Final Report Summary - RICHES (Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society)
Executive Summary:
RICHES (Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society) was a project that involved 10 partners undertaking a programme of multi-disciplinary research. Its remit was to reduce the distance between people and their cultural heritage; recalibrating the relationship between heritage professionals and users; to enable the social and economic benefit of Cultural Heritage (CH) within European Society.
The 30 month project began in December 2014, its first tasks to establish the contextual framework, to give project partners (and interested stakeholders) a common reference point by developing a shared taxonomy of terms and an IPR framework for the digital age.
RICHES explored the context of change in CH within its socio-economic science and humanities remit. Case studies considered change within cultural institutions (libraries and museums); unmediated heritage, where digital technologies have empowered individuals to define their own culture; the use of craft skills in new contexts, supported by online communities; transformation and change of building/district and how people can contribute via social media; finally, the engagement of audiences and digital impact on performance.
Social considerations comprised research into identity, both through analysing pan-European websites and exploring minority groups; territorial cohesion through festivals and food communities, as well as the process of engaging local people in the process of change through co-creation. Economically, craft skills and the maker movement have created new business models and opportunities; historic sites were studied to understand marketing, while ensuring site preservation and retention of individuality. The cross over between academic research and innovative CH practice was considered, as well as hard economics of VAT on books, digitisation of collections and showcasing digital objects via Wikipedia.
In depth case studies were undertaken considering how cultural institutions present their collections to the public and their educational role in society. Cutting edge technology was used to record a distributed performance, with concurrent filming taking place Barcelona and Falmouth, which demonstrated the potential for new forms of heritage. Other ways of sharing project results are available through the development of a co-creation toolkit to be used within the CH sector, as well as guidance for any public and private organisations that are considering collaboration in the future. The project also sought contributions and published a book entitled Cultural Heritage in a Changing World.
The project held conferences in Pisa and Amsterdam and workshops in Barcelona, Ankara and Berlin, as well as two policy Seminars in Brussels. The seminars presented the synthesised Policy Briefs of eight areas of project research, which were accompanied by eight Think Papers – visionary statements of how research might engage with emerging developments. The seminars also provided the opportunity to invite other CH projects to networking sessions to consider areas of synergy and future collaboration.
The RICHES project was a success. It fulfilled its research obligations, provided insightful conclusions that will have impactful benefit and leave behind a strong research legacy.
Project Context and Objectives:
RICHES (Renewal, Innovation & Change: Heritage and European Society) was a research project about the implications of change in European societies. For many in 21st century Europe, Cultural Heritage (CH) is more about what it is than who we are: though enormously rich, this treasure is often locked away, or crumbling, or in a foreign language, or about a past which to many people - young, old, newcomers to Europe and settled inhabitants - seems of little relevance. But this is changing.
The main project objective was to reduce the distance between people and culture, recalibrating the relationship between heritage professionals and heritage users in order to maximise cultural creativity and ensure that the whole European community can benefit from the social and economic potential of CH.
Digital technologies have permeated all of society and compelled a rethink:
• how can CH institutions renew and remake themselves?
• how should an increasingly diverse society use our CH?
• how may the move from analogue to digital represent a shift from traditional hierarchies of CH to more fluid, decentred practices?
• how, then, can the EU citizen, alone or as part of a community, play a vital co-creative role?
• what are the limitations of new technologies in representing and promoting CH?
• how can CH become closer to its audiences of innovators, skilled makers, curators, artists, economic actors?
• how can CH be a force in the new EU economy?
The RICHES partnership has explored these questions by drawing together 10 partners from 6 EU countries and Turkey, experts from cultural institutions, public and national administrations, SMEs, the humanities and social sciences.
The interdisciplinary team has researched the context of change in which European CH is transmitted, its implications for future CH practices and the frameworks (cultural, legal, financial, educational and technical) to be put in place for the benefit of all audiences and communities in the digital age.
RICHES objectives, that have been successfully met, were:
• to develop and establish the conceptual framework of the research, defining terms, setting up networks and developing new understandings of CH-related copyright and IPR in the digital age;
• to investigate the context of change, to study the forces that apply to CH in this context, to design the scenarios in which CH is preserved, made and performed and to foresee the methods of digital transmission of CH across audiences and generations;
• to identify the directions to be taken to maximise the impact of CH on social and community development within the identified context of changes, including IPR and economics research;
• to devise instruments and to elaborate methodologies for knowledge transfer, developing innovative skills, creating new jobs and exploiting the potential of CH in order to foster the economic growth of Europe;
• to tell stories related to Mediated and Unmediated CH, in which the results of the research are given practical application, illustrated and validated with end-users, through concrete case studies;
• to produce evidence-based policy recommendations, foresight studies, toolkits for building awareness platforms, best practice guidelines for establishing cooperation initiatives.
RICHES research aimed to understand the context of change in which CH is held, preserved, curated and promoted and explore how development and growth can be stimulated by digital technologies and/or co-creation sessions, focusing on:
• museums and libraries adopting or considering digitisation and digital services for preservation, access and transmission;
• living media as privileged domains for young people to get involved in CH;
• performance-based CH and the effects of new digital infrastructures;
• public administrations adapting landscapes and monuments and re-using historical buildings to generate sustainable models, improve quality of life and foster cultural tourism;
• transferring traditional skills into innovative production methods for the creative industry.
As part of its research development and user group testing, the RICHES project team liaised with multiple stakeholders, and shared with them their subsequent research findings:
• cultural ministries;
• regional, national and state authorities;
• public administrations;
• European Institutions;
• CH organisations;
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences experts, researchers;
• SMEs working within the digital cultural economy and associations and organisations dealing with creative industries;
• general public and citizen scientists.
These would be reached, both through local interaction involving interviews and surveys, as well as through project conferences, workshops and policy seminars, the latter incorporating networking sessions with other CH projects.
The RICHES project had a progressive structure; initial research was used and built upon during subsequent tasks, with the objective of providing policy recommendations or tools for interested stakeholders. Further detail of the research outline is provided below.
Establishing the Conceptual Framework
The aim was to establish a baseline of definitions for the project and a set of frameworks, both theoretical and practical, within which the research could be conducted and shared and CH-related practice further developed. The objectives of WP2 were to:
• establish a framework of agreed definitions for the RICHES research
• develop a framework of understanding of copyright and IPR laws as they relate to CH practice in the digital age.
