Showing papers on "Cultural heritage published in 2019"

Visualization of Cultural Heritage Collection Data: State of the Art and Future Challenges

Abstract: After decades of digitization, large cultural heritage collections have emerged on the web, which contain massive stocks of content from galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. This increase in digital cultural heritage data promises new modes of analysis and increased levels of access for academic scholars and casual users alike. Going beyond the standard representations of search-centric and grid-based interfaces, a multitude of approaches has recently started to enable visual access to cultural collections, and to explore them as complex and comprehensive information spaces by the means of interactive visualizations. In contrast to conventional web interfaces, we witness a widening spectrum of innovative visualization types specially designed for rich collections from the cultural heritage sector. This new class of information visualizations gives rise to a notable diversity of interaction and representation techniques while lending currency and urgency to a discussion about principles such as serendipity, generosity, and criticality in connection with visualization design. With this survey, we review information visualization approaches to digital cultural heritage collections and reflect on the state of the art in techniques and design choices. We contextualize our survey with humanist perspectives on the field and point out opportunities for future research.

Scattered Finds: Archaeology, Egyptology and Museums

Abstract: Between the 1880s and 1980s, British excavations at locations across Egypt resulted in the discovery of hundreds of thousands of ancient objects that were subsequently sent to some 350 institutions worldwide. These finds included unique discoveries at iconic sites such as the tombs of ancient Egypt's first rulers at Abydos, Akhenaten and Nefertiti’s city of Tell el-Amarna and rich Roman Era burials in the Fayum. Scattered Finds explores the politics, personalities and social histories that linked fieldwork in Egypt with the varied organizations around the world that received finds. Case studies range from Victorian municipal museums and women’s suffrage campaigns in the UK, to the development of some of the USA’s largest institutions, and from university museums in Japan to new institutions in post-independence Ghana. By juxtaposing a diversity of sites for the reception of Egyptian cultural heritage over the period of a century, Alice Stevenson presents new ideas about the development of archaeology, museums and the construction of Egyptian heritage. She also addresses the legacy of these practices, raises questions about the nature of the authority over such heritage today, and argues for a stronger ethical commitment to its stewardship.

Classification of 3D Digital Heritage

Abstract: In recent years, the use of 3D models in cultural and archaeological heritage for documentation and dissemination purposes is increasing. The association of heterogeneous information to 3D data by means of automated segmentation and classification methods can help to characterize, describe and better interpret the object under study. Indeed, the high complexity of 3D data along with the large diversity of heritage assets themselves have constituted segmentation and classification methods as currently active research topics. Although machine learning methods brought great progress in this respect, few advances have been developed in relation to cultural heritage 3D data. Starting from the existing literature, this paper aims to develop, explore and validate reliable and efficient automated procedures for the classification of 3D data (point clouds or polygonal mesh models) of heritage scenarios. In more detail, the proposed solution works on 2D data (“texture-based” approach) or directly on the 3D data (“geometry-based approach) with supervised or unsupervised machine learning strategies. The method was applied and validated on four different archaeological/architectural scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is reliable and replicable and it is effective for restoration and documentation purposes, providing metric information e.g. of damaged areas to be restored.

A critical perspective on the concept of biocultural diversity and its emerging role in nature and heritage conservation

Abstract: The continuing losses of biodiversity around the world remain problematic for nature conservation. A fundamental issue that has triggered debates in nature conservation is the relationship between human culture, heritage and history, and nature expressed as ecology or biodiversity. Traditionally, nature conservation has been pursued separately from aspects of cultural heritage; a situation which seems perplexing when we consider the importance of traditional management in the maintenance of biodiversity in many areas now “protected” for nature. To address these broad issues, fundamental to future landscape sustainability, we need to have clear definitions of concepts and terms. This paper considers the historical development of the key concepts that frame biocultural diversity and the paradigms relating to biocultural assets or eco-cultural landscapes. This is pertinent to both researchers and to practitioners or policymakers, and we suggest ways biocultural diversity can improve global conservation efforts.

Sociocultural Impacts of Tourism on Residents of World Cultural Heritage Sites in China

Abstract: The development of tourism induces changes in the social character of a destination. Tourism is a globalized business activity and thus presents growing challenges in terms of traditional social culture. With the continuous development of the tourism industry, traditional social culture has changed dramatically at many World Heritage sites (WHSs). Additionally, the growing dependence of many regions’ economies on the tourism industry has brought about an inexorable shift in the perception of many rural residents. These transformations include the impact of tourism development and its economic efficiency on inhabitants’ traditional values, lifestyles, and interpersonal relationship in ancient villages serving as WHSs. A qualitative analysis including participatory in-depth interviews was conducted to compare changes in the social culture induced by tourism development at the WHS comprising three ancient villages in China. Furthermore, a qualitative content analysis was chosen to examine the impact of tourism development on residents’ perceptions of changes in moral values. The results demonstrate that tourism development is the major catalyst for change in local residents’ moral values.

