www.esach.org
THE
ESACH
Q U A R T E R L Y ISSUE n°1 June 2021
Magazine of the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage
WELCOME
Introduction to The ESACH Quarterly
O
ur concept of Cultural H e ri t a g e i s n o t m a te ri a lly bound up in the objects but i s a m a tte r fo r t h e o b s e r ve r. It is therefore the spirit of Immanuel Kant that resonates when it is pointed out that a monument – to give an example – does not exist without a human counterpart. When we are addressing Cultural Heritage, we consequently are dealing with an eminently anthropocentric f ield that can provide so many answers to the challenges of our days. But already Alois Riegl had noted in 1903: “it is not the works themselves, by virtue of their original purpose, that are given meaning and signif icance by monuments, but it is we modern subjects who give them the same.” Thus, an artefact does not become a monument through its materiality, but through the attribution of this status, through an act of interpretation. Such interpretations must be reconsidered, must be reevaluated. Isn’t this a consideration that is worth to reflect on, a consideration that can invite us to reshape the narrative of Cultural Heritage in the 21st century? Well, I certainly hope so. What I can confidently say is this: The ESACH spirit begins here and has been working on shaping the notion of Cultural Heritage since ESACH has developed in the light
of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. Much more it is only consistent that The ESACH Quarterly – with its f irst edition in f ront of you – strives to provide a platform, a newly established platform I m ust say, for th ose num erous untold stories in the f ield of youth engagement around Cultural Heritage. “Giving meaning and signif icance” does mean much more in this context. That is why in the following issues of The ESACH Quarterly will be reflected the diversity of innovative approaches raised by those whose perspectives deserve to be valued and promoted. In doing so, ESACH wishes to extend opportunities for interdisciplinary discourse and simulating debate. As an Open Access medium, The ESACH Quarterly also aims to make research by Young and Emerging Professional widely available and to support a vivid exchange of knowledge. As ESACH has developed significantly during the past four years and has been shaped by the numerous outstanding members that are actively engaging and have actively been engaged in our network, thanks must also be given to ESACH’s many supporters and institutional partners.
The ESACH Quarterly is therefore a joint success and another milestone in our history. It is an idea that has been shaped and independently developed by those outstanding members of the ESACH Editorial Team! Having outlined all this, I am utterly delighted to be able to introduce with this first edition of The ESACH Quarterly for what it is: in the words of Astrid Swenson, a brand-new meeting point for today’s “heritage-makers” from Europe and from around the globe. | Marius Müller ESACH Founding President
Issue n°1 - June 2021 Cover photo: Shanchuan Tian
European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief: Giacomo Martinis Graphic Editor: Qi Wang Blog Editor: Meetali Gupta
ESACH Team Marius Müller Carlota Marijuán Rodríguez Ilaria di Cagno Emilia Sánchez González Caroline Capdepon Vibhuti Yadav Riley Marshal Sabela Gomez Yesoo Yang Carmina Revert Chiara Ciuffa Sorina Neacsu Núria Gascons Cuatrecasas Filip Petkovski Ainara Guerra Fernández Contact studentsforculturalheritage@gmail.com
European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage @esach_spirit www.esach.org
ESACH, 2021 © 2021 by the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage (ESACH). The ESACH Quarterly 1.1 (Jun. 2021) is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CONT 02 Editorial 04 News from ESACH ESACH Talks! and the ESACH Blog on the European Heritage Tribune 05 Reports f rom the ESACH Groups ESACH Girona ESACH Girona & Margarida Casadevall
The Application of Survey Advanced Techniques in Palazzo Ducale in Mantova Annachiara Colombo, Laura Cerliani
People and Heritage 11 Visual Arts Contest Sichuan Yuan 13 ICH and communities: Through the lens of the HIPAMS India project Kavya Iyer Ramalingam
19 How international arbitration may enhance the protection of indigenous people’s cultural heritage João Jarske 23 UNESCO Associated Schools in Germany: the Experience of Bamberg (PART I) Iuliia Eremenko New Technologies in Cultural Heritage 33 Visual Arts Contest Peng Ieng Lei 35 The Application of Survey Advanced Techniques in Palazzo Ducale in Mantova Annachiara Colombo Laura Cerliani
Sustainable Development 41 Visual Arts Contest Carlota Marijuán Rodríguez 43 The Fallacy of Revitalization: Subversive Creativity, Consumption, and the Contestation of Heritage Spaces Ahmed Morsi 49 A UNESCO Site Restoration, Conservation and Valorization Project in Transylvania as a Potential Factor of Sustainable Development in the Area. Elena Cautis 55 Smart cities, Innovation districts Federico Varela
Museums and art 71 Visual Arts Contest Sara Celin 73 Where Renaissance meets Technology. Bandini Icon: an AR App for the Bandini Museum in Fiesole, Italy Giovanni Pescarmona 79 Promoting Diversity and Inclusion with Digital Collections. #reinventingBeethoven, a Creative Educational Challenge from Europeana Foundation Raul Gomez Hernandez
Sustainable Development - Visual Arts Contest By:Carlota Marijuán Rodríguez
TENTS
85 Social Media in Museum Storytelling, and Towards Facilitating Greater Representation Devashree Vyas 91 Birth of the Museums of Memory Evgeniya Kartashova
By young people, for young people!
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Editorial
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t is with great pleasure that we are presenting the first issue of The ESACH Quarterly, the new international peer-reviewed magazine of the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage. From now on, we will report on a regular basis about the ongoing youthled approaches to our field of interest: Cultural Heritage at large. Specifically, as ESACH, we focus on strengthening the students and early professionals’ voices. We do so by providing opportunity of expression and exchange of knowledge with no restrictions imposed by educational background and consolidated professional titles, geographical belonging and/or scope of interest, political affiliation, ethnic and/or gender identity. As such, we believe that the plurality of cultural expression introduced by the authors we aim to promote represents a powerful catalyst for innovation in the field. If located within the established boundaries, we see this as an asset to enhancing the discipline with the emerging perspectives and fresh thinking that we believe deserve further room within the general discourse. Our members relate to Cultural Heritage from a broad range of disciplinary perspectives and contextual settings, doing so through a variety of expression tools that necessarily reflects the complex and interdisciplinary nature of the subject. As a result, the content cannot be but variegated and, from this perspective, by our core values of inclusivity, diversity and transparency we hope to render The ESACH Quarterly a forum where authors feels welcome to express their position on the subjects that fall under the association’s scope via the medium that better fits their subjectivity. In addition, The ESACH Quarterly provides immediate Open Access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater exchange of knowledge and this is particularly true when it comes to witness the growing engagement of the youth involved in the Cultural Heritage sector, and highlight, as remembered by our President, the value of those numerous untold yet promising stories, In this, we would like to gratefully acknowledge the invaluable work of all the participants: from the ESACH Staff individuals, to our key partners, and, especially, to our authors first and foremost for their passion and engagement.What brings us here together is a genuine passion for Cultural Heritage, and we dedicate our efforts to furthering its knowledge among public and professional audiences of all kind because we believe that the subject represents a vital asset for enriching the individual and collective life experience. We hope you will join us in this.| The ESACH Editorial Team
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News from ESACH
ESACH Talks! and the ESACH Blog on the European Heritage Tribune:
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ince October 2020, ESACH organises the ESACH Talks!, a series of monthly events exploring young perspectives on different topics related to issues relevant to the contemporary cultural heritage scene. In our series of online conferences, we are inspired by the work of Europa Nostra as the leading citizens’ movement to protect Europe’s cultural and natural heritage, and we participate in its celebration by investing in the emerging generations that will shape and deal with heritage related issues over the upcoming decades. The perspectives explored in these youth-led presentations and in the following debate feed into the ESACH Blog on the European Heritage Tribune (EHT), aiming to strengthen the integration of these voices in the European heritage community. Over the preceding months, the ESACH Blog on the EHT established as a regular reporting activity, welcoming and promoting the plurality of youth-led approaches to Cultural Heritage and so greatly expanding the vision of ESACH through the invaluable support provided to its affiliates. For extending the possibility of debate and exchange of ideas is a crucial resource to develop one’s own voice through the open comparison with different perspectives, we could not be more grateful towards the EHT for providing the ESACH members with a platform for expression. Therefore, to witness yourself the all colourful work of the emerging heritage practitioners involved in these two projects, we invite you in visiting the recordings of the previous ESACH Talks! and the ESACH Blog. While gratefully acknowledging the support of Europa Nostra and the European Heritage Tribune in these projects, we also strongly encourage you in visiting their online channels to be likewise inspired from their work and further engage with the latest heritage-related headways. |
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REPORTS FROM THE ESACH GROUPS
ESACH GIRONA ESACH Girona & Margarida Casadevall Ig: <ESACH Girona> Twitter: <ESACH Girona>
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n June 2018, ESACH held the first meeting at the University of Girona. The networking activity, that up to that moment had been just virtual, had the occasion to become concrete and at the Girona Meeting seven ESACH universities were present. The intended interdisciplinary goal was almost naturally fulfilled, thanks to the various baggages of knowledge that every member shared with others, contributing to widen the perspectives of each discipline in a field of action that otherwise would have never been considered.
Fig.1: First ESACH Meeting. Source: ESACH Girona
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During the first day meeting we discussed the ESACH objectives with an informal get-together, and we reorganized the task division within the ESACH network. The second day was devoted to short presentations by ESACH members (10-15 min.) and to prepare details/outlook on the Berlin Cultural Heritage Summit. All the different contributions revealed the common idea that to raise the communities’ awareness about the importance of heritage for the development of cultural identities must be one of the most important roles for its enhancement. The last day, the
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
participants had the unique opportunity to visit the ancient Greco-Roman city of Empúries, with an archeological tour organized by members of ESACH Girona. Consequently, we had the chance to experience what we were discussing during previous days: gain awareness of our responsibility towards heritage by taking consciousness of the value it has for the community’s memory and identity. That was the starting point to formalize our common vision. According to the idea that culture can exist because it evolves with people who share it, we believe that the enhancement of the heritage value cannot be achieved just through protection policies, and that this unfolds also by promoting it as a resource of connection across nations and generations. The Master’s degree in Heritage from The University of Girona seeks to prepare professionals to
face the challenges posed by the complex world of heritage in its different dimensions: protection, sustainable use, operation, management, research, diffusion, use of new technologies etc. As students of this master, which also incorporates the study of natural heritage in its study program, we feel especially committed with the idea of interdisciplinarity. Following this purpose, a seminar on connecting natural and cultural heritage was held at the University of Girona (Spain) on 4-5 October 2018, with the collaboration of the ESACH members. The conference was attended by experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Council on Monuments and Historic Sites (ICOMOS), two of the leading international organizations in the field of heritage conservation and management and advisory bodies of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. It was, therefore, an exceptional opportunity to share experiences with high-level speakers directly involved in the management and designation of spaces listed as World Heritage. The participants discussed the Connecting Practice project and examined case studies from the previous two phases. Some recommendations of the seminar include the use of interdisciplinary approaches based on the view of heritage as complex systems; the engagement with local people and fostering inclusive processes; and the acknowledgement that heritage is an evolving, changing, living concept and that adequate dynamic approaches should be adopted for its conservation.
Fig.2: Girona cathedral. Source: ESACH Girona
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REPORTS FROM THE ESACH GROUPS
On this, the World Heritage Convention recognizes as natural heritage the most exceptional natural places in the world, characterized by their outstanding biodiversity, ecosystems, geology or superlative phenomena. But it also recognizes the combined works of nature and humankind, which express a long and intimate relationship between peoples and their natural environment. UNESCO called these sites “Cultural Landscapes”, and inscribed them on the World Heritage List in order to protect living traditional cultures and preserve the traces of those which have disappeared. Moreover, sometimes it may not be necessary to have exceptional natural places to be recognized, because it may be precisely their link to the traditional culture of the territory what gives them an outstanding value. In this view, natural heritage is increasingly inseparable from the cultural heritage and at ESACH Girona, therefore, we feel obliged to make it present in our future projects. We recognize the inherent aspects of this interdependency, and we want to stimulate the cross-fertilization of experiences and practices being developed by the cultural and natural heritage sectors. In this regard, during a week (in March 2019), students of the master’s degree in heritage of the university of Girona and ESACH members received a very interesting museologist from the Natural History Museum of Paris, Dr. Fabienne Galangau-Quérat. She
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has been the project leader of the Great Gallery of Evolution (MNHN) and of numerous both permanent and temporal exhibitions at the Museum. Her expertise is the scenography of nature at the museums, the reinterpretation of the museum concept and to understand the place of the museum as a communication medium associated with heritage processes, in specific cultural and social contexts and nested, from local to national. We discussed with Dr. Galangau-Quérat about which will be the best way to start and how to define the scientific and cultural project which builds the major orientations and the strategies of a natural history museum, taking into account and putting in coherence all the missions of museums. ESACH Girona was born under this premise of interdependency, and we would precisely like to be the embryo of a professional profile that starts from a broader and more inclusive vision of what heritage should be. Our association has the support of the Campus on Natural and Cultural Heritage of the University of Girona, that connects the university’s world of Girona with the professional sphere and whose motto is: “Integrating Nature and Culture. Connecting Society and Environment. Linking past and future”. Recently, new students from our Master’s in Cultural and Natural Heritage have joined the ESACH Girona association. All of them bring this necessary new outlook in the field of heritage, as they precisely integrate the natural
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
and cultural vision. Their fields of study are diverse: from history, art history and humanities, to tourism and biology. In addition, almost all the members of ESACH Girona are or have been part of various projects in the field of cultural and natural heritage. The job places and the institutions involved in our activities are also diverse: natural science museums, historical archives, archeological museums, bodies for tourist-cultural management of some towns, etc. All these experiences enrich ESACH Girona and give it the interdisciplinary and professional outlook we strive to build. Both new and old members of ESACH Girona have many points of view on the current situation of cultural heritage. For instance, as the sector has also been affected by COVID-19, many initiatives, conferences and other activities have been canceled. The ESACH Girona team wants to participate in exchanges of students
and professionals in the field of cultural heritage and to learn from and listen to new opinions and initiatives to be able to fight against some of the negative consequences that have arisen from this emergency sanitary situation. All efforts are key to guarantee that we can enjoy culture and nature soon again —while learning! In the particular case of ESACH Girona, we hope to resolve the bureaucratic procedures soon and be able to propose to anyone interested in the field of cultural heritage new activities and projects that allow to understand and give voice to cultural heritage and all students and professionals which are part of it. We are also open to receive any proposal related to heritage issues and, in the meantime, you can follow everything we do on our Instagram and Twitter social media: Ig: <ESACH Girona> Twitter: <ESACH Girona>| Fig.3: First ESACH Meeting. Source: ESACH Girona
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REPORTS FROM THE ESACH GROUPS
The last members · Alba Gimbert Álvarez: Renaissance scientist and passionate about nature, she is graduated in Biology and currently studying a Master in Cultural and Natural Heritage, both at the University of Girona. She works at The Museum of Natural Sciences of Granollers (Barcelona) as a guide of its exhibitions. Alba fully trusts in research, conservation and outreach as essential points to create a society capable of valuing and caring for the country’s natural heritage. · Albert Jalil Díez: A graduate in History, he is currently studying a Master’s degree in Cultural and Natural Heritage at the University of Girona. He has worked in several historical and judicial archives of Catalonia. His interests are diverse: cultural landscapes, the heritage of historical monuments, intangible heritage, archiving and education in museums and cultural spaces. · Ana Gabriel Solans Rodriguez: Graduated in Tourism and student of the Master in Heritage (University of Girona) and the Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology (National University of Distance Education). Interested in the motivation of society for attraction to heritage, she believes in balancing the enjoyment and conservation of heritage through optimal management.