Understanding the Context of Change for Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage
Partner objectives were to study the changes taking place in the management and transmission of CH, largely, but not exclusively, as a consequence of the advent of the digital, in five different areas:
• CH held by cultural institutions
• CH represented in living media
• performance-based CH
• CH linked with physical place
• CH as knowledge and skills
Role of Cultural Heritage in European Social Development
RICHES research sought to identify practices, methodologies and structures that could be applied to CH with the assistance of digital technologies, and how they could contribute to social development in Europe. Its objectives were to:
• research the role of digital CH in the development of a European identity based on diversity
• understand how CH engagement could be facilitated by digital communication, and contribute to forging a sense of European belonging among people of diverse origins
• research how networks of people and organisations, enabled by digital communications, enable the transmission of CH within and across territories and communities
• propose, design and share methodologies for engaging younger generations in CH practice.
Impact of Cultural Heritage on EU Economic Development
This area of research investigated the potential of CH for economic development in Europe to deliver insights based upon study of:
• examples of use traditional craft skills and employment
• assessment of the potential of the built environment as a CH resource
• transnational study of fiscal issues related to CH
• analyses of the innovation and experimentation in the digital economy.
Case Studies
The next objective was to use the findings of the previous areas of research to explore, in greater depth, the status of digital heritage both for the case of CH mediated by memory institutions and for the case of non-mediated CH, such as the performing arts. In particular, the following objectives were pursued:
• in depth investigation of existing applications in the domain of digital libraries and digital exhibitions and the interaction of users with these applications
• the development of experimental virtual performance work
Strategies, Policies and Road-Mapping
Having undertaken detailed research, it was important to present it in a way that was available to interested stakeholders and to:
• provide evidence-based policy reports and recommendations
• create a toolkit for sharing living heritage resources
• offer a collection of guidelines and best practices about Public-Private-Partnerships and Public-Private-Initiatives.
Communication and Dissemination
In addition to research activity, there were a number of tasks dedicated to spreading awareness of the activities and outcomes of the project, in order to maximise the impact of the project’s work through a programme of public events, publications and engagement with key target audiences. This was undertaken using a range of different methods:
• organising two international conferences, three thematic workshops and two policy seminars to showcase and consider the results of the project’s research, the case studies and the policy recommendations and also reach out to other projects in the area
• a dedicated concertation task which identified other projects relevant to RICHES (and vice versa), taking the opportunity to share objectives, results and knowledge with them
• a project website was developed and updated regularly, publishing the outcomes of the project as they emerged
• a call for chapters was launched, leading to the selection of relevant CH topics that were edited and published in a RICHES book.
With the publication of the European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI) the RICHES project had to consider the occurrence of similar themes and issues that overlapped with RICHES. As an objective was that CH in Europe serves a number of purposes and is important for growth and prosperity in the EU, a further project objective became apparent, the need to bring together CH related projects in a network to share knowledge, experience and best practice.
Project Results:
The RICHES project had a range of ambitious multi-disciplinary objectives. This section outlines how they were approached, successfully met and the research findings and conclusions that were drawn as a result of this process.
Throughout the section links are provided to webpages pages on:
• the main project website: www.riches-project.eu
• the website established to provide easy access to project results:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/
• the project blog: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/riches/
Detailed research deliverables are available at http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/research-deliverables/ and are summarised below. Equally, RICHES partners summarised research findings to create a series of Policy Briefs and forward looking Think Papers; these are available at http://riches-project.eu/policy-recommendations.html
ESTABLISHING THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
At the beginning of the project, it was important for a contextual framework to be developed, which all other project research would be built upon. Primarily, this involved a framework through which to consider IPR within a digital age and a taxonomy that would define important terms to ensure that partners had a shared understanding when undertaking joint research tasks.
The move from analogue to digital and new forms of IP
A challenge for the RICHES project was to re-think the intersections between cultural heritage, copyright and human (cultural) rights in the digitised era. The last two decades have witnessed significant changes to the ways in which cultural heritage is created, used and disseminated. From the once linear, hierarchical and authoritative relationships between memory institutions and the receiver [user] of cultural heritage (CH), the digital era is forcing a re-think of every aspect of the cultural heritage ecosystem. From the meaning to the making of cultural heritage, from the legal frameworks to the roles of the Institutions, each element and each of the relationships between elements is under scrutiny. Within this, how should the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) framework that supports the cultural heritage system be reconsidered in order to respond to the changing and challenging times?
Given the work that was to take place within the project, it was important, at an early stage to develop an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) framework based upon the move from analogue to digital. This provided a platform for, and a framework within which, cultural heritage is created, re-created and re-used in the digital era and involved a re-thinking of the IPR framework that supports our cultural heritage system and has included:
• Research into IP, CH and human rights
• Drafting an outline of a new IPR framework taking into account the intersections between cultural heritage, copyright and human (cultural) rights.
• considering how IP and copyright relates to and impacts on each of the RICHES research strands:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-and-intellectual-properties-ip/
The work of this task was to develop a common framework of understanding of the RICHES project in relation to the law of copyright (and performer’s rights) and its importance for digital CH, cultural working practices that embrace co-creation as the norm and CH that is transformed from analogue to digital. It includes an argument for considering Intellectual Property Rights differently from the traditional closed viewpoint, instead considering UNESCO human rights definitions. As an enquiry, it is set within and will inform the environment within which these changes are taking place and the role of CH in European social, political, legal and economic development.
A flyer relating to the RICHES IP strategy is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/rch_flyer_IPR_exe.pdf
RICHES Taxonomy
For conversations between project partners and indeed all stakeholders within the cultural heritage sector, it is important to have a common language and to ensure that terms are used with the same meaning. From the very first month of the project activity began to identify and define terms that should be included within the RICHES taxonomy. All partners submitted terms and subsequently definitions which were grouped and shared for review and acceptance or amendment.
In addition to the terms generated through the knowledge of the RICHES consortium, it was important to engage more widely with cultural heritage specialists and interested members of the public to gather more ideas, compare terms and reach new definitions. To achieve this, a dedicated Workshop, entitled Building the Project’s Foundation, was held in May 2014 at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona, where thematic discussion groups, chaired by RICHES partners, considered and challenged existing definitions and provided new ideas for project partners to explore. The groups were:
• General common terms related to Cultural Heritage/Digital Cultural Heritage
• Understanding the context of change for tangible and intangible CH. How digital practices are transforming the CH practices of cultural institutions
• Digital copyrights framework
• Digital presentation and output. The changes in the process of distribution, circulation, creation and sharing of CH
• Digital Cultural Heritage. E-books, online catalogues, digital libraries, metadata records and new users demands
• Role of CH in European social development including cohesion and inclusion
• Impact of CH on European economic development including impact on employment, new economic strategies and alliances in the EU.
