Digital and Cultural Heritage

Big data of the past for the future of Europe

The Project Time Machine will give Europe the technology to strengthen its identity against globalisation, populism and increased social exclusion, by turning its history and cultural heritage into a living resource for co-creating its future. The FET Flagship will develop a large-scale digitisation and computing infrastructure mapping millennia of European historical and geographical evolution, transforming kilometres of archives, large collections from museums and libraries, and geo-historical datasets into a distributed digital information system. To succeed, a series of fundamental breakthroughs are targeted in Artificial Intelligence and ICT, making Europe the leader in the extraction and analysis of Big Data of the Past.
Time Machine will bring a new era of open access to sources, where past and on-going research are open science. A dissemination programme aims to further strengthen the rapidly growing ecosystem, currently counting 95 research institutions, most prestigious European cultural heritage associations, large enterprises and innovative SMEs, influential business and civil society associations, and international and national institutional bodies.

Website
Researcher: Dorit Raines
Duration: 01/03/2019 - 29/02/2020

Stopping illicit trade and protection of endangered cultural heritage

The last decades have witnessed a variety of initiatives promoted by a diverse set of actors engaged in the protection of endangered cultural heritage and in stopping illicit trade, initiatives that have tried to bring solutions, remediation, methods and approaches to tackle looting and trafficking. NETCHER (NETwork and digital platform for Cultural Heritage Enhancing and Rebuilding) seeks to address the complex challenge of harmonising and bringing together these worthy, but often disconnected initiatives by using a participative approach that will result in the establishment of a structured network (defined as a Social Platform) drawing together a broad range of players such as international bodies, umbrella organizations, national governments, researchers, public policy makers, NGOs, as well as public and private foundations. The Platform will take charge of the systematizing and framing of all the emerging best practices in order to enhance and capitalize on the experiences of the partnership members at an international level for building a joint action plan with shared toolkits and a research and innovation roadmap.

Website
Researchers: Cristina Tonghini, Arianna Traviglia
Duration: 01/01/2019 - 31/12/2020

Immersive Underwater Museum experience for a wider inclusion

Aim of the Underwater Muse project, coordinated by ERPAC of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, is the development of proposals for the valorization of the underwater archaeological heritage of the Italian and Croatian Adriatic coasts. In particular, the partners, respecting the guidances of the Unesco Convention on the Underwater Heritage, will promote the in situ maintenance of the sites and the organization of parks which allow the underwater visit of this heritage. The digital virtual visit of the underwater sites, a solution which guarantees a completed sharing of this particular heritage, and the creation of a GIS platform for the dissemination of the most important sites, will be other important topics on which the team of Ca’ Foscari, coordinated by Carlo Beltrame, will work.

Researcher: Carlo Beltrame
Duration: 01/01/2019 - 30/06/2021

Smart Accelerators of Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurship

The main objective of "SACHE" is to develop and deliver integrated local development strategies based on tools and approaches that would accelerate creative entrepreneurship within and around cultural heritage (CH). The project intends to expand and strengthen the role of CH sites, symbols and values by transforming them into “Smart Accelerators of Creative Heritage Entrepreneurship" thorough the development of a central European model. Museum, galleries, theatres and festivals will be conceived not only as sites of education or entertainment but also as accelerators, i.e. cultural engines that mobilize and nurture the energies of small creative business. This will expand the access to CH but also the production of value enhancing services, the development of innovative clustering of CCIs around each SACHE and the fostering of cross-sectorial cooperation with other industrial and service sectors especially in the digital technologies.

Website
Researcher: Fabrizio Panozzo
Duration: 01/01/2019 - 31/12/2021

Connections for a new creative industry system: SMATH

The cultural and creative (CC) sectors are some of Europe’s most dynamic sectors, however they suffer the lack of conjunctions between their CC components and are unable to access start-up capital and financing. Improving the synergies between the wealth of heritage traditions, values and symbols and the business environment can add to them economic value and fully exploit their economic potential. The project "SMATH - Smart atmospheres of social and financial innovation for innovative clustering of creative industries in MED area" intends to generate and strengthen “Smart Atmospheres” able to support the start-up and the development of clustering and SMEs in the CC sector, facilitating the access to “culture factories”, value enhancing services and joint cooperation among investors and public actors.

Website
Researcher: Fabrizio Panozzo
Duration: 01/01/2019 - 31/05/2020

Dancing Museums: the democracy of beings

In this period of accelerated change, there is an urgent need for professionalism, shared vocabulary and a coherent conceptual framework that makes sense of the many different approaches to audience engagement. In Dancing Museums - The democracy of being, individuals and arts organisations share, improve, develop and transfer skills and knowledge needed to broaden and deepen connections and relationships with audiences. If art focuses more on people, people will focus more on art. The project picks up on changes that need to happen on an organisational level to conceptualise, develop and test new tools for the arts sector to create meaningful experiences and sensitive encounters with the public, hence measuring and improving its social value and impact.
The practice-led research team, composed of artists, staff from dance organisations, museums and universities from 7 countries, looks at how the presence of dance can offer new ways of experiencing art and heritage and help audiences and visitors engage both intellectually and viscerally with artworks and art spaces. The learning happens locally and internationally.

Researchers of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and Fondazione Fitzcarraldo follow the international activities to give language to the artistic practices observed and scientifically measure the impact on institutions, artists and how the new artistic products tested and developed change the perception of engagement of the audiences and their cultural behaviours. 

Website
Researcher: Susanne Franco
Duration: 01/10/2018 - 31/12/2021

Protection, promotion and touristic valorisation of Adriatic maritime heritage

Arca Adriatica project, coordinated by the Primorje-Gorski Kotar region, will work on the valorization and dissemination, also for turistic aims, of the maritime cultural heritage of the Italian and Croatian coastal regions. Centres of excellence will be created for the documentation, conservation of the traditional boats and for the knowledge, also with digital tools, of the traditional boat-building techniques.
The team of Ca’ Foscari, composed by Francesco Casarin, engaged in the elaboration of a master plan for the development of this form of tourism, and Francesco Vallerani, as expert of inland waterways landscapes, is coordinated by Carlo Beltrame. 

Researcher: Carlo Beltrame
Duration: 01/01/2018 - 30/06/2021

From Ancient Maritime Routes to eco-touristic destinations

The territories involved in the project "APPRODI" hosted in the past ancient harbors who have been always considered marginal to cities’ development, thus scarcely attractive for visitors. APPRODI aims to promote and valorize cultural heritages in ADRION area by enhancing management and promotion of ancient harbors sites as touristic destinations and by improving the involvement of local communities. Five pilot sites will be valorized as new potential destinations linked to such ancient, by applying innovative techniques such as geo-archeological investigations, whose findings will be exposed in Museums exhibitions.

Website
Researcher: Elisabetta Zendri
Duration: 01/01/2018 - 31/12/2019

Enhancing touristic development through culture: ArTVision+

The tourist promotion is usually directed towards more popular/ bigger destinations, thus the need arises for a quality promotion of less popular destinations, through the prism of culture. With this project, less popular destinations will be included, presenting their cultural heritage to tourists and realise a quality cooperation between artists and organisers of the touristic offer. An IT platform will connect artists and organisers of tourist manifestations to create a quality cooperation, to present the tourist product and will be the base for a promotion campaign.

Website
Researcher: Fabrizio Panozzo
Duration: 01/01/2018 - 30/06/2019