The Public Use of History in the Digital Society

In recent times, digital approaches have been applied in many different branches of the humanities and have led to the creation of a major new cross-sector area which brings together disparate expertise and necessitates interdisciplinary cooperation. The digital approach is a common denominator in specialised research and teaching as well as in archival practices, dissemination and publishing. Above all, though, it links people with a specific forma mentis.Looking at this cross sector from an academic point of view one can see that it stimulates a new kind of cooperation among traditional disciplines. Today's researchers, indeed, much more than just making use of digital tools, are seeking a new digital perspective: what in this approach is the common element capable of creating shared knowledge? This is ongoing change requiring an open-minded point of view which can really foster profound innovation, both in culture and in society, and researchers and academics have a crucial role to play to achieve this. Digital History, as part of Digital Humanities, also includes new approaches in research and in dissemination. Our task is to discuss and to publish how historians are using digital potential in "making history". This approach could also prove very effective in fostering both a culture of history and one of participation in society. The result expected, however, goes beyond simple access to historical information, with the creation of a cultural condition for public access to historical knowledge. It should ultimately shape new interactions in the construction of the collective memory, and, as such, it can be a fillip to social and cultural development at large. Looking at this cross sector from an academic point of view one can see that it stimulates a new kind of cooperation among traditional disciplines. Today's researchers, indeed, much more than just making use of digital tools, are seeking a new digital perspective: what in this approach is the common element capable of creating shared knowledge? This is ongoing change requiring an open-minded point of view which can really foster profound innovation, both in culture and in society, and researchers and academics have a crucial role to play to achieve this. Digital History, as part of Digital Humanities, also includes new approaches in research and in dissemination. Our task is to discuss and to publish how historians are using digital potential in “making history”. This approach could also prove very effective in fostering both a culture of history and one of participation in society. The result expected, however, goes beyond simple access to historical information, with the creation of a cultural condition for public access to historical knowledge. It should ultimately shape new interactions in the construction of the collective memory, and, as such, it can be a fillip to social and cultural development at large

3D Digital Modelling and Digital History: A Methodology for Studying the Processes of Transformation of Nubian Temples and Landscape at the Lake Nasser Site

3D models are not only visualization and dissemination outcomes, but can be used to digitally collect, organize and visualize data starting from heterogeneous historical documents. In particular in this research 3D models are conceived to study the transformations of the sites along the river Nile now submerged by the Lake Nasser and the salvage of the temples. This paper illustrates the preliminary results and the issues about the use of 3D digital models to study the landscape and the temples before and after the construction of the Big Aswan Dam. The first results show that the discrepancy between the homogeneity of data required to build the 3D model and the non-homogeneity of historical documents is at the same time the weakness and the strength of the method, since it forces to explore new hypothesis and a proper use of paradata to manage the reliability of historical data

Fare storia per la città/Making history for the city

La formazione del concetto di storia urbana negli anni Settanta è il contesto in cui matura il modo di “fare storia” di Vera Comoli. L’attività di ricerca viene a configurarsi, nel corso degli anni, anche come un impegno rispetto al presente e alle trasformazioni in corso nelle città: in tale quadro, i beni culturali sono riconosciuti, da subito, come un aspetto dell’attività scientifica e didattico-formativa della Storia dell’Architettura, nella cui area disciplinare, condivisa con molti storici italiani, la ricerca di Comoli si rivolge allo studio delle città. I beni culturali sono infatti sempre rivelati in un tessuto storico di relazioni e valenze, urbane e territoriali. A partire da tale approccio, l’interdisciplinarità è una vera necessità, coltivata fino all’ultimo impegno, il congresso nazionale dell’AISU tenutosi a Torino nel giugno 2006 Vera Comoli’s way of “making history” grew within the context of the formation of the urban history notion during the 1970s. Her research activity took shape also as a commitment to the present and to the transformations that were taking place in the cities: within this frame, Cultural Heritage is recognised as a feature of the scientific and educational activity of the History of Architecture, a discipline framework, shared with several Italian historians, in which the research conducted by Comoli has been particularly addressed to the study of the cities. The historical pattern of relationships and values, both urban and territorial, always reveals Cultural Heritage. Starting from this approach, interdisciplinarity is a real necessity, grown until the last commitment: the AISU National Congress held in Turin in 2006

Collecting & Linking Creative Cultures of Women. Women Designers and Women Clients for another history