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· Auro She is from U (Barce ly stud Cultur the Un scribe engag proce a wide view. S portan lies in study, aroun
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The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
s of ESACH Girona
ora Vicente Sánchez: s a graduate in Humanities University of Pompeu Fabra elona) and she is currentdying a Master’s degree in ral and Natural Heritage at niversity of Girona. She dees herself as a young woman ged in a lifelong learning ess and whose aim is to have e and transversal point of She believes that the imnce of cultural heritage n the fact that it drives us to y, signify and value the world nd us.
ra Ruiz Tercero: storian and student of the er in Cultural and Natural age in the University of GiInterested in all the cultural , she strongly believes in the wledge dissemination in oro understand ourselves and world where we live.
· Joan Soler Gironès: Graduated in Geography from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and also postgraduated with a Master’s degree in Cultural and Natural Heritage at the University of Girona. Professionally he serves as a geographer and specialist in GIS, but also works as a guide interpreter of nature and heritage with the European qualification HeriQ. He has also altruistically written several divulgation books linked to geography and heritage from a local and regional perspective. For many years, he has also been developing studies on transhumance and rural heritage in Catalonia with other researchers. · Núrica Gascons i Cuatrecasas: Art historian and Heritage Manager (UdG Master in Cultural and Natural Heritage Management). She was a member of the European Central Committee of ESACH, managing the admissions of new members to the association and collaborating with internal communications. A young professional interested in increasing social participation and the commitment of young people to the cultural and natural heritage.
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ESACH Talks! October 2020 · Photography and Visual Arts Contest
PEOPLE &HERITAGE E
SACH Talks! are an interactive, fast-paced online event that provides a platform for sharing knowledge amongst students and young professionals working within cultural heritage studies. In our first conference, we explored young perspectives on the topics related to civic involvement and democratic participation in heritage matters, such as citizens’ roles in the preservation of heritage, youth participation, participatory management strategies and people-centred approaches to heritage.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ARTS CONTEST
Shanchuan Tian is a Master student of Sustainable Development, with 10 years’ experience as an urban planner in China, currently looking for an after graduation job this September in the reuse of cultural heritage and sustainable tourism. Email: shanchuan.tian83@gmail.com
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The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
“
I once travelled in Myanmar. I felt the inner peace when observing faithful people meditating and praying at temples and stupas. Their interrelation with that religious heritage reminds me that if we control our material demand and pursue mental fulfillment, sustainable development may come true. Best wishes for Burmese!” -- Shanchuan Tian
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PEOPLE & HERITAGE
ICH AND COMMUNITIES: THROUGH THE LENS OF THE HIPAMS INDIA PROJECT Kavya Iyer Ramalingam
Email : kavya.iyer93@gmail.com
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his article is a reflection on the role of communities in promoting and preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), through the lens of the HIPAMS (Heritage Sensitive Intellectual Property and Marketing Strategies) India project. It is largely based on the toolkit developed by HIPAMS India, which is licensed under a CC-BYNC license. Here, you will find you an overview of: • The HIPAMS project and process; • The process of co-creation with communities; • Examples of some tools; • Community experiences of implementing the strategies.
Project and Process The HIPAMS India project was launched in 2018 to develop heritage-sensitive commercialisation strategies with ICH communities in West Bengal (India) to support local stewardship in the global market. Community artists, an Indian NGO working on sustainable development through heritage, and an academic team based in Europe are co-creating these strategies, working at the intersection of ICH, marketing and IPR (intellectual property rights). It is still a work in progress, hence, all methods and results are still being tried and tested. However, the three main ideas which form the bedrock of this project are well defined: 1. Intangible cultural heritage management (or safeguarding) should be done primarily by the communities and groups that practise and transmit it. Where they require the assistance of others, solutions should be co-created. 2. Commercialisation of products created through ICH practice can promote sustainable develop-
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The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
ment and benefit the communities concerned, if mitigations are in place to reduce associated risks. With respect to heritage and the markets, the risks of over-commercialisation and excessive tourism have been widely established, born primarily from the tension between ‘sacred’ heritage and ‘profane’ commerce. Conversely, the problem of under-commercialisation, which could threaten artists’ survival and the preservation of heritage skills, has been grossly neglected. 3. Intellectual property and marketing strategies can support heritage safeguarding in developing countries if attention is paid to what is protected or promoted, by what means, and under whose control. Co-creation with Communites The project strategies have been developed and tested with stakeholders from Patachitra, Purulia
Chhau and Baul communities in West Bengal, India. In particular, the HIPAMS model is rooted in community empowerment, heritage skills repertoire, reputation, and heritage-sensitive innovation. It tries to offer a new perspective on community engagement and ICH by following a four-step process of diagnosis, strategy development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. At each step, the very process is questioned in manifold ways. For instance, how can artist communities most effectively promote and protect their reputation as custodians of ICH as well as raise awareness about their art? How can they balance safeguarding heritage skills while innovating to reach new markets? Also, how can they identify and protect their commercial rights and gain more control over their work with regard to third party use?
Fig.1: HIPAMS team member Benedetta Ubertazzi and artists Rahima Chitrakar and Pampa Chitrakar in Naya Village, September 2019. Photo: Banglanatak, 2019.
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PEOPLE & HERITAGE
themes. But also products closer to the roots such as traditional long scroll with singing, traditional square scroll or traditional tunes and lyrics.
Fig.2: Project location. Source: The West Bengal State Co-Operative Bank
Fig. 3: Chhau mask by Dharmendra Sutradhar.
The Roots and Fruit Model One of the examples of the tools used is the roots and fruits model [represented in Fig.3].
Fig. 4: Swarna Chitrakar performing wit 9-11 scroll. Photo: Charlotte Waelde 2018.
This helps artists visualise the relationships between heritage products and services, and the roots of the traditions they depend on. For the Patachitra community of painters, roots, for example, could include making scrolls out of paper pasted onto sari (a traditional women’s garment worn in India), making and using natural paint colours or composing songs and stories based on Patachitra heritage [Fig.4]. On the other hand, fruits could include new products such as painted bamboo, terracotta, wood, glass, leather, painted kettles, umbrellas, hand fans, mats, books, graphic novels or new kinds of performances, songs and
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The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
The roots and fruits model has proven to be beneficial in helping the communities identify which aspects of traditions may be suitable for commercialization, and which, not. With this in view, the tool has been used by the communities in two cases.
Fig.5: Scroll explaining geographical indications, created by Manaranjan (Manu) Chitrakar.
The first is that of specialized HIPAMS scrolls. The communities themselves designed scrolls such as those explaining IP rights or geographical indications [Fig.5]. These have been particularly useful for disseminating information amongst other artists, but also consumers and other organisations. he second case concerns packT aging options [Fig.6] for Bengal Patachitra scrolls and diversified products such as t-shirts, kettles and postcards, which have been recently conceptualized and designed by the community of Patachitra artists in Pingla. The containers have QR codes printed on them which direct users to the website co-created and managed by the community. The website has links to performances of paater gaan, which are songs traditionally sung by the Patuas while unfurling the scroll. The packages also have the GI logo printed on them which serves as a unique certification mark. ommunity Feedback and C Experiences In conclusion, some of the early feedback and findings that have been reported by the community have been encouraging. Art-
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Fig.6: Example of packaging used for Bengal Patachitra products.
Fig.7: Facebook video post by Patua Sonali Chitrakar: individual marketing developed by the artist. Source: Facebook - Video by Sonali Chitrakar
ists appreciate an improvement in their rights awareness and in their negotiation skills, with respect to both marketing and use of IPR strategies. An indicator of this is the fact that applications for GI registrations by individual artists have increased. Artists have also started effectively using digital tools for collective and individual promotion [Fig.7], with many of them starting to engage themselves in online heritage education. In addition, the newly
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developed packaging has been appreciated by both customers and artists. These observations and evaluations will be constantly revisited to help streamline future initiatives, and to empower traditional ICH holders. Eventually, this will enable them to have full control over their work while also sustaining their heritage and livelihood. |
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About the Author
KAVYA IYER RAMALINGAM
Originally from Kolkata, India, Kavya is currently a dance researcher, teacher, choreographer and performer in Paris, France. She graduated f rom Choreo mundus - International Master in Dance Heritage, Practice, and Knowledge in September 2020. She has a multidisciplinary background in dance, heritage, education, economics and international development. She is passionate about par ticipator y research, community-driven initiatives, and intersections between academic and corporeal practices. Email: kavya.iyer93@gmail.com
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HOW INTERNATIONAL ARBITRA ENHANCE THE PROTECTION O PEOPLE’S CULTURAL HERITAGE João Victor Porto Jarske
Email : joao.jarske@gmail.com
T
he subject here discussed is how international arbitration may enhance the protection of indigenous people’s cultural heritage. At first sight, the theme might seem controversial as, after all, international arbitration is more often related to commercial or investment disputes, and one could infer that an international arbitrator would not take into account cultural issues when they render their decision. It is true, for example, that there are more than two thousand Bilateral Investment Agreements, and only a few of them contain a cultural exemption clause. Unquestionably, international arbitrators are also bound to the contract, agreement or treaty that granted them jurisdiction over a specific case. However, what this research uncovers is that, despite this limited jurisdiction, international arbitrators very often take into account cultural concerns in their decision-making process, even when the cultural heritage is pertained by an indigenous community.
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A Relevant Precedent: Glamis Gold v. United States The leading case in this regard is the Glamis Gold v. United States, an investment arbitration which happened between the years of 2003 and 2009. The applicable treaty was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Long story short, this case involved an area of the Californian desert which was considered sacred by the Yuma People, a Native American people in the United States who live in the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation. They performed a ritual in which they made a walk through a specific path in this area, which was called the Trail of Dreams. On the other hand, a Canadianbased mining company named Glamis Gold wanted to develop an extraction site in this area. In the mid-1990s, this construction was forbidden by the United States government, which recognized that it would cause tremendous environmental impact and harm to the Yuma People’s tradition. Nevertheless, due to changes in the US administration in the early 2000s, the construction was
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
ATION MAY OF INDIGENOUS E about to be completely allowed. After the preparation processes of Glamis Gold’s construction project began, however, the Californian administration took a step back and started to impose several conditions which, according to Glamis Gold, impeded the construction of the mining site as initially planned. For example, some of those conditions involved
the backfilling of the area and the complete cleaning of the site. Because of the restrictions, Glamis Gold initiated an investment arbitration against the US government, claiming, amongst other issues, indirect expropriation. Even though the case is an investment arbitration, so that it is held between a private company on one side, and a State on the other, a remarkable fact is that the arbitral tribunal granted the Yuma People the right to be heard in this proceedings, as amicus curiae . Eventually, at the end of 6 long years, Glamis Gold lost the case.
Fig.1: Yuma desert, highlighted. Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency.
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Fig. 2: View of the Yuma desert. Source: Pixabay. Photo by NT Franklin
Moving Towards an Effective Protection of Indigenous Communities: Would Arbitration be the Best Solution? Saying that the decision of the arbitral tribunal was entirely based on the need to protect the indigenous community would be misleading. The arbitral tribunal considered several elements in its decision, including the administrative law at the treaty applicable to the case. However, the arbitral tribunal also dedicated an entire chapter of its award to address the rights of the Yuma People’s towards its cultural heritage, properly protected by the US administration. Overall, it is fair to say that international arbitration is not the perfect mechanism to protect the indigenous people’s cultural heritage, considering that international arbitration is a dispute resolution mechanism which only arises after a conflict is already initiated. It would surely be better to have an ex ante regulation to address similar issues. This, however, would demand an enormous work of renegotiation of treaties, contracts and conventions which, until now, are poorly concerned with the global cultural heritage. Thus, as the case highlights, the fact that international arbitrators may nevertheless take cultural issues into account is a relevant step towards the protection of cultural heritage and, perhaps, towards a real embracement of the protection of cultural heritage
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as an element of peremptory international law, from which states cannot deviate.| References: Vadi, Valentina. “Cultural Heritage and International Investment Law: a Stormy Relationship.” International Journal of Cultural Property, 2008. “Glamis Gold, Ltd v The United States of America.” Italaw, www. italaw.com/cases/487. GALIS, Allan. “UNESCO Documents and Procedure: The Need to Account for Political Conflict When Designating World
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
About the Author
JOÃO VICTOR PORTO JARSKE
Heritage Sites.'' 38 GA J Intl & Comp L 205, 2009.
He is a lawyer graduate from Brazil and member of ESACH. He studied a Bachelor of Law at the Federal University of Paraíba. He is an attorney at Clasen, Caribé & Casado Filho Advogados, a law f irm in Brazil, and works mostly with international and national arbitration, but also with commercial law and litigation. He is passionately interested in international arbitration, international commerce and matters involving cultural heritage, especially when it concerns investment disputes. Email: joao.jarske@gmail.com
Gegas, Evangelos. “International Arbitration and the Resolution of Cultural Property Disputes: Navigating the Stormy Waters Surrounding Cultural Property.” Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, vol. 13, no. 1, 1997. International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. “Database of Bilateral Investment Treaties.” ICSID, icsid.worldbank.org/en/Pages/ resources/Bilateral-InvestmentTreaties-Database.aspx.
