Digitalizing Data: from the historical research to data modelling for a (digital) collection documentation

European cultural institutions hold an extraordinary tangible and intangible heritage not always accessible by the public for several reasons e.g. spaces, conservation, exhibition, choices. Digitisation gives the opportunity to make heritage permanently available by scientists and by a wider public, placing replicas of artefacts of museums’ collections in a virtual context. This chapter is part of the B.A.C.K. TO. T.H.E. F.U.T.U.RE. project, coordinated by Massimiliano Lo Turco and presented in the preface of this volume. The research focuses on fifteen wooden architectural models of the early 19th century, part of the collection of the Museo Egizio of Turin. The maquettes are here denominated ‘expedition models of Egyptian architectures’, by referring to their original production. These artefacts suffered several moving outside and inside the museum. The aim of the research is to connect virtual replicas of the models to narratives and the historical documents gathered during the historical research. The chapter presents the collection as a whole, pointing out its historical and cultural value. With the aim to provide an exhaustive documentation and to create connections between artefacts and their documentation, the structure of the build database is here described. Starting from data and metadata available through the Museo Egizio database, a complex system has been created, following the CIDOCCRM standars for the information modelling. A specific attention has been paid to the strategy developed for the 3D web-publishing, considering the presence of a centred information management system as fundamental

Paesaggio Culturale e Digitale. Considerazioni a margine della Summer School 'Cultural Heritage in Context. Digital Nubia'.

Considerazioni a chiusura della Summer School su Cultural Heritage in Context. Digital Nubia, che nasce dalla collaborazione internazionale fra Politecnico di Torino e Università della California, Los Angeles, con l’obiettivo di studiare e ricreare con metodologie delle digital humanities il patrimonio culturale nubiano oggetto della campagna di salvataggio UNESCO degli anni Sessanta

Fonti storiche e prodotti digitali. Il caso dell’Esposizione del 1928 a Torino

L’Esposizione di Torino del 1928 ha costituito un momento fondamentale nella cultura architettonica sia locale, sia nazionale, e il Parco del Valentino ha rappresentato il luogo dove molte nuove idee vennero sperimentate. A quarant’anni dalla “scomparsa” dell’archivio privato di Giuseppe Pagano, figura centrale dell’Esposizione, l’articolo propone gli esiti di una ricerca che ha consentito di ricreare tramite rappresentazioni 2D, 3D e in realtà virtuale i padiglioni progettati dall’architetto e gli edifici costruiti sotto la sua direzione dell’Ufficio Tecnico dell’Esposizione. Le ricostruzioni si sono basate su fonti diverse, che hanno permesso di ricostruire la storia e gli sviluppi dell’Esposizione. L’articolo mette in evidenza soprattutto gli aspetti metodologici di tale trasposizione tridimensionale, discutendo come l’eterogeneità della documentazione e l’incrocio dei dati porti a ottenere informazioni a volte contrastanti

Documenting historical research for a collection information modelling. A proposal for a digital asset management system.

The paper describes part of the conceptual structure produced within the still ongoing project 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). The aim of the project was to use a semantic web infrastructure to describe archival research and tracking informations related to a hidden museum collection ‘expedition models of Egyptian architecture’ partially stored in the depots of the Museo Egizio of Turin. The outcome will be an interactive web-presentation portal of high-resolution 3D models enriched by historical and archival set of content, from the digitization procedure applied to collection objects, to the digitization process of related data and information. The development of the collection documentation of the project illustrates how is crucial to declare the semantic description underlying narrative contents. Data about single collection objects were conceptually modelled using generalizable formulas already known by CIDOC-CRM community. The description of provenance of knowledge related to the historical investigation process was modelled using CRMinf extension, exploring the possibility of making beliefs based on the available documentation and validating the results of the assumptions made during the research

The Exhibition of 1928 in Turin and its Digital Context

The Italian National Exhibition held in Turin in 1928 was a temporary but significant event in the history of the city. The paper focuses on the reconstruction of its architectural and cultural context through a multidisciplinary approach as research training for a thesis. The research looks at the event as a part of the urban history connecting the spatial transformations of the area during the exhibition with the city’s changes at that time. The hypermedial platform links the visualization of the architecture of the exhibition to the relationships with more projects built or discussed in Turin in the same period as well as to a range of other subjects and protagonists of the cultural debate. The 3D modelling of the area recreates the pavilions built of some relevant architects, particularly Giuseppe Pagano. Although the difficulties and complexity of visualizing some elements based on incomplete historical sources, the virtual reconstruction is an important support to better understand these displays early experiencing in Turin the modern architecture. They didn’t left any visual signs on the ground but a significant sign in the memory