Ranking of Adaptive Reuse Strategies for Abandoned Industrial Heritage in Vulnerable Contexts: A Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding Approach

Abstract: In recent years adaptive reuse has proven to be a promising strategy for preserving cultural heritage. When the adaptive reuse approach is used for cultural heritage, the expected outcome is not only the building protection, but the preservation of its historical and heritage significance, and the trade-off between the retention of symbolic values and the adaptation to new alternative (economically profitable) uses becomes of paramount importance. Decisions on the allocation of resources for cultural heritage preservation or development are based on a set of multiple, often conflicting, criteria, as well on the preferences of various, and not always consensual, stakeholders, who attribute different relative importance to market and non-market effects of adaptive reuse proposals. In this context, multiple criteria approaches provide a proper theoretical and methodological framework to address the complexity which characterizes adaptive reuse strategies of cultural heritage. This paper aims to contribute to this strand of literature by proposing a multicriteria decision aiding approach for ranking adaptive reuse strategies of cultural heritage. In detail, we present a novel application of the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) to support the design and implementation of adaptive reuse strategies of abandoned industrial heritage in vulnerable contexts, and evaluate relative tangible and intangible effects. Industrial sites are frequently left to deteriorate, as their preservation is not considered as important as other kinds of heritage structures. Nevertheless, they are characterized by special architectural and technical features as well as by huge spaces suitable to be redeveloped for new uses. The paper focuses on the potential reuse of nine different abandoned buildings located in an industrial valley in the North-West of Italy, with a strong presence of wool and silk factories starting from the 18th century.

Does living in the vicinity of heritage tourism sites influence residents' perceptions and attitudes?

Abstract: This study investigates whether the perceptions and attitudes of residents living within the vicinity of heritage tourism sites differ from those living further afield. It examines residents’ attit...

Critical heritage studies and the legacies of the late-twentieth century heritage canon

Abstract: In recent years an interest in ‘critical heritage studies’ (CHS) has grown significantly – its differentiation from ‘heritage studies’ rests on its emphasis of cultural heritage as a political, cul...

Ecological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice

Abstract: Prejudiced attitudes and political nationalism vary widely around the world, but there has been little research on what predicts this variation. Here we examine the ecological and cultural factors underlying the worldwide distribution of prejudice. We suggest that cultures grow more prejudiced when they tighten cultural norms in response to destabilizing ecological threats. A set of seven archival analyses, surveys, and experiments (∑N = 3,986,402) find that nations, American states, and pre-industrial societies with tighter cultural norms show the most prejudice based on skin color, religion, nationality, and sexuality, and that tightness predicts why prejudice is often highest in areas of the world with histories of ecological threat. People's support for cultural tightness also mediates the link between perceived ecological threat and intentions to vote for nationalist politicians. Results replicate when controlling for economic development, inequality, conservatism, residential mobility, and shared cultural heritage. These findings offer a cultural evolutionary perspective on prejudice, with implications for immigration, intercultural conflict, and radicalization.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Intangible Cultural Heritage Using CiteSpace

Abstract: In recent years, studies on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) have substantially increased as the subject has received extensive attention from scholars. This study collected all the papers (249) ...

A Comparison of Immersive Realities and Interaction Methods: Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage.

Abstract: In recent years, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Virtuality (AV), and Mixed Reality (MxR) have become popular immersive reality technologies for cultural knowledge dissemination in Virtual Heritage (VH). These technologies have been utilized for enriching museums with a personalized visiting experience and digital content tailored to the historical and cultural context of the museums and heritage sites. Various interaction methods, such as sensor-based, device-based, tangible, collaborative, multimodal, and hybrid interaction methods, have also been employed by these immersive reality technologies to enable interaction with the virtual environments. However, the utilization of these technologies and interaction methods isn't often supported by a guideline that can assist Cultural Heritage Professionals (CHP) to predetermine their relevance to attain the intended objectives of the VH applications. In this regard, our paper attempts to compare the existing immersive reality technologies and interaction methods against their potential to enhance cultural learning in VH applications. To objectify the comparison, three factors have been borrowed from existing scholarly arguments in the Cultural Heritage (CH) domain. These factors are the technology's or the interaction method's potential and/or demonstrated capability to: (1) establish a contextual relationship between users, virtual content, and cultural context, (2) allow collaboration between users, and (3) enable engagement with the cultural context in the virtual environments and the virtual environment itself. Following the comparison, we have also proposed a specific integration of collaborative and multimodal interaction methods into a Mixed Reality (MxR) scenario that can be applied to VH applications that aim at enhancing cultural learning in situ.