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UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS IN GERMANY: THE EXPERIENCE OF BAMBERG
PART I
UNESCO Associated Schools in Germany: the Experience of Bamberg Iuliia Eremenko
Keywords
• School education • UNESCO Associated Schools • International educational programs • Schoolteachers
Abstract
Nowadays, more and more schools in the world are using project-based training methods, for example, on issues of international interaction and promoting World Heritage. In Germany, about three hundred schools integrate the educational approaches of UNESCO in their programs. As par t of this study, the author views the system for acquiring the status of a «UNESCO Associated Schools» by schools in Germany and UNESCO's role in this process. The author aims to reveal the position of this international organization and the role of the World Cultural Heritage programmes in introducing new projects in the framework of the school curriculum and extracurricular programs. The empirical base of the study is represented by exper t semi-inter views with teachers of upper secondary schools participating in the project of associated schools in Bavaria. The research hypothesis was built around the assumption that UNESCO will promote the ideas of democratic education in schools by assigning special status to educational institutions and encouraging teachers to
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design activities. However, this assumption was not confirmed. The study showed that teachers are the main engine of democratic education projects in schools. The role of UNESCO as an international organization turns out to be a kind of framework: the main direction of its activity is to create a space where teachers can realize their potential, gain additional knowledge, experience, connections, and f u n d i n g fo r e d u ca t i o n a l p ro j e c t s . T h e scientif ic and practical signif icance of this article is that it will be useful to those who want to understand the system of interaction of schools with international organizations in case of cultural heritage and those who want to apply for this program.
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Introduction
A network of associated schools projects was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1953. The main objective o f t h i s p ro j e c t wa s to e n h a n c e the impor tance of education in promoting a culture of peace, international cooperation and democratic values in all UN member countries. Today, there are about 8,500 associated schools located in 180 countries of the world. These partnered institutes integrate the educational approaches of UNESCO into their syllabus, test n ew a p p ro a ch e s to tea ch i n g i n conjunction with other schools, thus creating an educational network with their activities, projects (as a special method of teaching), national and international exchange programs. The goal of this article is to analyze how the process of obtaining the “UNESCO Project School” status occurs, as well as how UNESCO itself influences this process: does it become an initiator, or, conversely, does it rely on the initiative of the schools themselves? This paper will focus on the institutes that have
received the highest off icial status f r o m U N E S C O . Co n v e r s e l y, t h e schools that are at different stages of the programs' implementation, we will call the UNESCO project schools. In Germany, there are almost 300 UNESCO project schools (UNESCOProjektschulen), with 33 of them in Bavaria, which makes this Federal Land a record holder in the number of UNESCO schools. This paper will use the method of case study and analyze the experience of one of them. Study of UNESCO Project Schools Speaking about the degree of scientif ic elaboration of the topic under discussion, it should be re co g n i ze d t h a t t h e n u m b e r o f published works on this theme is rather modest. Nevertheless, all the available literature can be divided i n to s eve ra l b l o cks . T h e l a rg e s t block is presented in the form of materials published directly by the very schools owning the UNESCO status or for such schools. These are mainly teaching materials and books whose use is recommended for adapting the UNESCO program to the schools (for example, Luntinen 1989, Mehlinger 1981). The second stratum of literature consists of works that analyze the implementation of UNESCO values (democracy, civil liberties, human rights, social justice, etc.) by teachers in the schools. Researchers inquired about what mechanisms and models educators use to teach school students th e above dem ocratic ideals. The main conclusions boil down to the fact that teachers and parents form a special educational
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UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS IN GERMANY: THE EXPERIENCE OF BAMBERG
platform that inspires students to take the lead in creating and strengthening democratic and inclusive citizenship (Carr 2008) and try to “to helping everyone in the school community see that it must be a collective responsibility in the school to defend democracy and promote social justice locally, nationally and globally” (Shultz and Guimaraes-Iosif 2012). The third line of research is devoted to describing the development of the UNESCO projects, in particular looking at how the interaction with schools changed over time (Rauner 1999). Also, the study of the impact of UNESCO projects on educational processes in various countries can be attributed to this area. The authors emphasize the influence of UNESCO on the domain of education, namely a conf irmation that the UN agency influences the national governments’ concern about their populations’ level of education and enhances discussion of the global problems of modernity in schools (Jones 2018, Suárez D et al. 2009). Considerin g th e brief literature review, we have to admit that the researchers mainly consider issues concerning UNESCO values, their introduction into school projects and curricula, as well as the impact of using such programs. In this regard, it can be concluded that the process of acquiring the status of “UNESCO Associated School” by schools is still an unexplored topic: there is no description in the literature of the prerequisites for granting the school such status, as well as the undisclosed subject of
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motivating teachers and students to participate in UNESCO associated schools program. Given this, our study will be aimed at filling the gap in scientif ic knowledge about how schools receive attention f rom an international organization in the form of achieving the UNESCO status, an element which can be used further in analyzing the process of building trust between the two organizations on the international level. In order to fulfill the task of the study, namely, to determine which group of people or organization is the driving force for obtaining special status for schools (which motivates these to develop and innovate), we will turn to the theory of modernization, as well as to th e th eor y nam ed diffusion of innovations. Ronald Inglehart, founder of Evolutionary Modernization Th eor y, states that: “Modernization is a process during which the economic and political opportunities of a given society increase” (Inglehart 1997). While he paid more attention to internal changes in society (the system of changing values during development and democratization), Samuel Huntingon emphasized t h e i m p o r t a n ce o f t h e ex te rn a l e n v i ro n m e n t , ex te r n a l i t i e s a n d the cultural context in which modernization takes place. The influence of the international community can occur both through t h e i n f l u e n ce o f wo rl d p o l i t i c a l processes, and through channels of communication and transfer of experience (Huntington 1971). Based on these claims, it can be assumed that UNESCO, as an agency
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of the United Nations and carrying t h e v a l u e s o f d e m o c r a t i z a t i o n and development of civil society, encourages schools f rom different countries to participate in the project here discussed for the adoption and dissemination of these values. Another theory that can be used to explain the motives and channels for adopting and applying practices f rom the outside is the diffusion of innovations theory. This is aimed at explainin g th e m otivation of states to use the best international practices, as well as the mechanisms that make this process possible (Berry 2018). Diffusion implies that in the context of globalization and development, countries will seek to adapt the practices and policies of other countries, as well as the world community. Describing the motivation for adopting a new experience, D. Stone concluded that the driving force of this process can be either coercion or training. Coercion means pressure f rom the international community to modernize and change, while learning comes f rom a change of conviction and a desire to adopt new practices.
Methodological Approach To accomplish the task set earlier, namely, to analyze how the process of obtaining the status of an “Associated School of UNESCO” occurs, as well as the role of UNESCO in this process, it is necessary to understand the context in which interaction takes place inside and outside the school.
For this purpose, we will analyze a specif ic case, namely a school that went through all the steps towards the status that interests us. In this case, it is important for us to identify the source of motivation for school participation at all stages and all the groups that influenced this, so the qualitative research methods in this case suit us best. We have chosen the way of conducting semi-structured expert interviews with teachers in the schools having the highest possible position in the system of interaction with UNESCO. The choice of a specif ic example of Ernst Theodor Amadeus HoffmannGymnasium in Bamberg is not an accident for us. This school belongs to t h e te r r i to r i a l a s s o c i a t i o n o f Bavaria, where UNESCO associated schools are most widely represented in Germany. In addition, this school can be considered of an average size with about 800 students. The number of schoolchildren participating in UNESCO programs varies depending on the number of projects, fluctuating annually f rom 30 to 50 people. In this case, we conducted interviews with all teachers who currently participate in at least one project related to UNESCO, and interviewed teachers who took the off icial position of curators of these programs and are no longer working in this school, since they went to retirement. The total number of interviews is twelve, each taking f rom 30 minutes to one hour. In addition, a survey was conducted of all students who were involved in UNESCO projects at the time of data collection.
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UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS IN GERMANY: THE EXPERIENCE OF BAMBERG
The Process of the Status Obtaining At UNESCO the curriculum development process began in 1953 with the project Associated Schools in Education for International Cooperation and Peace (ASP). The goal of this project was to improve the understanding of school curricula “implemented in the territory of each of the participating countries by the Ministry of Education and other influential groups” (Buergenthal and Torney 1979, p. 76) at the international level. The process of obtaining the status of “Associated School of UNESCO” takes place in several stages and is quite long. Each country has its own rules and number of steps towards
the possible recognition of the status, but the final stage is the same in all the participating countries (UNESCO Associated Schools Network 2016). In Germany, there are three levels of possible membership in UNESCO programs that must be completed before becoming a full member of the UNESCO School Association. A school at each level must actively i m p l e m e n t p ro j e c t s w i t h i n t h e f ramework of the organization's directions for at least two years before it can apply for transition to the next level. As previously noted, there are six thematic areas, of which schools can choose three, and which will be the main trajectories for the schools that are implemented on the school's territory (Deutsche UNESCO-
Fig. 1. The former fishermen's district in Bamberg's Island City is known as Little Venice. Photo: Iuliia Eremenko
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Kommission 2018). A school is not obliged to proceed to the next level if it does not consider this acceptable to itself. There are the following levels of school participation in the UNESCO project: “interested schools at the regional level” (“Interessierte Schule auf Länderebene”), then “cooperating schools at the national level” (“Mitarbeitende Schule auf nationaler Ebene”), and the f inal stage is “full membership in the UNESCO World Network” (“anerkannte UNESCOProjektschule als Teil des weltweiten N e t zwe r ks ” ) o r, i n o t h e r wo rd s , obtaining the status of a UNESCO Associated School (Deutsche U N E S C O - Ko m m i s s i o n 2 0 1 8 ) . A t
each level, the school must confirm its active participation in regional and national projects. In addition to active participation, schools should also include the development of the UNESCO mission in school programs and projects. To move to a new formation, school memberships must be active at each of the previous levels for at least two years, after which, educational institutions can apply to raise the status of their involvement in the project . The official procedure for approving the transition of the school to a new level occurs after consulting with the state coordinator no later than four years after the application is submitted. At each level, schools must issue an annual progress report (Deutsche
Fig. 2. A view of the tiled roofs of the city centre of Bamberg. Photo: Iuliia Eremenko
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UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS IN GERMANY: THE EXPERIENCE OF BAMBERG
UNESCO-Kommission 2018). E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gymnasium is in the historic center of Bamberg (Bavaria), a city included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. At the beginning of the presented study, the author believed that this fact had an impact on the formation of UNESCO project schools, but this Gymnasium is the only UNESCO associated school in this city. In total, Bamberg has 14 schools, of which seven are Gymnasiums. The implementation of projects in one direction only does not allow the school to have the status studied in this work. A proof of this can be the fact that, despite the implementation of many projec ts related to the World Cultural Heritage, the KaiserHeinrich-Gymnasium in Bamberg does not have the status of a design school. So, E.T. A . Hoff mann-Gymnasium became “an interested school at the regional level” in 2004, “a collaborating school at the national l eve l ” i n 20 0 6 a n d re ce i ve d f u l l membership in 2011. The decision to take part in the program came from two schoolteachers, who in 2003 read about the initiative. There had been no contact f rom UNESCO towards the school representatives to propose participation to the program and the implementation of all projects was carried out by the efforts of teachers and coordinators. The process of involving schoolchildren is also teachers’ initiative. However, specif ic projects do not include all students. For example, in the most famous project for which the school subsequently received
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funding, there was an almost standard number of students for similar projects – 15 people: “We offered to participate in the project to students of the 9 th and 10 th grades. We had to ask parents if their children could participate, because it would require a lot of extra work after class. They were really motivated, they were proud to have participated. In fact, we asked 50 schoolchildren to take part, but only 15 of them passed the qualifying interviews, which is a great pity”.UNESCO projects are not the only platform for teachers’ activities: “I am implementing projects for children in kindergarten where my child goes. I tell them about t h e c u l t u r a l h e r i t a g e . We g o to museums, walk aroun d th e city. I have developed a special program.” As follows, teachers create their ow n p ro j e c t s a n d f i n d f u n d i n g not only within the f ramework of U N E S CO g ra n t s . S o m e o f t h e s e were in fact included in the overall system of UNESCO projects, but they existed even prior to their status. “A l r e a d y m a n y y e a r s a g o , e v e n before obtaining the status, I had a project to visit theaters. There is an organization called “Children's School of Culture” (“Kulturkinderschule”), where you have the opportunity to receive funding from the city if you visit a museum or a theater with a class. I turned to them for help. This project is working now.”
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The search for partner schools, as international exchanges, lies on t h e s h o u l d e r s o f tea ch e r s , w h o themselves associate with other schools around the world. At the same time, the partner school is not obligated to itself enter the system of the UNESCO project schools: “I took part only in the organization of international school exchange with Russia. I was very interested to see this country. One of the teachers who came to us on the exchange, even before we began to participate in the program of the UNESCO project schools, just worked at a school in St. Petersburg and suggested organizing an exchange. And we have included this project in our program of activities within the framework of UNESCO”. Based on the above data, we can conclude that the initiative to include “Associated Schools” in the project came f rom teachers, and not f rom the administration, schoolchildren or UNESCO representatives.|
References: Berry Frances Stokes, Berry William D. Berry "Innovation and Diffusion Models in Policy Research." Theories of the policy process. Routledge. (2018): 263–308. Buergenthal, Thomas, and Judith V. Torney. "Expanding the international human rights research agenda." International Studies Quarterly 23.2 (1979): 321–334. Carr, Paul. "Educators and education for democracy: Moving beyond “thin” democracy." Inter-American journal of education for democracy 1.2 (2008): 147–164; Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission. UNESCO -Projektschule werden. 2018, https://www.unesco.de/bildung/ u n e s co - p ro j e k t s ch u l e n /u n e s co projektschule-werden. (Accessed 9 March 2021). E .T. A . Hoff mann- Gymnasium Bamberg. Unser Weltkulturerbe. 2010, https://eta.aiacs.net/UNESCO/ Weltkulturerbe/index.htm. (Accessed 9 March 2021). E .T. A . Hoff mann- Gymnasium B a m b e r g . U N E S C O Weltkulturerbestadt hat jetzt auch UNESCO-Projektschule. Das E.T.A. Hoff mann-Gymnasium Bamberg erhält den Status 'mitarbeitende UNESCO-Projektschule. 2006, http:// eta.bnv-bamberg.de/kultur/UNESCO/ Status/Projektschule.html. (Accessed 9 March 2021). Huntington, Samuel P. "The change to change: Modernization, d e ve l o p m e n t , a n d p o l i t i c s ."