A project Editorial Group was formed to oversee the process, providing a structure for taxonomic definitions, merging and reshaping terms and considering them within the scope of the RICHES project’s objectives. At the end of the development process, more than 80 concepts and terms had been prepared and defined through the shared work of the RICHES project partners and associated contributors.
The taxonomy has been published on the RICHES Resources website:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/taxonomy/
The flyer is available on the project website:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/RICHES-Taxonomy-Flyer_off.pdf
The video of the workshop in Barcelona and blog post about the event are available:
http://riches-project.eu/workshop-on-the-project%e2%80%99s-foundations.html
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-first-workshop-has-finalized/
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE FOR TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
The RICHES project’s consideration of transformation, change and best practices for CH processes was significant. This was the starting point for many of the reoccurring multi-disciplinary research themes of the project, with later tasks building upon the platform developed here.
At an early stage, it was decided not to provide an overarching structure for the five research areas that considered the context of change and to let each task forge its own pathway independently of the others in terms of methodology, approach and style, to see where it led and then to bring together all chapters and identify commonalities of themes and issues.
Context of change in which CH is held, preserved, curated and accessed
The first task considered the institutional perspective and the context of change within museums and libraries. It acknowledges the significant changes made over the past 20 years, but how technological change and public expectations continue to move the goal posts, as institutions consider the implications of making their content available online. Although their roles are changing, they still make significant contributions to their communities, both socially and educationally, as content can be used to provide more interactive and vivid learning experiences.
Mediated and Unmediated Heritage
The advantage of the unstructured approach to this research area was the sharp contrast of viewpoints between this and the previous task. Although acknowledging the mediated role of CH institutions (and that museums and libraries are racing to keep up with demand), the second study considers the view of the wider public and how they use culture and their heritage. The advances in technologies have given young adults opportunities to be creative and with the freedom from the constraints of time and preservation quality of institutional curators. They have a very different perspective on the world and of what can be achieved, and having the opportunity to create unmediated approaches, including through their own social media/YouTube channels
Transferring traditional knowledge to new productive contexts
The third area built upon this unmediated approach and examined the impacts of post-industrial technology on the European crafts sector (with case studies in the UK and Romania) and identified challenges and opportunities for craft professionals, with a focus on prospects opened up by the transfer of craft skills to other industry sectors.
In the same way that people can use new technologies creatively, they can also be used to learn craft skills online through dedicated communities, speed up processes and to easily create brand awareness. Rather than the general perception that technologies will cause craft skills to become outdated, through a blended approach, they become more relevant and enable traditional heritage to be maintained, enabling hobbies to be translated into small businesses through the ability to quickly reach a wider audience.
Transformation of physical spaces, places and territories
Reaching an audience quickly was an important theme of the next chapter, as the transformations of the Frieda 23 building in Rostock and the district of Hamamönü in Ankara have benefitted from technologies to both interact between administrator, civic society and also the general public. Through websites and social media, people were able to comment in a way that had not previously been possible, which added a whole new dimension to the shaping of the projects and established templates for the future.
The house Frieda 23 was a former GDR school building in style of a housing block of flats that is now used as a school, art gallery, movie theatre, studio, office, conference centre, event location, technology centre, café, a library and much more. This centre of culture and media offers a wide range of culture, education and leisure activities for all ages.
The transformation of the Hamamönü District in Ankara was significant, as this was a decaying space that, due to the vision of the Mayor, was revitalised and now houses a thriving community, including a crafts market.
Context of change in which performance-based CH is made
The final case study also incorporates the themes of its predecessors; change in performance based cultural heritage had significantly transformed practices. Sharing messages with audiences is enhanced and feedback is quickly gathered, as performers and organisations can shape and amend their brand. Here there is also the chance to experiment in an unmediated fashion with new styles of performance and also to preserve performance as future heritage.
This research aim was to investigate the context of change for performance-based cultural heritage, with a focus on the impacts brought by the advent of digital technologies. The research primarily considered findings in Spain and the UK, supported by desk research to ensure European coverage.
Summary
There are clear areas of overlap, but also differences between the five areas, all of which are transforming society and the lives of people and their relationships with CH; with interesting questions asked, including the comparison of mediated heritage and unmediated culture, as institutions work hard to keep up with the technological requirements of digital preservation, whereas social media has empowered individuals to create their own culture, share their voice, learn new skills and market their own products/ performance. This has enabled some people to turn their hobby, be it craft or performance related, into a part-time business, utilising online communities to share ideas and knowledge, as well as to generate customer bases and audiences.
It is important to realise that the world is not just about digital technologies, as some areas of Europe might not have access to the same opportunities as others. People also want to maintain a base in reality, retaining human interaction, not wanting their craft or performance obscured; often needing a bond to a local community or place. In this way some traditional approaches will be retained, perhaps drawing upon technological advances where there is a coincidental advantage, but not as the core of their work.
One thing is true, technology will lead to yet further change and the challenge for society is to cater for both the digital native communities that thrive in this environment, as well as the older or poorer sectors of society that are digitally illiterate that could be at risk of becoming socially disenfranchised. Cultural institutions have an important community role to play in supporting the latter group, but also to consider the imminent Web 3.0 linked open data, gamification experiences and users bringing their own devices to access content, which will become ever more prevalent.
Technologies have already had, and will continue to have, a strong impact upon on all fields of the production and presentation cultural heritage, how it is consumed and the impact that it has upon society.
THE ROLE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
This area of the RICHES project aimed to identify practices, methodologies and structures that can be applied to cultural heritage, with the assistance of digital technologies and their potential contributions to social development in Europe.
Three separate pieces of research were undertaken by RICHES project partners to consider various aspects of cultural heritage within social development. In reflection upon this work, there are a series of themes and parallels that have emerged; particularly interesting are those considering identity, belonging and community.
European identity and belonging and the role of digital CH
The first part of this study focused upon an analysis of digital content that concentrated upon European identity issues. This included an analysis of official and ‘non-official’ cultural heritage websites/web-platforms and their potential to strengthen a European identity among their users. Exploratory research and user analysis was undertaken with 20 people of different nationalities, age and gender. The participants who responded to the survey and user analysis inquiry speak at least one more language beside their mother tongue. The websites considered were:
• Europeana – www.europeana.eu (including thematic collections: Europeana 1914-1918 – www.europeana1914-1918.eu and Europeana 1989 – www.europeana1989.eu)
• Euromuse – www.euromuse.net
• Inventing Europe – www.inventingeurope.eu/.