An Edge Intelligence Empowered Recommender System Enabling Cultural Heritage Applications

Abstract: Recommender systems are increasingly playing an important role in our life, enabling users to find “what they need” within large data collections and supporting a variety of applications, from e-commerce to e-tourism. In this paper, we present a Big Data architecture supporting typical cultural heritage applications. On the top of querying, browsing, and analyzing cultural contents coming from distributed and heterogeneous repositories, we propose a novel user-centered recommendation strategy for cultural items suggestion. Despite centralizing the processing operations within the cloud, the vision of edge intelligence has been exploited by having a mobile app ( Smart Search Museum ) to perform semantic searches and machine-learning-based inference so as to be capable of suggesting museums, together with other items of interest, to users when they are visiting a city, exploiting jointly recommendation techniques and edge artificial intelligence facilities. Experimental results on accuracy and user satisfaction show the goodness of the proposed application.

The Historic Urban Landscape approach to urban management: a systematic review

Abstract: In 2011, UNESCO adopted the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) recommendation and called for the application of a landscape approach to ensure the integration of cultural heritage policies and ...

Extended reality and informative models for the architectural heritage: from scan-to-BIM process to virtual and augmented reality

Abstract: The dissemination of the tangible and intangible values of heritage building represents one of the most important objectives in the field of Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH). In recent years, different studies and research applied to heritage monuments have shown how it is possible to improve the awareness of the architectural heritage through the integration of latest developments in the field of 3D survey, 3D modelling, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and eXtended Reality (XR). On the other hand, this digital workflow requires a huge amount of data sources and a holistic approach to reach a high level of information sharing coming from different disciplines and sectors such as restoration, geomatics, 3D virtual museums and serious gaming. In conjunction with entertainment software and gaming, this research shows the main results obtained during the generative process of digital environments oriented to improve the level of information and to enrich the contents coming from the informative models. The case study is represented by one of the most important Lombard monuments: the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan. This study, starting from the 3D survey and the data collection of the historical records of the church, improves the creation of an XR experience that reaches a new level of interactivity for different types of devices (desktop, mobile, VR headset) and users (experts, non-experts). Highlights: Generative modelling requirements and novel grades of generations (GOG) and accuracy (GOA) are presented in order to improve the digitisation of built heritage from the 3D survey, reducing time and costs of the scan-to-BIM process. The holistic value of generative modelling allows experts to create digital worlds able to faithfully and accurately represent the detected reality and improve new immersive environments for Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) projects. Immersive environments are created with a mixture of the latest generation software and hardware, allowing users to discover the hidden historical values of built heritage with new levels of interactivity and information.

Indigenous knowledge networks in the face of global change

Abstract: Indigenous communities rely extensively on plants for food, shelter, and medicine. It is still unknown, however, to what degree their survival is jeopardized by the loss of either plant species or knowledge about their services. To fill this gap, here we introduce indigenous knowledge networks describing the wisdom of indigenous people on plant species and the services they provide. Our results across 57 Neotropical communities show that cultural heritage is as important as plants for preserving indigenous knowledge both locally and regionally. Indeed, knowledge networks collapse as fast when plant species are driven extinct as when cultural diffusion, either within or among communities, is lost. But it is the joint loss of plant species and knowledge that erodes these networks at a much higher rate. Our findings pave the road toward integrative policies that recognize more explicitly the inseparable links between cultural and biological heritage.

ArCo: The Italian Cultural Heritage Knowledge Graph

Abstract: ArCo is the Italian Cultural Heritage knowledge graph, consisting of a network of seven vocabularies and 169 million triples about 820 thousand cultural entities. It is distributed jointly with a SPARQL endpoint, a software for converting catalogue records to RDF, and a rich suite of documentation material (testing, evaluation, how-to, examples, etc.). ArCo is based on the official General Catalogue of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBAC) - and its associated encoding regulations - which collects and validates the catalogue records of (ideally) all Italian Cultural Heritage properties (excluding libraries and archives), contributed by CH administrators from all over Italy. We present its structure, design methods and tools, its growing community, and delineate its importance, quality, and impact.