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Comparative politics 3.3 (1971): 283– 322. J o n e s , P h i l l i p W. I n te rn a t i o n a l policies for Third World education: UNESCO, literacy and development. Routledge, 2018. Inglehart, R. "Postmodemity: Changing Values and Changing Societies." Polis. Political Studies 4.4 (1997). Luntinen, Pertti. "School history textbook revision by and under the auspices of UNESCO: Part II." Internationale Schulbuchforschung (1989): 39–48. Mehlinger, Howard D. "UNESCO Handbook for the Teaching of Social Studies." (1981). M eye r, J o h n W. , e d . N a t i o n a l development and the world system: educational, economic, and political change; 1950–1970. University of Chicago Press, 1979. R a u n e r , M a r y. " U N E S C O a s a n organizational carrier of civics education information." International Journal of Educational Development 19.1 (1999): 91–100. S h u l t z , Ly n e tte , a n d Ra n i l ce Guimaraes-Iosif. "Citizenship education and the promise of democracy : A study of UNESCO Associated Schools in Brazil and Canada." Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 7.3 (2012): 241–254. Seyfang, Gill, and Adrian Smith. "Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards
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a new research and policy agenda." Environmental politics 16.4 (2007): 584–603. Stone, Diane. "Transfer and translation of policy." Policy studies 33.6 (2012): 483–499. S u á r e z , D a v i d F . , F r a n c i s c o O. R a m i r e z , a n d J e o n g - Wo o K o o . "UNESCO and the associated schools project: Symbolic aff irmation of world community, international understanding, and human rights." Sociology of Education 82.3 (2009): 197–216. Suárez, David. "Education professionals and the construction o f h u m a n r i g h t s e d u c a t i o n ." Comparative Education Review 51.1 (2007): 48–70. UNESCO Associated Schools Network. Membership, 2016, https:// aspnet .unesco.org/en-us/Pages/ Membership.aspx. Accessed 9 March 2021. United Nations (1998) The International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. Resolution 53/25, adopted by consensus on 10th November 1998 proclaimed the period 2001–2010.
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IULIIA EREMENKO Postdoctoral Researcher, Trimberg Research Academy Starter Project, University of Bamberg. Address: An der Weberei 5, 96045 Bamberg, Germany. E-mail: eremenko.iuliia@gmail.com
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Esach Talks! November 2020 · Photography and Visual Arts Contest
NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE I
n November, following the Europeana 2020 conference, we joined forces with Europeana’s New Professionals Task Force to touch upon new perspectives on the potential of digital technologies in cultural heritage studies, including topics such as photography, advanced surveying techniques, advanced software and digital preservation.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ARTS CONTEST
Peng Ieng Lei is from Macao. Graduated in Heritage Management f rom IFTM, she is currently a master’s student of Conservation of Monuments and Sites at KU Leuven, RLICC (Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation). Email: leipengieng@gmail.com
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“
New technologies are impacting the world of historical preservation and heritage research. Today, learning to apply different tools and documentation techniques to assist heritage survey and research is also an important part of heritage professional education. This photo is taken from the IPW3 (integrated project work) in RLICC (Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation) when the student is doing an in-situ survey by using 3D scanner and total station. Peng Ieng Lei
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
THE APPLICATION OF SURVEY ADVANCED TECHNIQUES IN PALAZZO DUCALE IN MANT Laura Cerliani , Annachiara Colombo
Email : laura.cerliani@mail.polimi.it / annachiara.colombo@mail.polimi.it
T
he main objective of surveying in the architectural field is to lead to the knowledge of the object through the definition of an interpretative model of the artefact. In recent years, the application of survey advanced techniques has greatly extended the possibilities of understanding, investigating and rendering historic architecture and, in this regard, the work carried out on Palazzo Ducale in Mantova during the Survey Advanced Techniques class at Politecnico di Milano provides an exemplary contribution to the discussions about advanced technologies applied to built heritage surveying. The object of the data recollection campaign, Palazzo Ducale, is an extensive architectural complex that stands in the higher part of Mantova, and which corresponded to the original nucleus of the ancient city. As the palace consists of numerous buildings, corridors, galleries, courts and gardens, the whole has developed as a microcosm that occupies an extended urban area and it has been defined as a palace in the form of a city.
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In particular, the survey activity conducted along Professor Francesco Fassi aimed to use the 3D survey acquisition to elaborate the 2D metric data needed to define, at a later stage, the final preservation project of the Architecture Design and History Master Degree at Politecnico di Milano.
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TOVA Static Terrestrial Laser Scanner Range scanners are contactless instruments that emit laser light to take measurements: they receive and analyze the signal of the reflected radiation to sample the object in 3D coordinate points. Wide varieties of such scanners for digital acquisitions of 3D
objects are available today and, in particular, the survey of Palazzo Ducale required Terrestrial Laser Scanners both in static and dynamic modes. The main aim in applicating the Static Terrestrial Laser Scanner was the 3D acquisition of a small portion of the entire complex, corresponding to what is known as Palazzo del Capitano [Fig.1]. This instrument provides slow acquisitions characterized by high measurement accuracy and resolution. Before starting the Static Terrestrial Laser Scanner survey, it is important to set the parameters for the resolution of the acquisition according to the representation scale of the intended drawings. After the data is recollected, the result is shown through the elaboration of a point cloud: being this a set of points defined in xyz coordinates that represents the outer surface of the object and that can be opened and visualized in AutoDesk ReCap (Reality Capture). The density of the point cloud expresses the resolution of the acquisition and, in this case, more than one hundred different scans acquired from different locations were required to obtain the final point cloud. To render the information in 2D metric, it is hereafter possible to import the point cloud in Autocad, which will be used to set the position of the section planes according to the drawings needed.
Fig. 1: Palazzo Ducale. Photo by Marco Introini. Source: Marco Introini, Luigi Spinelli, Architetture a Mantova. Da Palazzo Ducale alla Cartiera Burgo, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo, 2018.
The images [Fig.2, Fig.3] show the point cloud as imported in PAGE 36
NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
Fig. 2: Longitudinal section - Point Cloud of Palazzo del Capitano in Autocad.
Fig. 3: Longitudinal section - Final result after the data elaboration.
the software and the definition of the section plane. This served to obtain the longitudinal section of the Armeria, thus explaining in detail its characteristics and its relationship with the lower structures of Corte Vecchia. Terrestrial Laser Scanner Dynamic Mode The Terrestrial Laser Scanner Dynamic Mode is a brand-new way to collect data: it opens the survey techniques to a more affordable panorama, and this especially in terms of instrument use. This mode permits to capture the morphology of a building and to define its point cloud by simply walking along the related space with the aid of a backpack
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on which the surveying tool is located. The Dynamic Mode is a combination of mobile mapping with the range-based laser scanner survey. On one hand, it gives the possibility to map the survey path thanks to a self-georeferred GPS system, while, on the other, the laser scanner is capable of building in real-time the point cloud. Concretely, a laser scanner and a camera are installed on a backpack which, in our case, has been easily worn by both professor and students. The instrument was linked to a screen pad through which we could visualize in realtime both the construction of
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
the point cloud and our survey route. This latter surveying mode took approximately two hours, and, in this range of time, most of the open spaces and piazzas of Palazzo Ducale have been surveyed along with some of the inner rooms that are usually closed to the public.
of the point cloud that is being constructed. Therefore, the best expedient would be to repeat the gathering of the information a few times and with a low speed of walking, this in order to facilitate the scan recollection of the light reflections from all the surfaces that have been hit.
Referring to the Dynamic Laser Scanner, another aspect that needs to be considered during the survey phase is the walking speed of the surveyor as this affects both the resolution and the density
The image [Fig. 4] shows the final point cloud once imported in ReCap and, as for the static laser scanner, it is possible to use the model to rebuild plans, sections and other drawings [Fig. Fig. 4 : Tridimensional view of the point cloud surveyed by the backpack, from Autodesk Recap.
Fig.5: Longitudinal section of the church of Santa Barbara and Giardino Pensile, by the point cloud.
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NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE
Fig. 6 : Longitudinal section of the church of Santa Barbara and Giardino Pensile, final result.
5]. One of the defining elements of a Dynamic Survey resulted in the opportunity the tool gave to study the interrelationship of the Palazzo Ducale parts. In fact, we were surveying not a single room, but the entire complex, and, in this way, we were able to analyze how the pieces are put together as a coherent ensemble, untangling themselves among topography and landscape needs [Fig. 6].
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Pros and Cons of the Two Surveying Techniques
information acquisition and the drawing elaboration, that is not the case for the dynamic mode which is in fact what makes it more manageable. Nonetheless, both techniques can be considered as fundamental in the architectural and urban field even if they apply to different situations as they focus on different needs: by now the accuracy of the static one cannot be achieved by the dynamic one, whereas the latter allows a wider and more comprehensive survey to be made.
After the analysis we think it would be proper to summarize the techniques through their comparison. At first, it has to be acknowledged that both of them are for the moment affordable only to a small range of experts, due to the money cost and also to the specific skills required. Besides, and with regard to processing details, the static mode requires a time of data elaboration in-between the
One of the biggest tasks for an architect approaching the intervention over the existing built environment is the preliminary analysis of the site. As very often there is no possibility to visit the place in person, practitioners are asked to collect information by internet sources, libraries and books. With this regard, the construction of an urban point cloud referred to historical and distinguished landmarks
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would be a first step towards the next frontier of informative mapping. In fact, by sharing this documentation, people would be allowed to better understand the characteristics of the place, to go in depth with research.|
About the Author
LAURA CERLIANI She is a Master Degree student at Politecnico di Milano, where she is attending the Master Degree in Architectural Design and History. The high interest in cultural heritage and its preservation brought her to join ESACH and to go in deep with survey techniques and maintenance practices in historical sites. ANNACHIARA COLOMBO She is a graduate student of Architecture Design and History at Politecnico di Milano. During her years of studies she went through different design approaches and she developed the interest in architecture as a creative practice that con¬nects the city with the inhabitants. She’s passionate about cultural heritage and the relationship between old and new in architecture. Email : laura.cerliani@mail.polimi.it annachiara.colombo@mail.polimi.it
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Esach Talks! December 2020 · Photography and Visual Arts Contest
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
I
n our third ESACH Talk, we explored new and young perspectives on the contribution of cultural heritage towards sustainable development. This includes contribution of culture to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda and the Urban Agenda for the EU sustainable cultural heritage and urban management strategies, sustainable urban practices, such as urban agriculture or the creative reuse of historic buildings traditional and Indigenous knowledge and practices, and their role in achieving sustainable developPHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ARTS CONTEST
Carlota Marijuán Rodríguez is an architecture graduate f rom Spain and member of ESACH. She studied a Bachelor of Architectural Design at the University of Queensland (Australia) and a Masters in Architectural Design and History at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy). She is passionate about increasing civic engagement in cultural heritage and developing community-led planning in historic contexts. Email: marijuan.carlota@gmail.com Instagram: @carlotamarijuan
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“
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Historic cities and urban heritage are an invaluable resource for sustainable development. They provide opportunities for economic and social development while enhancing the sense of identity and belonging of the residents. For my submission, I chose to draw the creative reuse project of De Hallen, Amsterdam. In this project, Bureau van Stigt have transformed a former transportation warehouse into a multi-purpose community space which contains a library, eatery, shops, cinema and workshops. The pragmatic architecture of the tram shelter and the remains of its former use provide the space with a unique character that leads to memorable experiences. Carlota Marijuán Rodríguez
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
THE FALLACY OF REVITALIZATIO SUBVERSIVE CREATIVITY, CONS AND THE CONTESTATION OF HE Ahmed Morsi Email: morsiahm@gmail.com
I
n arts and culture oriented urban development, creative industries and the spaces they occupy are evaluated based on their profitability, commercial potential, and economic impact on surrounding areas in the form of spin-off developments regardless of usage and actual creative production. These spaces —often historical— are seen as “wasted” if they are unmarketable and for which no investment or profitable use can be found (SenStadt, 2007, as cited in Colomb, 2012). The 13th century Dominican church in Maastricht in the Netherlands, whose temporary uses since its deconsecration in 1794 varied from examination hall in the 1960s to concert venue in the 1990s, was used as a bicycle shed before its remodelling by a bookstore chain in 2007 [figs. 1, 2]. The transformation was publicized as a successful repurposing of a historical space “badly neglected for over 200 years” (Moran, 2017). Users of creative spaces fall on a spectrum between an extralegal marginal "creative underclass" and a formalized "creative elite." The valorizing power of the first and the cultural capital they
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produce often attract the second which are then instrumentalized to “revitalize” physically decaying historic downtowns by essentially replacing the first. Subversive art as a geography of gentrification is an emerging discussion within the broader discourse of artsled gentrification. My research, of which this article is a component, attempts to plug into this dialogue by unravelling the multilayered convolutions of heritage, capital, art, and dissidence, and analyzing their implications on the social and built environments through looking at the intersections between adaptive reuse, creative industries, and arts-led redevelopment. Two Creative Milieux The regularization of artistic and creative activity as opposed to the former experimental informal use of space has revealed some of the cracks and tensions within the often simplistically grouped communities of artists and creatives. Ironically, marginal cultural spaces are considered a source of innovation and unconventionality; inspiring and actually forming the basis of
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
ON: SUMPTION, ERITAGE SPACES Fig. 1 : Concert at the Dominican church in Maastricht in the early 1990s. (Photo credit: Mark Ahsmann, c. early 1990s)
Fig. 2 : The Dominican church after its transformation into a bookstore. (Photo credit: Sergé Technau, 2009)
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
creative practices which, in turn, inform mainstream consumerism. While some of them struggle to exist in the face of real estate speculation and local government hostility, their mere existence becomes a spectacle in itself and automatically an opportunity to be instrumentalized. In fact the unswayable anti-establishment views of the people that occupy them and the risk of being associated with the often unorthodox content they produce leaves developers unwilling to work directly with them and city governments apprehensive of their extralegal status, making them vulnerable to eviction for the valuable sites they occupy which they themselves almost single-handedly and unwittingly valorized. Moreover, this cultivated cultural capital is often compounded with stratified heritage value. The inherent gravitation of marginal creative milia with subversive overtones towards dilapidated historical spaces accordingly results in the perfect marriage between cultural capital and heritage value; providing ideal breeding grounds for real estate investment. Adaptive reuse, a historically progressive movement against fossilized concepts of heritage conservation thus becomes a tool in the transformation of the classical narrative of heritagemaking being a practice shaped by colonialism and nationalism into one shaped by neoliberal urban development.
