Reanimating cultural heritage through digital technologies

Digital technologies are becoming extremely important for web-based cultural heritage applications. This thesis presents novel digital technology solutions to 'access and interact' with digital heritage objects and collections. These innovative solutions utilize service orientation (web services), workflows, and social networking and Web 2.0 mashup technologies to innovate the creation, interpretation and use of collections dispersed in a global museumscape, where community participation is achieved through social networking. These solutions are embedded in a novel concept called Digital Library Services for Playing with Shared Heritage (DISPLAYS). DISPLAYS is concerned with creating tools and services to implement a digital library system, which allows the heritage community and museum professionals alike to create, interpret and use digital heritage content in visualization and interaction environments using web technologies based on social networking. In particular, this thesis presents a specific implementation of DISPLAYS called the Reanimating Cultural Heritage system, which is modelled on the five main functionalities or services defined in the DISPLAYS architecture, content creation, archival, exposition, presentation and interaction, for handling digital heritage objects. The main focus of this thesis is the design of the Reanimating Cultural Heritage system's social networking functionality that provides an innovative solution for integrating community access and interaction with the Sierra Leone digital heritage repository composed of collections from the British Museum, Glasgow Museums and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. The novel use of Web 2.0 mashups in this digital heritage repository also allows the seamless integration of these museum collections to be merged with user or community generated content, while preserving the quality of museum collections data. Finally, this thesis tests and evaluates the usability of the Reanimating Cultural Heritage social networking system, in particular the suitability of the digital technology solution deployed. Testing is performed with a user group composed of several users, and the results obtained are presented

A social networking space : a study on the productivity of Twitter in museum practice.

With the evolution of social networks and technological innovations, services such as Twitter provide a platform for increased dialogue and participation. Micro-blogging features enable individuals and organizations to communicate directly, providing a new source of individual commentary that breaks the barriers of traditional communicative paradigms. This research targets museum social networking through close examination of the history of Twitter in museums, as well as its benefits, strategies, and goals in utilizing technology to foster an authentic museum experience. Another aim of this study is to highlight the challenges and obstacles museums face in constructing a social network that positively supports its mission and respective collection. Five local and national museums are examined in addition to an in-depth analysis of the American Museum of Natural History. By expanding traditional modes of participation and effectively utilizing Twitter, each museum delivered differentiated approaches for reaching institutional success in engaging audiences

Um atlas digital para o megalitismo: uma infraestrutura de dados espaciais (sudoeste da Península Ibérica)

O Megalitismo é uma das mais conhecidas manifestações culturais das primeiras comunidades agropastoris europeias. Geograficamente, concentra-se principalmente na Europa Atlântica e surge, assincronamente, em áreas tão dispersas quanto o subcontinente indiano, o sudeste asiático e África, entre outras. O conceito, apesar de homogéneo na sua leitura, é heterogéneo ao nível das especificidades. As particularidades, intrínsecas a cada região, ou a cada monumento, tornam-no heterogéneo de forma independente das diferentes monumentalidades de cada um destes sítios arqueológicos. Nesta dissertação criou-se uma estrutura de informação arqueológica que promove a comparação intraconceitos e a ultrapassagem dos limites geográficos, a partir de premissas tecnológicas da Web Semântica e da ontologia CIDOC-CRM. A implementação do Atlas do Megalitismo permite que todos os recursos para o estudo destes monumentos tenham clareza semântica, sejam normalizados e, simultaneamente, promove a preservação, divulgação e acessibilidade dos monumentos enquanto agente de turismo cultural e ferramenta para a investigação; Abstract: A Digital Atlas for Megalithic Culture a Spatial Data Infrastructure (Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula) Megalithism is one of the most well-known cultural manifestations of the first European agro-pastoral communities. Geographically, it is mainly concentrated in Atlantic Europe and appears, asynchronously, in areas as dispersed as the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Africa, among others. The concept, although it’s homogeneous reading, is heterogeneous at a detailed level. The particularities, intrinsic to each region, or each monument, make it heterogeneous independently of the different monumentalities of each of these archaeological sites. In this dissertation, an archaeological information application was created to permit the intraconcept comparison and the surpassing of geographical limits, taking into account Semantic Web technology and the CIDOC-CRM ontology. The implementation of the Megalithic Atlas allows that all resources for the study of these monuments have semantic clarity, are standardized and simultaneously promote the preservation, disclosure and accessibility of monuments as a cultural tourism agent and research tool

An Investigation of Intersections Between Reanimation Practice and Queer Theory in a Moving Image Work

This practice-informed research establishes points of intersection between reanimative practices within moving image work and queer theoretical positions. It frames this within autoethnographic understandings of memories pertaining to my adolescent experience of gay acculturation via textual sources. A bricolage methodology deriving from the work of Kincheloe and Berry (2004) is used. Multiple methods of investigation are employed including alternative archive creation, moving image tests and prototypes, processes of reading and re-reading and autoethnographic, reflective and academic writing practices. Analysis and evaluation are informed by selected queer theoretical concepts which correspond to the broad structural phases of reanimation. Research outputs deriving from these processes are i) moving image tests, ii) autoethnographic vignettes, iii) a moving image piece entitled Unbounded and iv) a written thesis. The research aims to build on current understandings of the term “reanimation” (Cholodenko, 1991, 2004, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2009; Skoller, 2013; Wells, 1998; Wells & Hardstaff, 2008), particularly within moving image practices using “found” material, and to articulate these within a queer perspective. A contextual review assesses previous work on reanimation in research, scholarship and queer-related animation. A series of moving image tests establish a relationship between animation, deanimation and reanimation which, I propose, constitutes the reanimative process. I consider this practice-informed understanding in relation to analogous patterns and motifs in queer theoretical literature. Finally, evaluation of the evidence from my practice tests and the terminal piece, Unbounded, corroborate a proposed set of intersections. The conclusion offers a conceptualisation of the process of reanimation in my moving image practice and establishes that the reanimated outcome attests to its reanimated status through the “temporal composite” (Skoller, 2013). I build on work concerning queer forms of evidence (Muñoz, 1996, 2009), alternative archive creation (Cvetkovich, 2003), queer temporality (Freeman, 2010; Rohy, 2009; Stockton, 2009) and futurity (Bansel, 2012; Edelman, 2004; Muñoz, 2009) to demonstrate that this reanimative principle is reflective of contemporary queer concerns with historicity. This practice-informed research contributes to knowledge by extending a modest body of animation literature addressing sexuality (de Beer, 2014, 2015, January 21; Griffin, 1994; Halberstam, 2011; Padva, 2008; Pilling, 2012b; Takahashi, 2014; Wells, 1998; Wood, 2008) through its focus on the formal aspects of reanimation and interconnections with the queer, as opposed to the more frequently addressed issue of queer representation

Re-viewing lace in archives: connecting the lacunae

The archive is widely understood to be an ordered keeper of factual truth and a solid foundation of historical accuracy. However, the inherent lacunae within the archive can render this assumed accuracy fallible. This thesis questions the potential of such gaps and absences to impact on the understanding of objects in archives. An archive is defined as any collection of material which has been withdrawn from its normal circulation and stored for potential future reference