The group was asked to explore the selected websites and answer questions concerning their views on European identity, the relevance of the contents in relation to European Cultural Heritage and the digital practices that can enhance a feeling of belonging to Europe.
The overall response was that European digital Cultural Heritage content should be inclusive and reflect cultural pluralism through a network of interrelated identities and their interactions. For all respondents, European Cultural Heritage is intrinsically related to language diversity. There is a lot still to do for multilingual access and multilingual content that would reflect European cultural diversity with digital Cultural Heritage and foster a better understanding of the commonalities and differences among European cultures.
Although the majority of the respondents were interested in Cultural Heritage objects from the collections of museums, fewer than half of them considered that this was giving a sense of belonging to Europe. On the contrary, individual testimonies of historical events were more likely to awaken a feeling of European belonging among all age groups. It is also necessary to explore new ways to mediate content by making best use of novel ideas and innovative technologies, and also to connect digital Cultural Heritage with living heritage practices, especially for younger audiences.
The second part focused on communities from four European countries, in order to strengthen the European dimension of this study and to give insights into the multicultural scenario of Europe. RICHES partners each analysed the digital CH activity of a community in their region or country and to investigate if and how communities could represent, preserve and transmit their heritage in digital format. The selected case studies represent an interesting mix of diverse communities, exactly as it is required in the DoW:
• Ethnic and regional minority: Romani people of Coventry, United Kingdom
• Religious and regional minority: Jewish community in Rostock, Germany
• Virtual and ethnic minority: online community of Marrokko.nl in the Netherlands
• Religious group; Protestant Waldensian church community in Italy
• Community with a shared past: Dutch-Surinamese communities in the Netherlands
• Language community and regional minority: The Spanish speaking community in Berlin, Germany
The study concluded that Europe has changed over the past century, with people adapting to political, social and economic upheaval, but above all holding on to their cultural identities. If anything, the pace of change has now increased with the great advances in digital technologies. However, the development of a European identity and feeling of belonging is highly individual and not easily influenced, digital technologies offer new opportunities and this has had further impact upon majority and minority cultures and will continue to do so throughout the 21st century.
This research considered some of the advantages and disadvantages of this technological change and how some groups within European society have adapted to it and other have resisted it. It has explored the enhanced availability of culture and heritage, but recognises that to influence feelings of belonging and identity-forming, further work with new digital technologies is needed, to more effectively bring Cultural Heritage to people online. However, for communities, the technological change has offered new ways of communication and interaction and even increased the opportunities for social mobility, as people know the societies and communities that will greet them, while still being able to stay in touch with friends and news/culture from home.
This study has highlighted the ways that society is changing, how digital technologies have influenced that change and how this ‘new Europe’ must be considered at policy and planning levels as people move across the continent, but continue to interact with their culture and heritage.
Structures for community and territorial cohesion
This area of the project’s work examined the role of cultural heritage in relation to community and territorial cohesion. The task focused upon how cultural heritage resources can be deployed in the construction of localised and spatially defined communities, and where relevant, it has examined the ways in which digital technology is being used in this process. The research is based on case studies of urban and rural heritage festivals and local food movements which, in different ways, exploit heritage resources either directly or indirectly for the purpose of community and/or territorial cohesion.
The Notting Hill Carnival study investigated how the event has overcome a range of social, economic and organisational challenges to fulfil its objective of promoting racial solidarity in a community of high diversity and to celebrate African Caribbean culture. The Corso Zundert Dutch Flower Parade case examined local people’s reflection on social cohesion, the processes involved in its creation and its impact on inhabitants’ way of life. Rostock’s Hanse Sail Festival example considers the event’s economic contribution to the region and its reliance on volunteers in strengthening cooperation and solidarity of people living in Rostock and the Baltic area.
Analysis of each case study is fused with discussion of the role of digital technologies in the organisation, communication and transmission of events and their impact on social and territorial cohesion.
The second theme examined the relationship between food heritage, community and territorial cohesion and draws on a range of examples from the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The focus was on place-based initiatives to preserve particular food cultures through growing, sharing, trading and cooking at a local or regional scale.
It is argued that community-led and/or citizen-led food initiatives show how culture can be a force for change and how citizens can co-create cultural heritage in three key ways. Firstly, they maintain and develop food skills and knowledge, and this helps to develop and strengthen distinctive food cultures and can also lead to the creation of new ‘fusion’ cultures. Secondly, they remember and revive food heritage. This can include re-discovering or rescuing ‘lost’ or threatened varieties of food such as certain plant breeds (‘heritage’ or ‘heirloom’ varieties) or animals (such as rare breeds). Thirdly, they create new social ties and economic spaces. The new social ties can be between people of different generations, or different ethnic groups, as in the case study of ‘exotic’ vegetable growing and seed saving in England. The new economic spaces can consist of new physical spaces, such as re-used parts of the urban built environment (e.g. rooftops, reclaimed gardens) and new economic relationships based on principles of solidarity, social economy and participatory democracy.
A flyer and blog post representing this research on food culture are available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rch_flyer_foodculture_exe.pdf
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/food-as-european-cultural-heritage/
Good practice and methods for co-creation
Many cultural heritage (CH) institutions state the ambition to invoke a sense of belonging and citizenship within their community, and to foster a relationship with future generations through their collections. However, not many have the experience or the tools to do so in an open, creative and responsive way. This area of research reflects upon the processes of reversing the role between cultural institutions and society, where the audience is central and consumers become producers. It sought to identify what it means for a museum to represent society, fostering recognition of identity, history and contemporary life.
Co-creation describes joint or partnership-oriented creative approaches between two or more parties, especially between an institution and its stakeholders, towards achieving a desired outcome. A co-creation process can enable organizations to:
• find a connection between groups that would normally not collaborate;
• raise awareness and sensitivity towards important issues with certain groups/individuals;
• create a safe space for sharing;
• create a common understanding;
• enable the creation of more layered and nuanced exhibitions and events;
• build relationships between groups/individuals that exist well beyond the scope of a project.