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A vivid example of these dynamics is the Tacheles building in Berlin, which was occupied by an artist community shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For over a decade, the building —originally planned for demolition— housed artists’ studios, workshops, a cinema, and a dance club; eventually entirely reinvigorating the previously derelict area within Mitte [fig. 3]. So much so, that the building actually acquired protected historical site status for its cultural value (Jones, 2012; Kulish, 2019). As of today, the artists have moved elsewhere, the site sold to a New York City firm, and Herzog and de Meuron commissioned to design a luxury residential, commercial, and cultural intervention for the entire complex (Am Tacheles, n.d.; Neuendorf, 2015) (fig. 4). Many similar case studies demonstrate how the creative underclass lay the groundwork which then attracts the creative elite for its “bohemian aura” and then both are exploited to attract wealthy residents and large corporations. This process can be summarized into a pattern of transformation of "liminal landscapes" (Gornostaeva & Campbell, 2012) into gentrified arts districts and then into consumption landscapes. Sandler (2011) calls it “the fine art of gentrification.” Drake (2016) describes the 1990s as the decade of the re-emergence of art squats and the 2000s seeing the fetishization and monetization of creativity (Raunig et al., 2011). The historic Viennoise hotel in Cairo presents itself as a textbook arts-and-culture-facilitated
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niche gentrification project that started with a decaying historic-hotel-turned-art-space and ended up becoming the exclusive headquarters of an investment company with future plans for a boutique hotel on one of its floors and a rooftop restaurant and bar (Mantiqti, 2018). Additionally, the Viennoise provides a case where private developers were themselves attracted by cultural capital that would later be orchestrated rather than manufactured to keep the space alive and attract tenants. The existing artistic use of the building by its previous owners for over a decade meant it was already on the radar within Downtown’s creative cohort, thus facilitating any valorization that might be necessary by its new owners. In the few years after
the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the building’s new owners regularly engaged with subversive creative players as exemplified in the Horreya/Kharya exhibition held in 2013 and curated by prominent figures in the revolutionary graffiti scene. Conceived as a “Museum to the Revolution,” the exhibition included artistic representations of tear gas canisters and antiregime graffiti among other figurative depictions of revolt [fig. 5]. The same building would, six years later, be paraded in a promotional video circulating on social media platforms about its rehabilitation and reintroduction as the headquarters of a private investment company [fig. 6].
Revival? Of what? It is in this context should the intent of heavily marketed projects with tenacious usage of euphemisms like revitalization, revival, and regeneration be scrutinized for their preconditioned commodification of artistic and cultural practices (Tosics, 2019). Newcomer generations of creative youth are oftentimes unaware of the previous existence of artistic and cultural activity in these newly popular areas due to the uneven circulation of images in tight relation to both stigma and outreach. It is unsurprising that many young creatives that
Fig. 3 : Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin. (Photo credit: ExSmith, August 2004)
Fig. 4 : Am Tacheles redevelopment project rendering by Herzog & de Meuron. (Image credit: bloomimagess, n.d., non binding visualization)
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
frequent downtown Cairo today are completely unaware of the short-lived creative activism during and after the 2011 uprising that saw an unprecedented creative subversive use of space. Thus, while —as per Florida’s insistence— creative youth from less privileged backgrounds can also profit from the "Creative Age," it is only feasible through Fig. 5 : Prominent revolutionary graffiti artists interviewed at the Horreya/Kharya exhibition at the Viennoise in 2013. (Image credit: TVmedrar, 2014)
Fig. 6 : Investment company CEO inspecting outcome of Viennoise renovation works in promotional video in 2019. (Image credit: MO4 Network, 2019)
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mingling with the creative elite (Bontje & Musterd, 2009). Chatterton’s (2000) contention that unless progress is made towards eliminating inequalities with regards to wealth and power, the creative city agenda and all of its social-mixing claims will remain elite-led therefore still stands true.|
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References: Am Tacheles (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://amtacheles.de/ en/ Accessed: December 30, 2020. Bontje, M. and Musterd, S. (2009). Creative industries, creative class and competitiveness: Expert opinions critically appraised. Geoforum. Chatterton, P. (2000). Will the Real Creative City Please Stand Up? City, 4(3), 390–397. Colomb, C. (2012). Pushing the urban frontier: Temporary use of space, city marketing, and the creative city discourse in 2000s Berlin. Journal of Urban Affairs, 34(2), 131–152. Drake, M. (2016). Art squats, artistic critique and resistance: Between recuperation and obliteration. Prace Kulturoznawcze, 19, 41–58. DOI: 10.19195/0860-6668/19.3 Gornostaeva, G. and Campbell, N. (2012). The creative underclass in the production of place: Example of Camden Town in London. Journal of Urban Affairs, 34(2). Jones, J. (2012, September 5). The closure of Berlin’s Tacheles squat is a sad day for alternative art. The Guardian. Kulish, N. (2010, August 10). Dressing artists’ hub in something button-down. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/ world/europe/11berlin.html Mantiqti (2018, May 6). Rihlat mabna ‘al-Viennoise’.. 122 ‘aaman min al-ta’mim ila al-fan ila al-istithmar [Journey of the ‘Viennoise’ building.. 122 years from nationalization to art to investment]. Moran, T. (2017, December 6). Selexys Dominicanen: The 700-year-old former church turned modern bookstore. Huffpost. About the Author
AHMED MORSI He is an architect and artist whose interests lie in subversive forms of creativity and their effect on the built and social environments. His research explores the convolutions of heritage, capital, art, dissidence, and securitization in post2011 Cairo. He has been involved in a number of adaptive reuse and remodeling projects between Cairo and Alexandria. Email: morsiahm@gmail.com Instagram: morsiahm, morsiahmart
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A UNESCO SITE RESTORATION, AND VALORIZATION PROJECT IN TRANSYLVANIA AS A POTENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMEN Elena Cautiș
Email: cautise@gmail.com
“
Fig. 1: Andrei Lucian Vaida, Sarmizegetusa Regia panorama that captures from the height the settlements and sanctuaries, to the South, Hunedoara county. Source: Wikimedia. Sarmizegetusa Regia - Panoramă generală spre S.
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The Capital of Dacia – A Living Museum of European Cultural Heritage”, is an ongoing project aiming at the restoration, conservation and valorization of the UNESCO heritage site Sarmizegetusa Regia. At the inaugural conference held on 11 December 2020, Ștefan Bâlici, the manager of the National Institute of Heritage (NIH), underlined the uniqueness of such an initiative in post-communist Romania. Its singularity stands because of both the magnitude of the actions designed for an efficient preservation of the site as well as the activities foreseen for an inclusive approach underpinning the valorization of the monument. As the site consists of archaeological remains situated in the Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina natural park, surrounded by traditional communities, the preservation practices require a crossdisciplinary approach. Therefore, various partners have been
selected in this regard to ensure the development of strategies aimed at the sustainable preservation and valorization of the site which in return could contribute to long-term development in the general area. Given this context, even though
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CONSERVATION
TIAL FACTOR NT IN THE AREA the project’s premises advance from the heritage characteristics of the site, it becomes clear that in reality it has to deal with an entire cultural framework. Previous Preservation Actions Sarmizegetusa Regia is the former capital of the Dacian Kingdom and is part of a larger chain of defensive settlements situated in the Orăștiei Mountains, dating back to the period from the 1st
century BC to the beginning of the 2nd century AD (Bârcă 2020). After the conversion of the kingdom into a roman province, in 106, the roman emperor ordered the demolition of these settlements and moved the capital to a newly erected city. Given the large presence of the remains and their historical background, the study of this archaeological site is crucial for understanding the Dacian civilization in the pre-roman era. Inscribed in the World Heritage List (WHL) in 1999, along with five other Dacian fortresses as a single unit, Sarmizegetusa Regia did not receive adequate attention until 2012, when the County Council of Hunedoara became the legal administrator of the site (Bârcă 2020). Indeed, as indicated by the newly executives’ documentation approving interventions on the site, the first systematic archaeological excavations and restrained preservation actions were done in the 1980’s, but since then, Sarmizegetusa Regia has been quite neglected by the authorities (NIH 2018). In fact, the issue of the abandonment of the Dacian fortresses inscribed in the WHL is a well-known case of poor heritage management and it is an intensely discussed matter among specialists in the field of cultural heritage in Romania (Bârcă 2020). Moreover, among these six different archaeological sites, only Sarmizegetusa Regia has a legal administrator. Since 2012, there has been an increase of the activities in the
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Fig. 2: Mircea Bezergheanu, View from the natural park Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina. Source: Regia Națională a Pădurilor-Romsilva. Parcul Natural Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina.
area which, in 2017, culminated with an agreement between the County Council of Hunedoara and the NIH to invest in the creation of a long-term plan for its valorization (NIH 2018). Accordingly, the NIH elaborated a series of technical and historical studies in 2018, which further led to the launch of “The Capital of Dacia – A Living Museum of European Cultural Heritage”. The Natural and Cultural Environment Add Value to the Cultural Preservation Strategies of the Heritage Site Along with the historical context, the surrounding landscape is of a great cultural and natural richness. Sarmizegetusa Regia is situated in the Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina natural park, which with its geological
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and biodiversity specificity is home to rural communities who value traditions dating centuries back. Among these communities, indeed another heritage element recognized by the UNESCO framework is the dance of Căluș Ritual, inscribed on the Representative List on Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008 (UNESCO). This tradition represents an ancient purification and fertility rite, still performed in Romania and in some other areas of the Balkan Peninsula. Moreover, the main occupation of the communities surrounding the site is agriculture, in harmony with the natural environment (Parcul Natural Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina). In spite of their cultural richness, locals struggle to become self-sufficient and therefore, as it happens in
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Fig. 3: R. Suciu, Căluș Ritual, performed at Sarmizegetusa Regia. Source: Regia Națională a Pădurilor-Romsilva. Parcul Natural Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina.
many other rural areas in the country, young people choose to leave their villages and move to major urban settlements. In this view, the inclusive valorization of Sarmizegetusa Regia could limit their departure, by creating workplaces related to their cultural assets that, besides the archaeological vestiges, contribute significantly to the particularity of the place. It is therefore all the more important to conceive the valorization of the area as a process embedded in an entire cultural landscape.
activities aiming at empowering the locals. This NGO, born in the early 2000’s, is a Romanian pioneer in creating strategies of sustainable development concerning vulnerable rural communities. Its activity is mainly based in the Saxon villages in Transylvania, which are known for their rich built heritage. It is primarily with the locals’ help that they have succeeded until now to safeguard this cultural legacy, which in exchange led to the recognition of these communities as its guardians.
Strategies for Empowering the Locals into Building their Own Development System: Imagined Activities
This approach has notably increased agricultural activities and the entrepreneurial initiatives related to sustainable cultural tourism, while leading to the development of an informal educational network (MET).
Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) is the leading partner which took the responsibility for creating
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A similar model has been applied to the specific case of Sarmizegetusa Regia. Concretely, in the first stages of the elaboration of the project, MET imagined activities which could foster the same variety of development concerning the communities surrounding this site and which targeted especially young people. Here are some examples of the imagined activities: · archeological summer camps, to facilitate the understanding of the importance of the site and transform it into an expression of local pride, as to create social cohesion; · courses of cultural tourism guiding, to create jobs and allow the locals to become the bearers of the local history;
Thus, at the official ending of the project, the overriding goal is to have had already established a pattern of activities that can be proved sustainable, in order to both ensure a long-term preservation of the heritage as well as to help the locals grow through this heritage. The Project as an Opportunity of Becoming a Valuable Example of Sustainable Management Practice
· educational events for children and so on.
As the project benefits from large visibility, the success of the targeted goals is all the more important, as it could set a path for future similar projects and become an example of sustainable preservation practice in the field of cultural heritage.
Having laid down the procedural premises of the project, the current pandemic crisis eventually hit its concretization. In fact, the foundation representatives’ interaction with the communities aiming to identify the main stakeholders and develop new activities was halted. Nevertheless, their statement is that such consultancies and the building
This would on one hand ensure the long-term preservation of the site itself, and on the other hand it could motivate similar initiatives for the other still disregarded five Dacian fortresses. Moreover, it could lead to a sustainable development in the area, encouraging the locals to get involved in the valorization process of the site, which could in
· handicraft workshops related to the site’s historically recognized commercial activities, such as blacksmithing;
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of a long-term dialogue with the locals has to be considered crucial when targeting long-term benefits and so the establishment of such a dialogue has not been set aside, planning instead for its fulfillment when the regulations will allow. This is all the more important as the foundation’s activity is not based in the area.
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only the willingness to promote inclusive valorization practices, but also and especially their necessity when thinking of longterm sustainability concerning cultural heritage management initiatives.|
Fig. 4: A. Bulacu, Boy wearing traditional clothing. Source: Regia Națională a Pădurilor-Romsilva. Parcul Natural Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina.
About the Author
exchange foster social cohesion. In doing so, this helps the locals to identify with the heritage site, as well as to realize the potential their own cultural identity bears in facilitating their development. Despite the fact that the pandemic crisis has so far kept MET representatives from contacting the targeted communities in order to involve them in the decisional process, there is still time to initiate such a dialogue, as the official start of the project is planned for April 2021 and will last for a total of 48 months. The fact that the foundation underlined the necessity to build such a dialogue and that they are keeping the matter of the activities designed so far open to debate, proves not
ELENA CAUTIȘ She studied History and Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Bucharest and at the University of Perugia. Her main research interest is cultural heritage as a mean for achieving sustainable development. Currently, she is doing volunteer work at Mihai Eminescu Trust, helping with the research of inclusive valorization strategies for “The Capital of Dacia – A Living Museum of European Cultural Heritage”. E-mail: cautise@gmail.com LinkedIn: Elena Cautis Instagram: elenacautis12 Facebook: Elena Cautis
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SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DIST Federico Varela
Email: varelafe@gmail.com
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— BUILT HERITAGE MANAGEMEN
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TRICTS
NT AND DESIGN
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SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
INTRODUCTION
F
or millennia, city builders have dreamt that with the right combination of streets and structures, they could create a place bringing humanity to a higher plane. This utopian conception of ideal cities is still present nowadays in architects and urban planners' minds, but the attention focuses on the needs of our modern societies. Accordingly, the search for the development of high technologies, allowing faster and more dynamic exchanges of information along with commerce improvements and a conservative a p p r o a c h to wa r d s t h e e x i s t i n g environment, combines under the notion of "Smart Cities". Specif ically, the term is used when the latest technological innovations are used in urban inf rastructure to s u p p o r t t h e n e e d s o f p u b l i c institutions, businesses and citizens to wo rk to g e t h e r a s a co m m o n functional organism. The core idea of a Smart City model is to employ technological advancements to implement via information systems the processes that optimize the u rb a n sys te m co m p o n e n t s a n d tighten the contact between citizens and public institutions. To be developed eff iciently, this organization must function in different city life areas, such as in the operative areas of transport inf rastructure and the economic, cultural and environmental spheres. Smart Cities schemes can be on the whole divided into two main categories: "Greenfield" projects, that is to say new cities, and "Retrofitting"
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of existing built fabrics. Among the latter, what have been def ined as “Innovation Districts” represent the fusion between industrial districts and research parks. Due to the urban renewal, the former industrial areas remain in most cases as residual spaces with low income flows increasingly detached f rom the general urban fabric. It became common to witness research companies tr ying to relocate in these remnant areas for renting convenience, thus surely changing their appearance, but also expanding the possibility of intertwining hightech research companies with startups and new investments that were not previously considered. The present project presents a vision of Innovation Districts as allowing for deep and homogenized linkages between residential, commercial, technological, and cultural areas, then representing a novelty for built heritage rehabilitation. The main reason boils down to the fact that these tend to develop from small and concentrated spots which is what allows them to establish connections with the consolidated urban fabric in the surrounding areas.