Women's traces in the architectural archives are as faint as they are scarce, and, with a few famous exceptions, women's contributions in the modern era appear too vague when we consider the radical changes in society and the roles played therein by women. While female protagonists were becoming more common in certain fields, the field of architecture seemingly had no equivalent to, say, Maria Skłodowska Curie. What we should rather say is that there is no evidence of an analogous female contribution to the history of architecture and design. Moreover, this presumed lack of input into the field of design might be misinterpreted as a failure to participate in building common ground. It might ultimately appear to be a failure - a culpability even - to conceive of a new modern environment for their own new life in a modern society. This nonsensical vision of a lack or, at best, of a discontinuous range of initiatives made by women within this framework highlights the importance of the role played by archives and source material in making history, and this necessitates some preliminary considerations. Were women really disinterested in shaping, in terms of design, a way of life tied up with their emancipation, or, rather, are sources providing evidence of their involvement really just not accessible? Some examples of overlooked female creativity may help to underline this lack of information and the consequent need to reformulate crucial links between sources and history in order to gain a new understanding of women's contributions. It is our belief that there is a need to put female creative culture in the spotlight, and a digital approach offers a new perspective by making it possible to create a new kind of digital archive. In any event, what is certain is that a new critical approach to collecting sources and making history is overdue. Institutional records offices are essential for the collection and spreading of cultural heritage as well as for the fostering of research. Digital platforms can create links capable of shaping a new cultural context since they provide an overview of the broad networks operating in design processes. From the point of view of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, as well as of the built environment, there exists no single author-demiurge but rather a collective of collaborative workers. In this perspective we aim to introduce a couple of case studies of women's creative work as demonstrations of possible new critical approaches to architectural and design culture and its history. The first focuses on the little known designers Margaret and Frances Macdonald and the entrepreneur Kate Cranston, the second on the almost unknown landscape designer Norah Geddes. In this context they aim to articulate some aspects of this cultural perspective. Case studies takes into account the period just preceding the Modern Movement as a turn of important changes. Lastly we discuss how it is possible to create a digital archive is which makes known the historical, creative culture of women as this comes to light

Linking buildings, archives and museums of the 19th century Turin's Cultural Heritage

The documentation of Cultural Heritage asset is the basis for all the interventions and policies on Cultural heritage conservation and management. The documentation is mainly based on historic knowledge and metric survey. As far as historic knowledge is concerned many information are still recorded and preserved inside written documents that are usually not easy to reach and correctly understandable by all the experts that have specific responsibilities on Cultural Heritage. The digitalization of documents (hardly faced in the last years) is not sufficient to guarantee the effective access to the historical information useful inside a documentation process. The documentation always needs an historical interpretation based on a critical reading produced by linking heterogeneous materials. Iconography also is an important source when it is correctly interpreted and linked to other sources. IT development and digital technology diffusion allowed offering new way to record, organize and share historical information: GIS and 3D modeling can be used as standard approaches to transfer the historical knowledge in a proper way to specialists involved in Cultural Heritage conservation and management. They have been generally used as tool to represent information for different targets, the ones mostly for specialized users, the others for edutainment. GIS are largely diffused yet in the Cultural Heritage management, and 3D modeling is wide spread used in museums communication. Nevertheless, both of them have more potential. They could be integrated in order to manage different data set related with the same matter. They could be used to make new research by surveying and improving interpretation in a way ready to transmit the outcomes. To produce a new generation of affordable digital historical products is necessary that the GIS and 3D modeling design and realization would be developed in a multidisciplinary approach that must be explained and demonstrated to the people that in the future will offer to the community this expertise. The paper describes a teaching and research training experience started two years ago at the Politecnico di Torino in the master course on Architecture (Conservation

Dopo la fame. Pollerie, pristinai, agnellai: negozi nell’italia della crescita

IL saggio individua l'ingresso del progettista (architetto, designer o grafico) nell'allestimento dei negozi di generi alimentari in Italia nell'immediato secondo dopoguerra,fino alla comparsa, alla fine degli anni Sessanta, della grande distribuzion

B.A.C.K. TO T.H.E. F.U.T.U.RE. − Bim Acquisition as Cultural Key TO Transfer Heritage of ancient Egypt For many Uses To many Users Replayed

Il progetto partecipa all’iniziativa pilota “Metti in Rete la tua idea di Ricerca”, finan-ziata nell’ambito della collaborazione tra Politecnico di Torino e Compagnia di San Paolo, per promuovere i progetti di ricerca proposti dai ricercatori del Politecnico di To-rino in collaborazione con università, azien-de e altri enti del sistema socio-economico italiano e di qualsiasi altro Stato membro dell’Unione Europea / The project takes part of the pilot initiative “Create a network around your research idea”, funded within the framework of the collaboration between Politecnico di Tori-no and Compagnia di San Paolo.The initia-tive promotes the research projects proposed by researchers of the Politecnico di Torino in collaboration with universities, companies and other entities of the socio-economic sys-tem located in Italy and in any other State Member of EU

Monumenti e frammenti dell'antico come generatori di limiti

Resoconto del I Convegno nazionale dell'AISU, Lecce ottobre 2002, in «Città e storia», a. II, n. 1 (2003), pp. 5-6 (suppl. al n. 1-12/2002 di «Roma Ricerca e Formazione