• empower minority perspectives
Ten cases were studied, all of which have a different approach to co-creation, involve different types of stakeholders and aim to achieve different goals. They offer a broad overview of the current co-creation practice in Europe’s CH institutions, key success factors and lessons learned. The selected cases are:
1. Europeana, Europeana 1914-1918
2. Rijksmuseum, Rijksstudio
3. Chester Beatty Library, Young Curators, Digital Design & the Living Archive
4. Museum of World Cultures, RICHES interventions
5. Imagine IC
6. Allard Pierson Museum, Museon, Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra, meSch
7. Foam, West Side Stories
8. Dutch Botanic Gardens, Planting the Future
9. Science Museum, Oramics to Electronica
10. Derby Silk Mill, Re:Make the Museum
Included in these ten cases are two cases developed by the RICHES partners: the interventions at the Museum of World Cultures, focusing on young people and their relationship with the museum, and the co-creation trajectory with the Dutch Botanic Gardens, focusing on creating new connections to new and existing audiences.
During three co-creation sessions at the Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands, questions were explored through various interactive methods, such as constructing an ideal museum experience and visiting museums and museum storage. Sessions were designed and facilitated to be used in creative ways to find innovative solutions to (social) problems. The preliminary results, including an early edit of a film, and the framework were highlighted during the afternoon session at the Pisa conference, which was a significant commitment for the project to give a platform to young people whose opinions would not normally be heard in such a forum. Ahead of this conference the hashtag #decolonizethemuseum was launched in Pisa. The project partner museum continued to pursue this theme, organised three gatherings for an intervention team during 2015 and subsequently organised a conference outside of the RICHES project to explore this theme further. The intervention team wrote alternative texts for the Tropenmuseum which were put into place to describe various collections in April 2016. Text published at the museums in the name of the “Management Tropenmuseum, Afrika Museum ad Museum Volenkunde” as a result of this activity is:
“The Tropenmuseum is a museum for people and about people. Therefore, it is important to us to be in direct contact with our visitors. Over the past year we have held several conversations with young people from across Amsterdam. Our aim was to hear their opinions about our exhibition. It became clear that young people with cultural-diverse backgrounds were critical of a number of aspects of our museum presentation. For example: our depiction of the colonial period was too positive, minimizing its negative impact, and our approach on history is too much from a western perspective.
We value the criticism of this group of young people because we want to be a museum where people from all cultural backgrounds feel welcome. They have made us rethink what could be changed, or should be changed. It is through these conversations that the project Decolonize the Museum emerged.
As part of this project you will find text panels in the museum with uncensored personal experiences, reactions and criticisms from the young people. We would like to stimulate your response and reflections on our perspective on today’s world and on the history that created the world we live in.
We will gladly take your remarks and suggestions into account in developing new museum presentations.
Via #DecolonizetheMuseum you can respond directly to the text of the young people. You can also mail us for general remarks on our presentation.”
A flyer and blog post representing this research on co-creation are available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/RICHES_Co-creation.pdf
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/pisa-is-approaching-and-we-start-co-creating/
Summary
Across the three themes of research, the project has examined the idea of shared identity through European websites, before looking more specifically at the identity of communities that use technologies to maintain their culture and heritage outside of their native countries. By considering carnivals and festivals, the project identified the sense of identity and values generated within local communities which was explored in further depth within the importance of growing local food. The study of co-creation has also explored the ways in which cultural institutions can work more closely with their communities and involve them in future planning for their mutual benefit. Considered from different angles, the RICHES project has reached interesting conclusions regarding the important topics of identity and community.
THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ON EUROPEAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Economic factors have a significant role to play in the field of CH, although often this is only considered in terms of budget cuts. Across four different aspects of research, RICHES partners have considered the potential of CH and how it can be used, together with new digital technologies, to create jobs, influence policy and engage the public.
The use of craft skills in new contexts
This first strand of the economically focussed research examined how craft-related knowledge and skills can be used strategically to stimulate creativity, spearhead innovation and generate economic value and new employment opportunities. The study specifically addresses craft-related knowledge, skills and techniques, and sheds light on how they can be revived, not as cultural instances to be safeguarded, but as important sources of competitive advantage, particularly when employed in conjunction with digital technology.
Current European and worldwide trends, such as the Maker Movement, demonstrate the revival of crafts and a resurgence of interest in its underlying body of knowledge and skills, as well as the qualities of uniqueness and aesthetics that distinguish craft objects among those mass produced. If these trends are sustained the economic value of crafts will grow, in addition to the role they play in connecting contemporary societies to values, traditions and knowledge that are deeply embedded in craft practice and serve as a link of cultural and historical continuity.
In addition to the Maker Movement, the role of cultural institutions in sustaining crafts is investigated, shedding light on their educational function in the transmission of craft-related knowledge, in inspiring contemporary craft and design practice, as well as their economic role, as a retail venue for craft products.
Two pathways for value generation have been prefigured: through the integration of new technologies to configure new ways of using craft skills; and through the transfer of sector-specific skills to other economic sectors, with a focus on design and fashion. These analytical foci are captured in three research objectives:
• Understand how craft skills can be a source of innovation and value generation for the creative economy by leveraging on the potential of digital technology and through their transfer in other economic sectors
• Understand how new technologies impact on craft-related careers in the creative industries
• Examine the role of digital technologies in the transmission and transformation of craft skills, with a focus on informal education venues and experimental approaches
Place-making, promotion and commodification of CH resources
This study explored the role of place making and promotion in the commodification of cultural heritage resources and how digital technologies intertwine with these processes. This research examines whether locations have coherent strategies to appeal to consumers using cultural resources and attributes such as place promotion, product and quality. The study adopts a culture economy approach, which is concerned with the exploitation of cultural products for achieving territorial development goals. These products comprise historical and pre-historical sites, landscapes, artisanship, languages, dialects, folklore, drama, literary references and visual arts. A further dimension under consideration is the watering down or ‘Disneyfication’ effect of commodification on place image and identity. This relates to practice or situations where cultural items, interpretations and rituals are homogenised or diluted to the extent that they are no longer meaningful or representative of local people.
Drawing on case studies of reshaping built environments across Europe, the study examines efforts to promote and produce distinctive place images using digital technologies, which are able to compete in an increasingly crowded virtual marketplace. The research further considers the economic role of localism, local initiatives and community action in taking responsibility for local cultural heritage.
The case studies are:
• Empúries archaeological site on the Iberian Peninsula, Catalonia, Spain;
• the Monastery of the Holy Cross, Rostock, Germany;
• Palazzo Pretorio in Pontedera, an industrial town in the Arno Valley, Pisa, Italy;
• Talking Statues, Copenhagen, Denmark.