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UTOPIA
WHAT DOES WHAT DOES WHAT DOES INNOVATION INNOVATION INNOVATION MEAN? MEAN? MEAN?
“Greenfield”
“Retrofitting” of existing cities.
projects (new cities).
risk taking culture
NET WORKING ASSETS
ID
Physical ASSETS
ecosystem tion ova nn
i
economic ASSETS
IEL EN F GR E
SMART CITY
RETROFITTING INDUSTRIAL CITY RESEARCH PARKS
IDEAL CITY
Y CIT AR CITY Y SD E MA GDO VALL N SO N IT A PL
UTOPIA RESILIENCE GENTRIFICATION innovation high technology
DS
Theoretical frame
INNOVATION DISTRICTS PAGE 58
SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
FROM CASE STUDIES TO MODEL DEVELOPMENT
S
uccessful cases such as the Technological District of Buenos Aires, the South Waterf ront District of Boston and MID City North of Melbourne prove that Innovation Districts could be a sustainable answer to urban transformation of neglected contemporary urban areas. These examples helped to homogenize the distribution of the population, encouraging the use of mass transportation instead of private vehicles, increasing the land value by including green areas and, most crucially, fomenting innovation to develop new technologies that would help to achieve a better and more sustainable way of living. A comparative analysis of these study cases show that the implementation process for innovation districts varied according to the background and history of each case. Notably, we argue that minimum investments in these fields must be made: · Startup incubators/ Co-working Spaces, Tax Benefits, and Affordable houses. · Education and Research · Sustainability and Urban redevelopment · Decentralization · Transport
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MELBOURBE - ACTIONS: Melbourne RAIL project RMIT University’s Social Innovation Precinct RMIT University’s New Academic Street Univ.Melbourne’s New Student Precinct Univ. of Melbourne’s Melbourne Connect BUENOS AIRES - ACTIONS:
City Town Hall to the area. Tax reduction to Technological companies. Educational Institutions Infrastructure Development: Metro line expansion to the area Metrobus system development. BOSTON - ACTIONS: District Hall Residential Development Educational Institutions Infrastructure Development: Turnpike tunnel and Airport Bus Line
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SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
PIACENZA
T
he main conclusions, highlight how inf rastructure, education, sustainability, policies to develop affordable housing and industries remain essential. However, it is also necessary to include the social aspect in this model. Societies, their history, and traditions are as important as the other components mentioned, and heritage encompasses these essential civil elements. Without understanding that it is necessary to invest smartly also in heritage, most of the cities would lose their identity, and for that reason, inhabitants could look reluctant to change. By this project, we aim to incorporate heritage issues alongside the above-mentioned criteria into the development of a Smart City model. The chosen setting is Piacenza, a medium-sized city located in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.
The southern part of the province is valleys are crossed respectively by the between 250 and 600 meters above Brugnatella, Ottone, Camminata. The Piacenza, making agriculture industrie
Due to its connections to t r a n s p o r t a t i o n s y s te m s a n d i t s location to extremely fertile areas, Pia cenza, as a n ode city, has developed an economy related to the distribution of its goods, both agricultural and manufactured.
PIACENZA LAND USE MAP: City center New city
axis Milano-Bologna-Firenze-Roma-N
External city and industrial areas
East-West connection route: Moto
Agricultural domains PAGE 61
North-South connection route: M
Torino - Piacenza- Cremona-Mantova.
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
hilly. Val Tidone, Val Trebbia, Val Nure, and Val d’Arda are the main valleys of Piacenza. These four e homonymous rivers and streams: Tidone, Trebbia, Nure, Arda. Follow the hill towns, with an altitude e sea level, consisting of Bobbio, Bettola, Groppare- llo, Nibbiano, Vernasca, Farini, Pecorara, Corte e geographical situation of the province makes it a very fertile area, especially in the surroundings of es one of the most important for the city.
Motorway A1, former SS9 Via Emilia, railway line (conventional and High-Speed Line) - connection Napoli.
orway A21 Torino-Brescia, Former SS10 Via Postumia Inferiore, railway line - connection axis Genova/ PAGE 62
SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
THE MILITARY BARRACKS
D
eveloped from a Roman historic cast, Piacenza has likewise its modern roots deeply grounded in the military heritage of the city. As a result of strategic decisions taken at a national level (The Royal Decree of 15 September 1897), Piacenza was in fact declared as the location of the X artillery command, and several military barracks were constructed within the urban realm, turning out to be e a tremendous economic resource around these areas due to the businesses that they created. In 2004, the abolition of the mandatory military service brought about the disuses of these places and a profound urban impact, creating neglected voids in the city and fragmenting the general fabric. Despite this rich cultural heritage and its essential role in the Italian military history, the city nowadays seems to relay on its powerful logistic appeal rather than on its urban and services qualities. There is a signif icant imbalance between the urban development and the quality of the city: the presence of impacting inf rastructure create not only a further barrier between the city and the Po river but also are the f irst visual approach to the visitors from the out-town. Moreover, despite that the former military areas are characterized to be an enclosure situation dictated by their use, their location within the urban net and their proximity to populated areas, as well as their
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connection with the main axis of the city (Via Emilia Pavese), make them a fruitful starting location for an overall rehabilitation project.
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SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
THE “POTENZIAL” PROJECT
B
y looking at the Buenos Aires case, we concluded that the creation of economic districts boost neglected urban areas. Similarly, the re-development of the disused military barracks will help to revalorize the urban surroundings as to unify the city in a more uniform urban net. Due to the reduced dimensions of Piacenza compared to Buenos Aires and the signif icant number of unused military urban sites in relation to the scale of the city, this project envisages to create innovative ecosystems in almost 70 percent of the overall urban surface starting from the military heritage. In this logic, the now-to-be innovation districts will trigger the development of Piacenza into a Smart City.
Vision: To position Piacenza as the First Smart Italian city and In the long term,replicate this study case system on a national scale, taking into consideration the peculiarities of each city. Concept: Create innovation districts that will shape an integrated ecosystem taking advantage of Piacenza’s strategic location and diverse economy. train the population and prepare them to be in synchrony with developed innovation industries.It means the generation of highqualified work. Main Goals: · Create innovation districts that will work closely together with government policies and business to improve economic innovation and social inclusion.Improve the development of business communities through the collaboration of research centers and promote production. · Create innovation hubs in the neglected military barracks that nowadays fragment the urban fabric of the city. Develop a system of urban infrastructure that helps to integrate the industries with the new research areas. · Create programs to train high-qualified workforce. Considering heritage architecture in its full operational life is essential to tract neighbors to the idea of change and to keep the singularities of each city. It is necessary to develop and economic, but efficient transportation system that connects all innoation districts through the main arteres with low impact in the historical city. Metrobus of Buenos Aires and Curitiba are perfect examples of this.
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Smartcity master plan
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SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
I
n the specif ic case, located in the peripheral neighborhood of Sant’Antonio Trebbia, Barrack Lusignani is considered the west gateway to Piacenza. Four kilometers distances it f rom the center, and despite being close, the surrounding neighborhood f inds itself isolated f rom the rest of the city. This is limited to the north by the railroad system that connects Piacenza with Torino. The road called Via Luigi Einaudi, a heavy load trucks highway, limits the city to the south. These two fundamental limits give its particular funn el shape to Sant’Antonio Trebbia, which had no possibility but to extend f rom east to west; leaving south and north areas as vast extensions of agricultural fields. As mentioned before, agriculture is a major economic asset for Piacenza, and the surroundings of the neighborhood motivate the decision to invest in the topic. The project thus proposes to open the perimeter walls, allowing the site to be permeable enough to integrate it within the surroundings and relaunching these f rom within. Moreover, the mixed land-use between industrial, commercial, and residential makes the area economically diversif ied enough to boost innovation, and in this logic the planned intervention combines the present value with innovating elements. The resulting outcome is an Agricultural Innovation District (AID), integrating research and investment in the agricultural f ield with the enhancement and/or creation of housing and commercial functions.
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The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
Render via EmiliaPavese view
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SMART CITIES, INNOVATION DISTRICTS
CONCLUSION
h e Po te n z i a l Pro j e c t a i m s to combine several strategies for the investment in community well-being, and it does so by drawing together location, economy, demography and, primarily, heritage. Understanding the traditions of the city in order to merge them with future technologies and research is in fact essential to create an innovative ecosystem. The Agricultural Innovation District (AID) would in this view be the result of a model designed to implement Innovation Districts in neglected Italian urban areas, starting f rom t h e h e r i t a g e c h a r a c te r i s t i c s o f the place and extrapolating their characteristics that better than others fit within a Smart City model. Without any doubt, agriculture is an essential and peculiar aspect of the AID project that emerges f rom the Piacenza characteristics. However, Piacenza Potenzial shows that vast possibilities of implementing the same model with different economic fields may be sustained if we stress the innovative elements already present in the heritage component of each local sphere.|
students/ workers/ unemployed
could use/ EHQHƛW
PrRƛW
T
real estate agencies could invest the realization of new residences
RESIDENCES
part of which are going to be
INSTITUTIONS input
INVESTORS
the the model the model themodel model to apply to any city Enteprenuers
Logistic Branch
Industries
Factories
Students
Local Associations
Transport Agency
Banks
Municipal
Universities
Research Centers
private
government
education
research
Professor / Tutors
Unemployed
citizens
STAKEholders STAKEholders STAKEholders STAKEholders
This model could be a possible method fo also to replicate it in other areas that assets. As a result, the creation of differ would undoubtedly create an innovative Utopia, a Smart city.
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ITALIAN GOVERNMENT PIACENZA MUNICIPALITY
REhabilitation OF THE MILITARY BARRACKS How to improve?
AGRICULTURAL FIELDS
AID
A g r ic u l t u r a l Innovation D i s t r i c t
level up
km-zero markets
marketing
output
food fairs
Gant Diagram of the Model: Constitution of Research Institutions Contact Possible Stakeholders Search of a Site Organization of Tuition Programs Temporal Use of Local Facilities Recondition of the Educational Site Use of the Site Housing Construction Facilities Development at the area Burocratic procedures Construction Development Program into Action
or developing an Innovation District; but have varied needs as well as different rent innovation districts in the same city e ecosystem and hence develop it as a
FEDERICO VARELA MAZZANTINI is an Argentinean-Italian architect who currently lives in Oslo, Norway. He specializes in the management of the cultural heritage that could revitalize communities through interventions in neglected architecture. For this reason he is part of the organization International Center for the Conservation of Patrimony (CICOP). He had the opportunity to become a professor at the University of Buenos Aires (FADU) in the subjects History of Architecture and Design. At the same time he worked as Project Manager & Facilities Managers for public institutions and companies such as CBRE and S&P Global. He studied architecture at the University of Buenos Aires. He then deepened his knowledge with a full scholarship at the Politecnico di Milano in the Architectural Design and History Master. He is passionate about sketching, he believes that this is the best way to transmit his thoughts. For this reason he ran Urban Sketching Workshops in Milan, and now he is starting these workshops in Oslo, complementing his architectural career. Email: varelafe@gmail.com Linkedin: Federico Varela Mazzantini Instagram: @varelafe
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Esach Talks! January 2021 · Photography and Visual Arts Contest
MUSEUMS &ART T
he first 2021 ESACH Talks’ topics covered young and innovative perspectives on the role of museums and art in sharing our cultural heritage. These include heritage and the politics of restitution, decolonizing museums, exhibiting the intangible, museum curation, exhibition design, Museum-Related Cultural Governance
PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ARTS CONTEST
Sara Celin recently graduated from the University of Bergamo (Italy) with a master’s degree in Planning and Management of Tourism Systems, now works as web editor for two tourism websites: Visit Italy and Visit Venice. Cultural heritage has always been her greatest passion. Email: sara.celin95@gmail.com Instagram: @saracelin
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“
The power of museums to enhance the image of culture in the young. Pinacoteca di Brera is a clear example of the union of art and education, being not only a museum but also the location of the Academy of Fine Arts. Sara Celin
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WHERE RENAISSANCE MEETS TE BANDINI ICON: AN AR APP FO MUSEUM IN FIESOLE, ITALY. Giovanni Pescarmona Email:pescarmona.giovanni@gmail.com
T
his conference paper aims to demonstrate the role and the effectiveness of Augmented Reality (AR) technology as a powerful engagement and communication tool for art museums. The chosen case study that will be examined is an AR smartphone app designed for the Bandini Museum in Fiesole, near Florence, Italy. The app, called Bandini Icon, conveys to the public a wide range of information about Italian latemedieval and renaissance painted panels. Intangible digital Fig. 1: A visitor using Bandini Icon in the Bandini Museum, Fiesole. Photo by: Alessandro Botticelli.
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elements are virtually represented in the physical space though AR technology, enhancing the experience of the museum and the overall message conveyed by the collection. The birth of the project and the essential User Experience elements of the app will be also taken into account, trying to highlight good practices and to identify the challenges that we faced during design and development. The Context
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ECHNOLOGY. OR THE BANDINI
an enlightened librarian and important scholar, was one of the first collectors with a specific interest in the art of the late Middle Ages and Tuscan gold ground paintings. Art-Historical Research at the Bandini Museum
The Bandini Museum in Fiesole (part of the wider “Musei di Fiesole” network), displays a collection of late-medieval and early renaissance paintings mostly painted with gold and tempera on wooden panel and of glazed terracotta and marble sculptures [Fig. 1]. It is a small museum, with less than a hundred works. Nonetheless, it represents a rare example of an almost intact eighteenth century collection gathered by Angelo Maria Bandini since 1752 until his death in 1803. Bandini,
The Bandini Icon app stems from a research project of the University of Florence. Information provided by the app is based on studies made by MA History of Art students under the supervision of Professors Sonia Chiodo and Andrea De Marchi at SAGAS (Department of History of Art of the University of Florence) [Fig. 3]. Each painting has been thoroughly studied over the course of three yearly seminars (2015, 2016 and 2017) and, therefore, the app represents an opportunity for the dissemination of unpublished research results.
Fig. 2: The Bandini Museum in Fiesole, Italy, showcases late-medieval and early Renaissance Italian (mostly Tuscan) paintings and sculptures. Source: Author.
