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NetConnect - Connecting European Culture through New Technology

Research Area:

Cultural Heritage

Status:

Finished

Project leaders:

Raffaele de Amicis

Proposed start date:

2006-10-00

Proposed end date:

2009-08-00

Description:

Cultural production and entertainment centers are among the major industrial resources of free time, catalysts of interest, multipliers of business, as well as instruments for the re -qualification of the archaeological and monumental patrimony. The possibility to visit an archaeological landscape or site and at the same time experiencing its reconstruction interactively makes the all experience more engaging, culturally enriching and entertaining for visitors. In fact archaeological sites and ancient monuments are usually perceived by not specialists as fragmented, partial, and difficult to interpret and comprehend, and out of the contemporary age context.

This results in a frustrating and limiting experience for most of the people. The curators of archaeological sites have been trying to respond to this making available to the public textual information, drawings showing how the site looked like in ancient times, and physical models of ancient monuments. These are all very limited attempts to fill the lack of information and context that most of the visitors experience, which have also required from the expert point of view a significant amount of time with questionable results. Visitors are in need for interactive and mobile tools from where to access data on demand about the cultural background of the site, artistic aspects, historical context and other valuable information that would enrich their experience. At the same time visitors of one archaeological site require to relate their visit to other culturally similar or related archaeological sites, so that to built a wide picture of cultural and stylistic interrelations between various sites in Europe. The aim of NETConnect is to support with the available new technology the vision of a culturally interconnected European continent creating a central hub for accessing archaeological content, which also allows more engaging communication and visualization means than 2D static content. Starting from three archaeological sites and their surrounding landscape as scenarios the aim is to build a sustainable methodology for connecting the sites that could provide the basis for a European network.

Content such as images, text, videos, maps, physical models and 3D reconstructions will be gathered, reorganizing, completed, elaborated and made available to citizens using state-of-the-art technology such as Virtual Reality on desktop computers, mobile devices, Internet and GIS technology. VR will be used in the project for its visualization potential and for the degree of interactivity that it brings in. Virtual Reality gives the user the possibility to explore new means of expression and cognition, through alternative ways to traditional instruments of information and from classical methods of learning. NETConnect will make use of normal desktop set-ups instead of immersive and expensive virtual environments privileging a cheap and resistant solution more suitable for big numbers of visitors as in the case of archaeological sites.

Internet technology will be used for allowing remote access to content by citizens and also among archaeological sites themselves. So that from one archaeological site will be possible to browse material and content about the other related sites.

GIS technology will be used as new means to present cultural content to European citizens which is more engaging and that stresses at the same time intercultural aspects at the territorial level. GIS technology has become a widespread tool for the management of information in authorities responsible for the administration of cultural heritage as well as for scientific research especially in archaeology. Here one focus will be set on the combination of GIS systems and mobile technologies and systems, allowing an in-situ access to GIS-based information. Due to the rapid development of mobile technologies and the increasing capabilities of mobile devices, this information will not only be available for experts but be intuitively accessible for the laymen on the own mobile phone, thus bridging technical obstacles in the access to cultural information.

NETConnect will contribute to introduce history and culture of ancient populations to a wider number of users (citizens, experts, and cultural operators) and to make the virtual visit accessible also to people physically impeded.

An International network of experts on archaeology and on VR/GIS technologies has been established in order to link ongoing research projects, organizations and institutions, which are already involved on the topics, to the activities of NETConnect, and to make visible the results of the project to the wider public. Already existing organizations with their (annual) conferences like “Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology” (CAA) or the “European Association of Archaeologists” (EAA) could be the starting point for advertising the activities of the network.

The network will involve all partners of the project and many other institutions who are interested in the initiative. Among the planned activities are traditional and virtual exhibitions in each of the cultural scenarios locations; demonstrations of technology in VR labs of the partners during dissemination events; promotion of dedicated workshop during international conferences (e.g. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology 2007); presentation of the results on several (archaeological) congresses to invite more partners to take part in the International Network (like EAA and CAA); creation of a dedicated web site with sections open to the public for spreading the results of the project and collecting feedback; biannual issue of a network newsletter; publications of the achieved results in scientific journals; CD and DVD productions.