In addition, three larger scale examples are considered to further illustrate how place making, promotion and commodification of cultural heritage resources have become intertwined with digital technology innovations. These are:
• the digital operation of Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK;
• a brief description of the UNESCO and Google partnership to virtually visit 19 European World Heritage sites
• the use of digital technologies in the Vatican Museum’s Sistine Chapel to manage the effects of heighted tourist visits.
The results show that digital technologies such as Augmented Reality and dedicated mobile phone applications can be used to enhance visitors’ experiences of cultural heritage and bolster the promotion of place and production of distinctive place images in the commodification of cultural heritage resources. This enhances visitors’ engagement, interaction and enjoyment of sites, offering a new and exciting approach in public participation and engagement with cultural heritage.
Fiscal and Economic Issues in the Digital Age
The goal of this research strand was to provide an economic analysis of the impact of taxation, public support and private contribution to the production, distribution and consumption of cultural heritage and to improve understanding of the geography of cultural activities and ways in which fiscal policy can become more efficient in the age of digitisation. This was done through a thorough analysis in three steps:
• the examination of fiscal policy for cultural goods across the EU Member States over time
• through study of the current market of digital heritage and its ability to fuel innovation
• by looking at the global use of European heritage content online.
In order to shed light on the changes brought to the production, dissemination and consumption of heritage through the increasing use of digital technology and to identify differences across Member States in Europe, a three-level quantitative analysis was undertaken. The goal was to isolate the impact of taxation and of private and public support on the digital heritage market. The three-level analysis permitted a sharp focus on three discreet subjects (books, heritage institutions, and digital images) and on three key elements (fiscal policy, digital heritage market, consumer preference) essential in the make-up of an efficient cultural policy for Europe. Such an approach enabled the delivery of practical and feasible results that could inform future policy making.
Quantitative analysis was performed: firstly, focussing on the fiscal policy developments across Europe over the past two decades to identify the potential benefits or caveats of using VAT as a fiscal instrument to support cultural policy. This examined the correlation of VAT rates across EU Member States over a period of time, and the relationship between VAT and prices, and expenditure. Results inform the impact of taxation on the heritage market. Secondly, analysis of the current heritage market was made and its response to the adoption of digital technology in order to single out the conditions that support or inhibit innovation. Results inform the impact of public support on the heritage market. For that, the level of digitisation, adoption of a digitisation policy and the use of the heritage collections was studied. Finally, the changes in consumption as heritage is made available onsite (i.e. museum visit) and online (i.e. on Wikipedia) was analysed to better understand the impact of adopting a digital distribution and consumption practice. Results inform the impact of private support on the heritage market. For this, the access to objects (through object mobility and their visibility) was compared both onsite and online and identified the observable consumer preferences.
A flyer representing this economics of culture research is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rch_flyer_econculture_exe.pdf
Cultural Heritage Best Practice in the Digital Economy
The final area of economically focussed research addressed one the most important issues for the future of cultural heritage: experimentation and innovation in digital technology in a time of social and technological change.
The digital economy has transformed all sectors of society and the cultural heritage (CH) institution, as a social institution has undergone a ‘digital renaissance’. The ways in which we engage with, understand, communicate, participate and disseminate CH has been transformed through the use of digital technology. The CH institution has shifted practice from being object centred and a custodian of CH to a social institution where visitors can be interactive, participative and co-creative and where they can access CH in new, creative and novel ways through the use of digital technologies.
There is a great deal of experimentation and ideas within CH and digital technologies that takes place within academic research institutions. This research addresses this body of knowledge and how, by working in partnership with the CH sector, it can contribute to the transformation of how European CH is accessed, communicated, interpreted and disseminated. It acknowledges that the CH sector is important to Europe’s creative economy and that experimentation and innovation in digital technology is contingent on funding. It gives an overview of European strategies and funding bodies that promote and support collaborative projects that are experimental in developing innovative digital technology for the CH sector and which are engaging and enhance the CH visitor experience.
Through a series of examples of best practice in collaborations between the CH sector and the academic research institution this study identifies what has been done in publicly-funded projects that aim to transform cultural artefacts and our understanding, and experience of CH, using new technologies and which narrow the gap between the experimental in the research institution and its practical implementation in the digital economy. It suggests that CH has cultural value as well as economic value. It emphasises the importance of experimentation and innovation in digital technologies in the European CH sector to attract a new generation of CH visitors and increase the potential to contribute to Europe’s economic growth and to avoid a digital dark age.
Summary
Through four very different studies, RICHES research has shown that digital technologies have helped cultural institutions to reappraise their way of presenting and maximising the economic potential of cultural heritage collections and reaching out to the public in a manner that is expected in the 21st century. It has also demonstrated a revival of traditional craft skills, which are being shared through online media, with many communities of knowledge appearing. However, there is also a note of caution, as the study notes that national fiscal policies are not always in line with their stance on supporting cultural heritage.
RICHES CASE STUDIES
Following the research undertaken previously, RICHES case studies has the opportunity to explore in greater depth the status of digital heritage, both for the case of CH mediated by memory institutions and non-mediated CH, such as the performing arts. There are two distinct case studies that have been undertaken within the RICHES project:
• Digital Libraries, collections, exhibitions and users
• Virtual Performances
Each adds a further dimension to the research findings presented in earlier work packages.
Digital Libraries, collections, exhibitions and users
Rooted in a long and rich tradition going back to the 19th century, cultural heritage institutions are keepers of traditions and values - scientific, educational, economic and social value – enjoying an extraordinary trust among their audiences. However, the integration of digital technologies challenges the traditional mission of cultural heritage institutions as they have significantly transformed the ways in which these institutions curate, interpret and disseminate their collections as well as the ways in which they interact with their audiences.
Cultural practices, learning and information seeking behaviours of the audiences have changed dramatically over the past years under the influence of rapid technological changes – fast networks, mobile devices, social media channels. As recent studies show, younger generations are increasingly becoming co-creators, co-authors and co-producers of digital content, initiating the shift from interactive technologies towards a participatory culture. The digital era has accelerated social changes and opened up opportunities for cultural participation, co-creation, for more fluid and inclusive, democratic cultural practices, as well as new methods for education and learning. Memory institutions are striving to adapt to these changes that have made the traditional models - one way, top-down and ‘one size fits all’- of communication obsolete.
