initiative between Sweden and Cyprus and the digitation of the Cypriot Collection held in the Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm acquired between 1927-1931 as part of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition under the patronage of crown prince Gustaf VI Adolf.

Through the lens of this cooperation – which saw for the first time a state holding cultural material inviting the state of origin to not only be involved in the digitisation process but undertake, train and advise the collection holder – the session will discuss the wider benefits, implementations and implications of digital cultural heritage as a tool for repatriation and reunification of dispersed artefacts.

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Cultural Tourism and Digital Cultural Heritage

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 of that, it is estimated that 40% of all destination selections by tourists 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 – and in some cases restricting – tourist activities and access.

This workshop will 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.

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Paradata, Metadata, Filedata and Knowledge Creation

Since its adoption in 2006 as part of the London Charter as a method for intellectual transparency in the creation of scholarly 3D CH assets, the concept of Paradata has appealed to many aspects of the digital documentation of the past; from expressing alternative interpretations, probability or confidence in visual-based heritage research to providing a basis for robust scholarly interrogation, and from describing workflows, data acquisition methods and parameters to supporting sustainability and high quality of data and its preservation approaches.

Now widely seen, along with Metadata and geometrical data, as part of the trinity that indicates high-quality 3D digital resources, both for enriching 3D assets, creating knowledge and promoting reusability, the DCH community still lacks a definitive description and differentiation of what Paradata and Metadata are, their benefits to stakeholders, owners, the multidisciplinary DCH community, digital scholarship, and compliance with the European Commission Recommendation for the collection of 3D-digitised CH assets.

This workshop will review the outcomes and conclusions of two key webinars held under the auspice of the UNESCO Chair on DCH and the EU Eureka3D project in April and May 2024 with the intent to establish definitions for paradata and its applicability within the digitisation lifecycle.