Visualizzare un frammento di città non più esistente: la ricostruzione virtuale dell'Esposizione Nazionale del 1928 a Torino

The use of new digital technologies is even more linked to the study and the transmission of the Cultural Heritage. The proposal focused on the procedure of digital products in order to visualize architectures no more existing, with the aim to give possibility of fruition and knowledge of a heritage not visible in other ways. The paper is on the case study of the National Exhibition of 1928 in Turin, which has represented the topic of survey and application of some of these technologies on the transformation of a piece of the city no longer existing. The working method tested looks to the problematics of the visualization and representation, unavoidably linked to the one of the interpretation of the sources of a research in the fields of the history of architecture and the urban history. Tridimensional models, videos and an ipermedial platform are some of the used instruments

Paesaggio Culturale e Digitale. Considerazioni a margine della Summer School 'Cultural Heritage in Context. Digital Nubia'

Considerazioni a chiusura della Summer School su Cultural Heritage in Context. Digital Nubia, che nasce dalla collaborazione internazionale fra Politecnico di Torino e Università della California, Los Angeles, con l'obiettivo di studiare e ricreare con metodologie delle digital humanities il patrimonio culturale nubiano oggetto della campagna di salvataggio UNESCO degli anni Sessanta

Presenting Present London in Early 19th Century to Foreigners through Architectural Panoramas

In the early 19th century, the city of London was a spreading city, with some relevant new buildings. City with monuments was generally represented and communicated through drawing and engravings. Just before photography, the urban landscape started to emerge as focus of the representation, and streets became a main subject. In the first decades of the century indeed, important urban changes were introduced in London by the Regency, in particular by the construction of Regent Street, the new commercial thoroughfare. The paper wants to investigate how the new London urban landscape of early 19th century was told in architectural panoramas, paying specific attention to the contemporary city. The publishing of these views of London had to be intended also as a means to travellers and for travelling. In particular the paper focuses on the case of the panoramic overview ‘Tallis's London Street Views' that was openly ‘intended to Assist Strangers Visiting the Metropolis through all its Mazes without a Guide'. Nevertheless, this kind of book was not just for travellers but also for people living abroad that had the opportunity to start to visit London from their countries. Publishing was also another important factor. The ‘Tallis's Views' were published periodically as a journal and they were retained in bookstores all over the world, so that people living outside London could have a look at the new London. The peculiarity of the ‘Tallis's View' was to present streets with plans and elevations as a general overview and also with a perspective view. Above each façade there is also the indication of the name of the shopkeeper and the kind of shop. The observer point was in the size of the view and the kind of representation of the drawings that were long side folded in order to show the streets as a whole. The paper also will consider this kind of panorama in a comparative perspective

Planning a Monumental London in the Early Nineteenth Century. Projects, administrative machine, time and people around Regent Street

The thesis is on the transformation of Regent Street in London in the early nineteenth century. Regent Street was conceived within the London Metropolitan Improvements, and its design and execution are considered a different model from every other street. Within its history, Regent Street suffered several transformations, adjustments and at last complete rebuilding. Currently, even if the street has been completely rebuilt, the original Regent Street perspectives left a sign that remains not only in the plan but also in the image and the imaginary of the city as part of Cultural Heritage. In this research, the street is studied in the context of several proposals and ideas of improvements. The study looks to the new and to the old city. The new project enlightens also some aspects of the old city thanks to the kind of sources written and illustrated produced. It enlightens the process of construction by surveying the procedures and the pre-existing conditions. The study discusses time, causes and events that from an idea of project led to a demolition. Finally, it also aims to discuss if this interruption represents a fail within the project. Some questions still remained open by the published literature. The thesis, through the discovery of new documentation by the author, aims first to enlighten the conceiving and constructing processes of Regent Street. It also aims to study the relationships between the project of John Nash and the other projects, the receiving of the street and issues and matters after its construction. Therefore, the most emblematic part of Nash’s project, the Regent’s Quadrant, had never been a specific object of study before. Thanks to an unpublished sketch by hand of Nash found during this research, new inputs emerges in order to understand the peculiar shape of the Regent’s Quadrant. Another corpus of unpublished documents, related to the modifications to the original project of the street, has been found during this research in the archives, then dated and contextualized by the author in order to create a new chronology of the street building site