Four detailed case were prepared building upon various aspects of prior RICHES research:
• The Fine Arts System, online collection of the Turkish National Library
• SMB-digital: digital strategies for bridging the gap between cultural heritage institutions and users
• Online collections
• The Samsung Digital Discovery Centre at the British Museum
These cases investigated digital collections and online exhibitions developed by memory institutions. It focuses on their impact on different kinds of users in terms of needs, expectations and required skills and on their potential to increase cultural participation and audience engagement with digital heritage. Moreover, the research examines the broader context by providing valuable insights into the institutional choices that shape the mediation and communication of digital heritage.
They also explored museum learning integrating digital technologies using a lifelong learning perspective to analyse and map learning engagements with museum collections. Museums develop a wide array of learning applications and programmes integrating digital technologies in innovative ways to facilitate learning in different contexts, in interactive learning spaces within the museum, on museum websites and cultural platforms, on social media and crowdsourced platforms, or on mobile devices. The research showed how developments in the social role of museum nestle with advances in digital technologies, and how these can reconfigure and bring a strong focus on education in museums’ mission providing innovative tools and platforms to engage their visitors in learning experiences.
A flyer entitled Digital Libraries, Collections, Exhibitions and Users is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rch_flyer_digitallibraries_exe.pdf
An Interactive Showcase was established and features a number of museums and CH institutions that have been considered within RICHES research, such as SMB digital, the Louvre, Inventing Europe, Europeana, the Städel Museum, as well as a number of other famous institutions such as the Guggenheim Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the British Museum Collection. This is a single location that provides links to a number of institutional collections and as a live space would welcome further recommendations to further enhance the showcase.
The Interactive Showcase is available at:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/interactive-showcase/
Virtual Performances
As defined in the RICHES Taxonomy, virtual distributed performances are performing arts productions in which interactive technology and virtual spaces are used to mediate or augment interactions among performers, between performers and the performing space, or between performers and the audience. A wide range of virtual performances can be enacted, depending on artistic intentions and the modes of technology integration. Technology-enhanced interactions are generally distinguished by the way that they facilitate connections among one or several physical spaces, among different virtual spaces, or combinations of virtual and physical spaces.
Distributed performances push the boundaries of what is traditionally recognised as cultural heritage. They propose a hybridisation of disciplines, a creative partnership between the performing arts and engineering. In many instances, this interplay entails an ingenious recrafting of cultural heritage elements to take full advantage of the possibilities of digital technologies. In doing so, they force people to reconsider deeply held notions of their cultural identity, placing under scrutiny the meanings we attach to elements of our tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Ultraorbism was an interactive distributed action between two networked connected spaces in two cities; Barcelona and Falmouth. It was conceived by Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca (Moià, Barcelona, 1959), well-known in the international art scene for his mechanotronic performances and robotic installations, as a joint creative venture with i2CAT Foundation, Coventry University and Falmouth University. The piece was performed simultaneously in Barcelona’s Centre d’Art Santa Mònica and Falmouth University on the 9th April 2015.
The performance became a live demonstration of how advanced conference systems, streaming media, networked and distributed environments can support creativity in the fields of scenic arts, especially theatre, dance and performance. The performance was seen live by more than 150 spectators distributed in the two venues separated by miles away and was streamed for a further online audience.
Ultimately, ULTRAORBISM opens new doors for experimental and creative formats using advanced visual environments in the field of telematics and distributed events. The potential utilities of the results are very rich from a technical point of view and also from an artistic perspective, and the excellent results of this experience present a very optimistic future in the development of co-creation environments in Europe and the use of ICT in the fields of culture and the arts.
A blog post on the RICHES virtual performance is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/the-distributed-performance-ultraorbism-bring-performing-arts-a-step-forward/
The film of the performance is available:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/virtual-performances/
STRATEGIES, POLICIES AND ROAD MAPPING
After the project had established its conceptual framework, considered the context of change and then explored social and economic aspects of cultural heritage in greater depth, the next stage was to produce results that would benefit interested stakeholders. This area of the project’s work has produced a series of policy recommendations, a co-creation toolkit for living heritage, as well as guidelines for public-private partnerships.
Evidence-based policy reports and recommendations************
This task aimed to maximise the impact of RICHES research outcomes. As a culmination of RICHES research, it drew together the main themes and research findings. Through a collaborative effort, a series of Policy Briefs and Think Papers were developed that are evidence based policy reports, foresight studies and recommendations focused.
The Policy Briefs make specific recommendations and guidelines based on RICHES research and are aimed at European, national and regional policy-makers. The priorities identified by RICHES partners aim to shape policy and should be considered by policy-makers in the planning of their initiatives. The reports and recommendations lay out the main themes, opportunities and problems for policy-makers with recommendations about how to overcome any barriers and exploit opportunities within the current context of change.
A formal template for the brief was supplied by the EU divided into sections:
• Introduction
• Evidence and Analysis
• Policy Implications and Recommendations
• Research Parameters
Eight Policy Briefs were submitted, based upon collaborative partnership work, making recommendations, illustrated with appropriate tables, graphs or images.
• RICHES Taxonomy of cultural heritage definitions
• Digital copyright framework: the move from analogue to digital and new forms of IPR
• Co-creation strategies: from incidental to transformative
• Toward a craft revival: recalibrating social, cultural, economic and technological dynamics
• The cultural heritage institution: transformation and change in a digital age
• Food heritage and culture: changing spaces of production and consumption
• European minorities and identity: strengthening relationships for a sense of belonging in the digital era
• The economic and fiscal dimension of cultural heritage
The Think Papers are shorter documents aimed at a more general audience to raise awareness of the themes addressed in RICHES and raise questions about issues and themes in the RICHES project to stimulate debate and future thinking around the various topics addressed in the project. Eight Think Papers were written:
• Copyright and Cultural Heritage: Developing a Vision for the Future
• New Forms of Artistic Performances and the Future of Cultural Heritage
• Cultural heritage festivals: belonging, sense of place and identity
• Digital Technologies: Re-thinking Turkish Libraries in an Information Society
• Digital heritage: intellectual rights, democracy and commoditisation of cultural heritage places
• Museum education and learning with digital technologies: shaping a culture of participation and lifelong learning
• Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) for cultural heritage: Opportunities, Challenges, Future Steps
• Cultural Heritage as fuel for innovation: enabling the power of creation
The recent European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI) identified similar themes and issues that overlap with RICHES: that CH in Europe serves a number of purposes and is important for growth and prosperity within the EU. It was decided to map these with the research carried out by the RICHES project; a process that helped to define the Policy Briefs to be prepared.