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Fig. 3: Art-historical and technical research at the Bandini Museum (with Professors Sonia Chiodo, Andrea De Marchi, and Loredana Gallo). Source: Author.
The Birth of the Project In 2018, I dedicated my MA thesis to the design of the app. In the same year, I partnered with Marcello Massidda, app developer and communication designer, who coded the first prototype using Unity engine and the Vuforia SDK for deploying Augmented Reality features. The project then received a funding from the Fondazione CR Firenze, a private foundation aiming at supporting social and cultural development of the Florentine area with an investment plan aiming at fostering digital transformation in lesser-known museums. The final development of the app, based on the Author’s and Massidda’s Master’s thesis, has been carried out by Maggioli Cultura. App Specifications The app is free, with no advertisements or registration
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required, and is available for Android and iOS in Italian and English. Only a personal device, like a smartphone or a tablet, is needed to run the app. The Bandini Museum has used part of the funding to implement a WiFi connection, so that visitors can download the application on-site for free. The app is also ad-free, with no registration required. AR Experiences Most of the paintings in the Bandini Museums are just fragments of complex artworks composed of many parts. This type of painting, very widespread in Italian medieval and renaissance art, is called polyptych. Many single painted panels once part of polyptychs are now separated, scattered in faraway museums. Using Bandini Icon, users can recompose polyptychs that have been dismembered in the past centuries, bringing together,
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is therefore curated to fit the specific communication needs of the museum.
Fig. 4: Bandini Icon Splash page. Source: Author.
We will explore how Bandini Icon works using screenshots taken in the museum while running the app. Framing a painting with the device camera, the software recognises the image - and the AR experience unfolds [Fig. 5]. A virtual image is displayed on the screen to the left side of the real panels in the museum, painted by Lorenzo di Bicci and displaying Saint James and Saint Nicholas. The augmented image represents a panel with Saint Julian and a Bishop Saint that, originally, was part of the same polyptych. Currently, this digitally added panel is stored in the deposits of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, and is not visible to the public.
through the use of AR, fragments of artworks that were originally part of a unique context, but are now dispersed in different museums. By applying the principles of Engagement Design and Gamification, Bandini Icon has been developed to provide an engaging and entertaining experience, appealing to a heterogeneous museum public. All the art historical content has been edited by the Author, and
Only the side panels (or wings) of the polyptych by Lorenzo di Bicci survive, and the central element (generally depicting the Virgin with the Child) has yet to be identified, and could be possibly lost forever. Therefore, we tried to represent this absence by recreating the empty volume of the central element at the centre of the virtual polyptych [Fig. 6]. A UI (User Interface) switch element allows the user to switch from one visualisation to the other, hiding or showing the missing central element. The artwork in the museum (the marker that activates the experience) can be always seen by the user during the experience, and provides a
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virtual elements. The result is a perceptive illusion, stimulating the imagination of the beholder, who is encouraged to engage with artworks from a new perspective.
Fig. 5: Lorenzo di Bicci’s Saint James and Saint Nicholas painted panels (left); AR “reconstruction experience”, showing the missing left panels (right). Source: Author.
Fig. 6: Experience outside the museum. Playable cards and online social media contents to be used with the app. Source: Author.
Fig. 7: Widescreen view of Lorenzo di Bicci’s AR experience, reconstructing the polyptych structure through known and unknown digital elements. Source: Author.
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Conclusions The app was launched on 29 February 2020. The Bandini Museum was closed soon after due to the Covid-19 emergency, and remained closed for the majority of the year. Therefore, it has been impossible to create an education programme targeting schoolchildren for instance and likewise to collect data and feedback from users. Bandini Icon works not only with the original paintings, but also with reproductions: so we printed and distributed playable cards, and published on social media accounts hi-res images to be used by people that could engage with the museum from the safety of their homes [Fig.2]. Using this kind of curated Extended Reality digital interpretation, even small art museums can play the role of innovation hubs for young researchers, bridging the gap between scholarly research and public knowledge.|
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dimensional reference for the References: Cooper, Donal and Noble, Kate. “Schoolchildren, science and smartphones shine new light on a Florentine masterpiece”. Apollo Magazine, 6 April 2020, www. apollo-magazine.com/jacopodel-sellaio-fitzwilliam-museumcambridge/. (Accessed 12 Feb. 2021). Pescarmona, Giovanni. “Un’esperienza digitale in realtà aumentata per gli affreschi staccati di Santa Maria Novella a Firenze”. Kermes, year 32, no. 116 (October-December 2019), pp. 8386. Pescarmona, Giovanni. “Augmented Reality and Renaissance Painting. An AR Experience for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge”. Kultur und Informatik. Extended Reality, edited by Johann Habakuk Israel, Christian Kassung and Jürgen Sieck, Werner Hülsbusch, Glückstadt, 2020, pp. 229-242.
About the Author
GIOVANNI PESCARMONA He is an art historian, currently PhD candidate at the University of Florence. His research interests focus on innovative digital technologies for the enhancement of cultural heritage. He is an advisor of Italian and foreign museums(Fiesole, Florence, Cambridge)for the creation of digital products and experiences. Email: pescarmona.giovanni@gmail.com Facebook: Giovanni Pescarmona Instagram: giovifc Linkedin: Giovanni Pescarmona Twitter: GiovaPesca
Scudieri, Magnolia. Il Museo Bandini a Fiesole. Arti Grafiche Giorgi & Cambi, Firenze, 1993. The Routledge International Handbook of New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites, edited by Hanna Lewi, Wally Smith, Dirk von Lehn and Steven Cooke, Routledge, London and New York, 2019.
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PROMOTING DIVERSITY AND IN DIGITAL COLLECTIONS. #REINV VEN, A CREATIVE EDUCATION FROM EUROPEANA FOUNDATIO Raul Gomez Hernandez
Email: raul.gomezhernandez@europeana.eu
Fig.1: A couple making music. Cornelis Troost. 1743. Rijksmuseum. The Netherlands. Source: Europeana (Public Domain).
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NCLUSION WITH VENTINGBEETHONAL CHALLENGE ON
E
xplore in this article how Europeana Foundation is promoting Diversity and Inclusion and how the Europeana Education Community was involved in the #reinventingBeethoven creative and educational challenge. Europeana Foundation and the Diversity and Inclusion crossteam Europeana Foundation is defined as the European platform but also the professional network for digital cultural heritage. It contains millions of assets from more than 4,000 institutions, managed by the Europeana staff, organized in teams like Development or Collection Engagement among others.
members participating in events, webinars, workshops, task forces and other activities. In the Europeana Foundation, some cross-teams have been settled and organized internally to work on important topics. One of these is Diversity and Inclusion cross-team. This working group aims to explore and design changes to Europeana’s structures to make everyone feel welcome, represented and safe at the Europeana Initiative. One of the ways in which the working group aims to achieve diverse representation is through editorials, by showcasing then the richness and diversity of the European cultural heritage and supporting marginalised communities like LGTBQ+ ones, Black and Asian heritage representatives, people with Indigenous heritages, diverse religious beliefs, individuals with special or unique educational requirements or carrying disabilities. Fig.2: Ecosystem. Europeana Foundation and Sketchy Business. 2020. The Netherlands. Source: Europeana (Public Domain).
As a network, the Europeana Network Association (ENA) coordinates six communities (Copyright, Education, Research, Communication, Technology and Impact) with more than 3,000
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Fig.3: Diversity and inclusion’s Feature Page. Source: Europeana Education (CC BY-SA)
Some actions promoted by this particular cross-team have been editorial campaigns like Black History Month, Women’s History Month or Pride Month and educational activities like the #reinventingBeethoven challenge. Also, it promotes the figure of an Europeana Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador to generate educational materials. #reinventingBeethoven challenge In this context of plurality, and collaborating with the international event #Beethoven250, Europeana Education created the #reinventingBeethoven initiative, a creative educational challenge for students in primary and secondary schools inspired by the life and work of Beethoven and held on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his birth. It took place from 26 October to 16 December 2020, covering three key dates: 22 November,
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celebrating the Musicians Patron; 3 December to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and 16 December, the Beethoven’s birthday. Its aims were to encourage students’ creativity by means of cultural heritage resources and to introduce music as a powerful tool in the classroom. In particular, it proposed a series of educational materials which would eventually lead to the submission of creative artworks by the public engaged with a view to combine education to practical and recreational activities. The topics proposed in this competition were: the life and work of Beethoven, covering his biography; Beethoven and his disabilities, aiming to raise students’ awareness towards people with disabilities; and the 9th Symphony as the European Anthem, covering the French Revolution’s influence on Beethoven and highlighting the values and symbols of the
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European Union as the Ode to Joy was established as the European Anthem. Engaging Students and Educators with Cultural Heritage The efforts for promoting the programme participation were manifold and targeted both the educators and the students. Respectively, for the first category, Europeana Education created a landing page and a digital brochure on Europeana Pro, the association website, and a post on the Teaching with Europeana blog, specifying the guidelines of the challenge, the rules for the final submission and some Open Educational Resources (OERs) from Europeana Collections and other platforms. In the same way and in view of engaging with the students, a new gallery called 'Life and works of Beethoven' was created in Europeana Classroom, the association educational platform, two posts - 'Beethoven's Ode to Joy: a cultural kaleidoscope' and 'Geniuses and their (dis)abilities' were published on the Europeana blog and a source collection called Ludwig van Beethoven (17701827) The 9th Symphony and the European values, was created on Historiana, the EuroClio’s online educational platform, in order to draw together all the topics.
Submissions and Awards The creative artworks were submitted by groups of students through the teacher’s social media with the hashtag #reinventingBeethoven and some of them were also received by email. Overall, the project collected 28 artworks belonging to 10-16 year old students from 11 countries. The voting system established for the final awarding was dual. Using the platform Padlet, a public poll was opened, collecting 12,000 votes and choosing the Public Award and five finalists. At the same time, a jury composed by a member of the Europeana Education Community, a European Schoolnet (EUN) member and a European Association of History Educators (EuroClio) representative, chose a winner project for the Jury Award and five finalists.
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Fig. 4: Happy Birthday Beethoven. Source: IC Rovereto Nord. 2020 (CC BY-SA)
Fig. 5: Beethoven 3D. Source: IC Da Vinci Lorenzini. 2020 (CC BY-SA)
Fig.6: Zoom with Beethoven. Source: eTwinning Project Bag of Tricks. 2020 (CC BY-SA)
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Some of the most innovative submissions were:
About the Author
· Happy Birthday Beethoven: It is composed of a virtual exhibition and an escape room aiming to explore the life and works of Beethoven through recreational exercises. · Beethoven 3D: an animated video-story to discover what would happen if Ludwig van Beethoven lived today during the COVID-19 pandemic. · Zoom with Beethoven: a talk where the students ask questions to the composer. After the completion of the challenge, a satisfaction survey for the participants was set via Google forms to undertake an assessment of the initiative. This survey, outlined in particular the impact of this challenge and the motivation of the participants with some educators suggesting to run similar creative activities more often. If you would like to know more about these educational initiatives, visit the new Europeana Classroom and explore its section about participating and cocreating with cultural heritage in education, and join the Europeana Education Community.|
Raul Gomez Hernandez Heis a Master’s student in Cultural Heritage Management at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Currently, he is an intern at the Collections Engagement team within the Europeana Foundation, working on tasks like content curation, event coordination and community management with the Europeana Education community. He is a member of ESACH Madrid, Europeana Network Association and a Youth Member of Europa Nostra. He is specifically interested in the dissemination of cultural heritage by using new technologies for audience engagement and educational purposes. Email: raul.gomezhernandez@europeana.eu Twitter: raulgomhern Linkedin: Raul Gomez Hernadez Europeana: Raul Gomez Hernadez
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SOCIAL MEDIA IN MUSEUM : STORY-TELLING, AND TOWARDS FACILITATING GREATER REPRESENTATION
Social media in museum story-telling, and towards facilitating greater representation
Devashree Vyas
Introduction
I
nitiated in the late 1990s (Hendricks), the trajectory of social media has enhanced exponentially and is intrinsic to half the global population’s d a i l y r o u t i n e ( Ke m p , 2 0 2 0 ) a n d content across a diverse spectrum o f a r t , t h o u g h t , k n ow l e d g e a n d i n n o va t i o n i s p r o d u c e d , s h a r e d and engaged. Museums on social media are associated largely with arts, culture and history, and this holds true for museum spaces a t va r y i n g l eve l s o f p ro m i n e n ce and scale (MuseumNext, 2019). Content shared and enhanced t h ro u g h t h e m e s a n d to o l s h ave helped museums align their expression on social media with their core vision and objectives, their reach well beyond their physical presence through digital footprints. In 2020, digital engagement remained the sole means for museum communication and online discourses also enabled expressions per taining to social justice, inclusive representation and reconciliation for marginalized
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identities. This paper focuses on museum storytelling and narratives observed on the ‘social media portal Instagram’.
Museum Storytelling as a Social Media Practice and Strategy The social media channels of a museum have become an outlet for conveying the respective institution’s beliefs and representations on aspects associated with their practice ideals, of being democratic spaces enabling safeguarding of cultural values and diverse memories, facilitating dialogue and understanding. “Digital storytelling” (Mellon, 46) among museums is the practice of employing social media to exhibit existing knowledge and artefacts curated, to encourage global engagement and participation. Exemplary practices include sharing of visuals sourced f rom museum collections on a daily basis, correlating these to the aspects of people’s day-
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to-day experiences and realities, offering a sense of relatability to audiences.
Fig. 1: John Dillwyn Llewelyn, ‘Thereza’, 185356, Salt print photographyImage source: The image has been donated to Wikimedia Commons by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain; Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thereza_ Dillwyn_Llewelyn#/media/File:-Thereza_ Dillwyn_Llewelyn_with_Her_Microscope-_ MET_DP217032.jpg
Recent Examples on Digital Storytelling on Instagram by Museums On February 12, 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art shared this p h o to g r a p h o f T h e r e z a D i l l w y n Llewelyn using her microscope to honour the International Women and Girls in Science Day, banking upon the existing sentiments associated with the day and motivating related notions of gender equality.
They further added the relevance of science in art, connecting the audience to a link which elaborated
Fig. 2: Dora Carrington, ‘Farm at Watendlath’, 1921, Londres; An image of this painting which is currently in the collected of the Tate Museum, United Kingdom, was shared on the museum’s Instagram to honour Bi-Visibility Day 2020, highlighting the work and life of the artist in celebration of bisexual people and to raise awareness about discrimination faced by them.
on the work of women in the science department of the museum. This post and others marking the same occasion included personal reflections of the museum’s staff members within the LGBTQIA+ Network, and therefore ensured that narratives are relayed by voices from within the community itself, bringing awareness about the importance of a diverse staff in such cultural institutions.
