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.

Organisers

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.

Organisers

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.

Organisers

Standards for applicable and sustainable 3D models

Ensuring scientific quality and reusability of hypothetical 3D reconstruction in art and architectural history

The use of 3D models for the virtual reconstruction of past architectures, whether unbuilt or lost, has become widespread among both the scientific and amateur communities. Despite this growth, the field still lacks standardized practices for processing and evaluating these virtual reconstructions.

Key gaps include the absence of a shared glossary for specific terms, the classification of digital representation methods and 3D modelling techniques, as well as a scholarly approved and ready-to-use methodology for computer-aided hypothetical 3D reconstruction.

This workshop will address several unresolved issues in the field, particularly:

Documentation of the uncertainty in hypothetical reconstructions
Publication of 3D models as scientific products
Quality assurance and assessment of 3D models
Accessibility and re-usability of the results

In our workshop we would like to delve deeper into these critical points.

We invite colleagues to submit the long abstract addressing the above-mentioned topics until 15^th September 2024. Use the Springer template (link) to submit your long abstract in PDF format, minimum 300, maximum 500 words. The confirmed contributions to the workshop will be published in Springer Nature Series.

In conjunction with the workshop, a hands-on workshop “Advanced standard strategies and tools for virtual 3D reconstruction of architecture” will be conducted, showcasing part of the methodology developed and refined during the CoVHer Erasmus Plus Project (2021-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000031190, Computer-based Visualization of Architectural Cultural Heritage, CoVHer Project).

The aim of this workshop is to explore the potential of creating a digital archives of 3D models of virtual reconstructions, such as the CoVHer 3D Repository. Additionally, we aim to promote the use of a shared methodology for measuring the scale of uncertainty in virtual hypothetical reconstructions.

Join us to contribute to and learn about the advancement of standards and methodologies in the exciting field of 3D virtual reconstruction of architectural heritage.

Organisers

Hands-on Workshop: Advanced standard strategies and tools for virtual 3D reconstruction of architecture

First steps documentation platform IDOVIR, with the uncertainty assessment plugin for Blender, and 3D repository, developed in the context of the CoVHer Erasmus + project

The aim of the workshop is to present a novel and accessible workflow for the assessment, documentation and dissemination of hypothetical virtual reconstructions of architectural heritage. Three free advanced tools developed and tested in the context of the CoVHer (Computer-based Visualisation of Architectural Cultural Heritage) Erasmus+ project will be presented. The aim of these tools is to make the methodology as accessible, transparent, and easy to use as possible in order to foster standardisation in the field, which in turn would favour the production of more reusable digital products with higher scientific value.

The first tool (IDOVIR) helps in the documentation process for organising and systematising metadata and paradata based on the Scientific Reference Model.

The second tool is a free and open-source plug-in for Blender (AU_Calculator Official Github page under construction) to aid the assessment and visualisation of the uncertainty, and the semi-automatic quantification of the average uncertainty weighted on the volume and relevance, based on the scale of uncertainty developed for the Critical Digital Model.

The third and last tool consists of a 3D repository (CoVHer 3D Repository) where the semantically structured and enriched model can be shared, presented, navigated, and investigated.

In this workshop, we will also discuss good practices for the creation and proofing of 3D models to make them more interoperable, and compliant with the requirements of the presented plugins and platforms.

This workshop is directed to scholars, professionals, and laypersons who aspire to produce scientifically valuable knowledge-enriched 3D virtual hypothetical reconstructions and who aim to share them with the community in a way that will bring forward knowledge and be reusable.

The hands-on workshop must be booked by the 27^th October 2024 (min./max. Attendees 12-16).

Planned activities

(15 min) Briefly present the chosen example case study (Explanation of the sources used direct, secondary…)
(15 min) Explain the semantic segmentation of the object
(30 minutes) Explanation of IDOVIR for the documentation (which should be done while 3D modelling)
(10 to 20 min) Explanation of the reference scale of Uncertainty (AU_V AU_VR)
(15 min) Good 3D modelling practices and 3D model proofing
(15 min) Interoperability of the 3D model (exchange files IFC, CityGML, FBX, etc…)
(15 to 30 minutes) Explanation of Blender plugin (and grasshopper definition)
(20 to 30 minutes) 3D repository