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SOCIAL MEDIA IN MUSEUM : STORY-TELLING, AND TOWARDS FACILITATING GREATER REPRESENTATION
Digital Storytelling in Content with 2020: Museums in a Lockdown The global lockdown that took place throughout 2020 after the onset of the coronavirus global pandemic forced museums across to shut doors indef initely, making social media a key space for dissemination of content and interaction. Focussing on the Instagram profile of the Metropolitan M u s e u m o f A r t , N e w Yo r k , i t i s observed that the museum gained 165,000 followers March 2020 onwards (Dawson, 2020), indicating a prompt approach in their vir tual sphere. While the prof ile was consistently active prior to the pandemic, the museum took to curating online content which was encouraging and wholesome, undeviating from its role of being an informative space while providing much-needed positivity.
global movement against systemic racism in May and June 2020 that many museums indicated solidarity through Instagram posts, through black squares on their feeds on June 2, 2020 and sharing relevant artwork and imagery f rom their collections. While generally appreciated, this also enabled audiences to discuss further how institutions need to act beyond performative n otes, dem an d i n g for accountability, introspection and responsive transformation, to acknowledge cultural identities and difficult histories, and include diverse staff to encourage narratives in their own voices.
In addition to these notable moments, it is equally important to address how it was during the
Social Media for Representation: The Role of Non-Institutional Museum Profiles The power of social media in building and fostering engagement in association with museums is especially highlighted when one considers the autonomy it allows audiences
Fig. 3: Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, June 1889, Oil on Canvas. (Image under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License; Link: https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_ Night_2.jpg)
Fig. 4: Vincent van Gogh, The Olive Trees, 1889, Oil on Canvas. (Image under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication; Link: https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_painting_ of_olive_trees_(1889).JPG
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through comments, shares and individual prof iles on the platform. Non-institutional prof iles play a vital role in bringing invisible narratives to light, facilitating representative participation and highlighting the n e e d f o r g rea te r a c c o u n t a b i l i ty f rom institutional museums. For instance, Instagram prof ile @ changethemuseum is dedicated towards sharing anonymous and contributory stories of instances of systemic racism within museums in the United States of America; in their own words, their aim is to pressure “US museums to move beyond lip service proclamations by amplifying tales of unchecked racism” (@ changethemuseum, 2021). Another example of a noninstitutional prof ile is @ themuseumof materialmemory, a digital repository of material culture and memories f rom within the Indian subcontinent, fostering better understanding of the diverse nature of heritage through individual thoughts. T h e p a r t i c i p a to r y a p p ro a c h i s a remarkable form of ensuring people are duly represented when it comes to culture and memories and enabling linkages through shared histories.
Conclusion The myriad ways through which social media def ines our everyday interactions are shaping a distinctive n a rra t i ve fo r t h e m e d i u m i t s e l f. However, despite the facilitation of two-way dialogues, perspectives of people are yet to find their place on a general basis in museum narratives. It is imperative for instrumental change through social media to not be reduced to the function of a display board, where representations and responses f rom non-museum structures about lived experiences, i n h e ri te d m e m o ri e s a n d s h a re d histories remain unacknowledged. Aforementioned examples are an attempt to indicate how social media can initiate, encourage and stimulate discourses ignored otherwise. While institutions are able to restrain inclusive dialogues and narratives, representative expressions from people in their own voices, on alternative systems such as social media continue to grow persistently. While the system may yet be able to restrain inclusive dialogues, representative expressions be restrained so. |
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References: "Belvedere Museum - Instagram". @Belvederemuseum, 2020, https:// w w w . i n s t a g r a m . c o m /p / C F _ o 6 _ WjuHq/?igshid=adbw6bcih9bb. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). "Change The Museum - Instagram". @Changethemuseum, 2021, https:// instagram.com/changethemuseum? igshid=up58yk020wnz. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). Dawson, Aimee. "Which Museums Have The Biggest Social Media Followings?". Theartnewspaper.Com, 2020, https://www.theartnewspaper. com/analysis/museum-masters-ofthe-social-media-universe. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). " H ow M u s e u m s Ca n U s e S o c i a l Media? - Museumnext". Museumnext, 2019, https://www.museumnext.com/ ar ticle/museums- can-use -socialmedia/. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). Hendricks, Drew. "The Complete History Of Social Media: Then And Now". Small Business Trends, 2013, https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/ the-complete-history-of-social-mediainfographic.html#:~:text=Internet%20 relay%20chats%2C%20or%20 IRCs,make%20f riends%20with%20 other%20users. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). Kemp, Simon. "Digital 2020: 3. 8 Billion People Use Social Media - We Are Social". We Are Social, 2020, https:// wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital2020-3-8-billion-people-use-socialmedia#:~:text=Worldwide%2C%20 there%20are%203.80%20
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billion,percent)%20over%20the%20 past%20year. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). M a l h o t ra , A a n ch a l , a n d N avd h a M a l h o t r a . " M u s e u m O f M a te r i a l Memory - Instagram". @ Museumof materialmemory, 2021, https://instagram.com/museumofma terialmemory?igshid=270eywo89uy5. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). Mellon, C. A . "Digital Storytelling: E f f e c t i ve L ea r n i n g T h ro u g h T h e Internet". Educational Technology, vol 39, no. 2, 1999, pp. 46-50. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/44428521. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). "The Met Museum - Instagram". @Metmuseum, 2021, https: //www. instagram.com/p/CA6ZI6clcdq/?igshid =ttaqiqx0tjq2. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). "The Museum Of Modern A r t - I n s t a g r a m " . @ Themuseumof modernart, 2020, h t t p s : //w w w. i n s t a g r a m .c o m / themuseumof modernart/. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021). "Tate Museum - Instagram". @Tate, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/ CFe5s-zl9d6/?igshid=1bskjujhedd6w. (Accessed 29 Mar 2021).
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DEVASHREE VYAS She is an architect, currently at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, working on her Master’s programme in World Heritage Studies. With experiences associated with advocacy and legislation on heritage in Mumbai, India, she aspires to dedicate all her forces towards systemic understanding and growth in heritage frameworks, reading and writing to her heart’s content, and being a learner for life. Instagram: @asolitaryreader
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BIRTH OF THE MUSEUMS OF MEMORY
Birth of the Museums of Memory
How Modern Museums of Memory approach the Challenge of Representation of Trauma: Case of Hohenschönhausen Memorial in Berlin and GULAG Historical Museum in Moscow Evgeniya Kartashova
Introduction
‘
Museums of memory’ started to develop rapidly after the traumatic events of the 20th century. In the 19th century, the main purpose of museums was the “creation and support of the nation state” – it was a priori oriented towards the justif ication of a state’s politics (Bazin, 1967). After the Holocaust, the function of the museum changed as the world needed “new vocabulary, n ew sys te m o f j u s t i ce a n d n ew forms of commemoration” (Sodaro, 2018, p.61). This does not mean that m u s e u m s co m p l e te l y l o s t t h e i r political orientation, or that they did not aim to justify modern-day politics anymore. In some cases, these aspects are still preserved and concealed. This was a time when the ethical imperative “never again” became a common principle for work that involved dealing with a traumatic past in Europe. A special historical point for this f ield was the fall of communist regimes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Following the release and publication of documents f rom multiple countries’ communist and fascist periods, museums began to face new challenges related to the representation of the past (Sodaro, 2018, p.60). PAGE 91
Trauma as a Trigger for the Foundation of the Memorial The consequences of socialist regimes unite the two chosen case studies. The Hohenschönhausen Memorial is located on the grounds of the former Stasi prison used by the Soviet Union for the support of the GDR, the communist regime in East Germany. The GULAG History Museum in Moscow is dedicated to the history of the governmentrun system of labor camps in the USSR, and its use for support of the machinery of the state from the 1930 to the 1950s. (History and Mission, n .d . ) . T h e re by b o t h i n s t i t u t i o n s showcase histories of repression implemented by communist parties against their own people. The Hohenschönhausen Memorial and the GULAG Museum were both founded by former victims of the regime. Both institutions involve former victims in their work – either a s e m p l oye e s , o r a s s o u r c e s o f documenting the evidence of the past. It is fairly common for memorials to be organized by initiative groups of individuals who identify themselves as victims. One of the principles of museums of memory is to become
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a space which promotes human rights and enshrines values (Sodaro, 2018, p.4). That is why they are very often not only established by former victims, but are also oriented towards supporting them. Thus, paradoxically, the spaces which might have been someone’s personal hell, are transformed into spaces of union, reconciliation, and in some cases of comfort. Organization of the Space of Memorial Museums Despite their thematic similarities, the chosen museums have a very important distinction – the Hohenschönhausen Memorial is located at the same site where the atrocities were committed, while the GULAG Museum is not. This means that the GULAG Museum lacks the auratic value stemming f rom the authenticity of the space. However, they both follow the main characteristics of the ‘Representation of Trauma’ emphasized by Aleida Assmann (Assmann, 2016). Both museums combine micro -
and macro- approaches to historical representation, meaning that the general histor y of the events is supported by the private stories of its participants. Personif ication is very important in the work of museums of memory, as it allows the visitor to put himself in the s h o e s o f t h e v i c t i m a n d evo ke s empathy. It is rea ch ed through different media, authentic objects [f ig.3.] and personal belongings [f ig.4.], letters [f ig.2.], photos, etc. At the same time, it allows for the materialization of memory through artifacts [f ig.5.]. An emotional response is the penultimate goal of interaction with the audience. The ultimate goal is raising awareness and personal responsibility for the future. Another important factor is the preservation of an original location [fig.1.] and combining it with additional exhibitions and modern curatorial decisions. In the case of the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, for example, a visitor can look at authentic prison cells, as well as the workspaces of Stasi off icers, along with contemporary exhibitions in which spaces, optics and colors [fig.6.]
Fig. 1: Preserved orginal areas of Stasi offices and prison cells.Hohenshönhausen Memorial. Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniya
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Fig. 2: Examples of use different media in personification. GULAG History Museum. Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniya
are thoughtfully organised. That would be called the “combination of authenticity and staging”. It’s important to add that in the same memorial, former Stasi victims work as guides, creating a unique opportunity for the communication of traumatic experiences. People can listen to f irst-hand memories an d impressions f rom a person who actually went through those eve n t s , m a k i n g t h e ex p e r i e n c e more personal and evoking an emotional response. This is another way of personif ication that can affect audiences of any age, but is specifically important for the younger generation, which sometimes does not perceive history as something that actually happened. Multiple Perspectives as a Substitute for an Ultimate Truth The point of view of the victim, although highly important, is
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not the ultimate truth. An ideal museum of memory aims to give different perspectives on the topic. The important thing is that these perspectives are documented. That is why people who argue with the exhibitions at the Hohenschönhausen Memorial or the GULAG History Museum have so little success, – very often their arguments are not supported by documents, because they are based on the consequences of collective propaganda or lack of education. In order to provide multiple perspectives, museums have to contribute to the continuous development of memory, research and educational work. This can be implemented through expeditions, cooperation with other memorials, schools and universities, the creation of publishing and educational programs, along with conferences
The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
Fig. 3: Personal belongings of former prisoners. Hohenschonhausen Memorial. Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniya
Fig. 4: Examples of uniform. Hohenschonhausen Memorial. Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniya
Fig. 5: Authentic evidences of Stasi Violence. Hohenschonhausen Memorial. Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniywa
Fig. 6: Example of use of colors-white,grey and red, where red might symbolize reference to USSR or blood. Hohenschonhausen Memorial. Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniywa
Fig. 7: Part of public archive in the museum. GULAG History Museum Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniywa
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and excursions. Publicly accessible archives [f ig.7.] and documentation centers are therefore an essential part of memorials and museums of memory. Re-experience of Trauma As these museums are oriented not only towards the preservation of the traumatic past, but also towards the formation of social justice by evoking empathy in their audiences, they thus become modern “theatres of the past”. These “theatres” produce unique experiences, and one of the tools that helps to create them is a participatory space at the end of an exhibition [f ig.8.]. This space addresses a visitor directly with questions regarding their own opinions about the traumatic past and their experience in the museum. Th erefore , eve n t h ou gh trauma cannot be fully re-experienced, it still can be communicated in order to be documented and preserved as a part of collective memory.|
Fig.8: Participatory space in the museum. GULAG History Museum Photo by:Kartashova Evgeniywa
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The ESACH Quarterly n°1 - June 2021
References: Assmann, Aleida, Shadows of Trauma. Memory and the Politics of Postwar Identity, Fordham University Press, 2016. Bazin, Germain, The Museum Age, New York: Universal Press, 1967, p.169. GULAG History Museum. 'History and Mission '. See: https://www.gmig. ru/museum/history-and-mission/ (Accessed 5 May 2020). Halbwachs, Maurice, On Collective Memory, The University of Chicago Press, 1992. Sodaro, Amy, Exhibiting Atrocity, Rutgers University Press, 2018.
EVGENIYA KARTASHOVA She is a young heritage professional and PhD student of the programme `Heritage Studies` at Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU). Her doctoral research is focused on the modern approaches to elaboration of traumatic past in the ex-socialist countries. Specifically – former KGB prisons turned to museums in Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. Email: janekartashova@gmail.com Facebook: Evgenia Kartashova
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Contact for submissions
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he ESACH Quarterly provides a space for the discussion and publication of grounded university and independently carried research as well as professional activity into all aspects of cultural heritage. By following the principles of immediate open access and aiming at making research freely available to the public to support a greater exchange of knowledge, ESACH welcomes contributions from individuals. If you are interested in submitting your work, please refer to the information on our main website. Contact for information: esach.editor@gmail.com
Letters to the Editor
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he ESACH Quarterly welcomes Letters to the Editor commenting on any article or material published in the previous numbers, then supporting or opposing a stance expressed in the journal, commenting on a current issue with updated evidence-based information and the like. Content: To ensure the rapid publication of your letter, please address the following points: • The letter must be a maximum of 500 words (excluding references). • Use a maximum of 5 references (the article under discussion is excluded from the count and should clearly be stated at the beginning of the response). • Do not include any figures or tables in the letter. • Include your name, address and contact details in your letter. Submission: To ensure your response to a published article is timely, please submit your letter as soon as possible after publication of the original paper and the Editors will endeavour to include your letter in the next issue of the magazine. Letters to the editor received less than six weeks prior to the publication date will be considered for the following issue All letters submitted to The ESACH Quarterly magazine are subject to review by members of the Editorial Team. This is to ensure that only letters of high quality and evidence-based are published. The Editorial Team members are not expected to comment on whether they agree with the content of the letter, and their role is limited in assuring the correctness of the content submitted and its tone.|
June 2021