Policy brief and think papers are available at:
http://riches-project.eu/policy-recommendations.html
Online resources for living heritage
After running co-creation activities and analysing other cases within the research on the social aspect of cultural heritage, focus has been on the design of a toolkit that gives practical support to practitioners to sustain their work involving communities for co-creation. The objective of the RICHES toolkit is to help people to prepare for a co-creation process, align internal ideas and ambitions, help them to understand the attitude that is needed in co-creation and the consequences of working in co-creation, as these aspects seem to be most important.
The toolkit has been designed, developed and tested with cultural heritage professionals and takes into consideration the analysis of the good practices within the earlier case studies, as well as the co-creation activities within the project. This defined a specific focus for the toolkit; it should be used at a very early stage in setting up a co-creation a process.
Co-creation, when moved from an ad hoc activity as part of creating an exhibition to an ambition on an organisational level, can provide cultural heritage institutions with tools needed to broaden their perspective and allow them to establish long-term relationships with both existing and new audiences. Practically the toolkit will help cultural heritage professionals that would like to explore what it means to work in co-creation to critically look at their own organisation, explore the skills they would need to engage in co-creation, identify potential stakeholders and clearly define the impact they want to have.
As co-creation can have different purposes and can be used in different contexts and different stages, the toolkit needs to be open and flexible enough to serve that purpose: is the aim getting to know new people? Is the aim to empower an existing relationship? Is the end goal a shared exhibition or shared understanding?
The co-creation toolkit is available at:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/living-heritage/
Public-Private-Partnership Guidelines for CH
Although there are a wide variety of definitions Public-Private-Partnerships entail collaboration between public bodies and private sector partners, with the aim of providing projects of public interest with funds coming from non-public sources (i.e. different from taxpayers’ money). In theory, this should be a win-win situation combining a substantial representation of both public and private interests in the achievement of a specific goal. At least, this is the ideal scenario that would be highly welcomed by anyone interested in taking part into such a partnership.
The objective of the PPP task has been to develop a collection of guidelines and best practices about Public-Private-Partnerships and public-private initiatives, with a particular focus on actions for cultural heritage. The study evaluated the outcomes of a desk research and analysis of the PPP phenomenon and gathered stories of different partnership experiences that can be considered examples of PPP related to cultural heritage and activities, most of them with an important impact on the civil society, in terms of creating facilities, improving education or engaging citizens.
Having considered a range of best practice examples, a series of lessons learned have been identified which are available for others considering entering the PPP route, as well as 10 points for public sector decision makers to think about while contemplating a partnership. The RICHES project was designed in such a way as to build upon its research and have tangible results that would be available for interested stakeholders. Through the refinement of research results into Policy Briefs and Think Papers to easily share messages with politicians, the guidelines for CH organisations wanting to enter into public-private partnership and the co-creation toolkit that can aid organisations to effectively plan for the future, the project has fulfilled its objective.
Policy Seminars: NEW HORIZONS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE – Recalibrating relationships: bringing cultural heritage and people together in a changing Europe
The RICHES project has held two policy seminars, the scope of which was to discuss how the project could provide insights to support evidence-based policymaking in Europe. Both days reflected upon different areas of project research and were considered to be a success and the findings of project research well received.
Both seminars comprised political updates by representatives from the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and Round Table discussions involving major stakeholders. Time was also devoted to engaging the audience in dialogue and debate.
The programme of the first seminar in October 2015 offered to participants the opportunity to challenge institutional points of view with some practical results of the research conducted by RICHES; in this instance, the taxonomy, IPR/copyright framework and co-creation.
The programme of the second Policy Seminar in May 2016 provided RICHES partners with the opportunity to present further researched themes, this time relating to food and cultural heritage in the urban age, the economics of culture, the use of craft skills in new contexts, institutional changes and European identity, belonging and the role for digital cultural heritage.
For the final part of the second seminar two overarching themes were selected and discussed in world café style discussion groups with the aim of providing ‘joined-up’ policy recommendations to be used in the definition of the H2020 work programme for 2018-2020. The themes were:
• In the run-up to the European Year of CH in 2018, what policies should be developed in order to ensure that the celebrations are inclusive?
• How might developments in policy help to bring about an integrated approach to safeguarding CH?
The first Policy Seminar took place shortly after the approval of the European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI). It became clear that it identified similar themes and issues that overlapped with RICHES: that CH in Europe serves a number of purposes and is important for growth and prosperity in the EU. It was decided to map these with the research carried out by RICHES; and informed the direction of the project thereafter.
One of the recommendations of the EP Resolution was for projects and CH stakeholders to come together and pool their knowledge, expertise and research findings. The RICHES team, in liaison with the Project Officer, quickly organised a networking meeting of CH related projects which took place in the morning ahead of the first Policy Seminar. Ahead of the event each project completed a questionnaire which was used to group into families of projects with similar objectives. Each was given a presentation slot to introduce their work; this was followed by an open discussion was held to capture ideas and themes as they arose.
The networking event and Policy Seminar were really positive and caught the mood of the CH sector and enabled valuable dialogue to take place.
As a result, the second seminar, held in May, followed a similar model, once again with the opportunity for members of the audience to join the debate and identify new, profitable collaborations and synergies.
In light of the European Parliament Resolution, a Berlin Charter was established, to be signed by interested CH stakeholders. The document contains a set of principles for encouraging and supporting citizens’ engagement in cultural heritage and humanities research in the digital age. The Charter is open to be adopted by all interested parties, namely private organisations, public institutions, artists, professionals, researchers and interested citizens.
Blog posts for each event are available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-policy-seminar/
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/new-horizons-for-cultural-heritage/
The outcomes for both days, including presentations by the speakers and other resources are available:
First Policy seminar: http://riches-project.eu/first-policy-seminar.html
Second Policy Seminar: http://riches-project.eu/second-policy-seminar.html
The RICHES Book - Cultural Heritage in a Changing World
A further method used to disseminate project results has been the design, development, editing and publishing of an open access book that considered pertinent topics within the scope of the project’s socio-economic and humanities remit entitled Cultural Heritage in a Changing World.
After nine outline topics were drawn up by the editorial team, a call for chapters was launched through public channels. Contributions were sought that would be useful references for the research community, policy makers, professionals from the heritage sector, cultural ministries and agencies, and more widely communities and citizens interested in the selected topics.
The editorial team reviewed submissions (from partners and external experts), selected chapters and worked with authors. In parallel, an agreement was reached with publisher Springer International that ultimately copy edited chapters and produced the final book, providing 500 copies for distribution.
The list of chapters contained within the book is detailed here:
Part I: Context of Change
• Cultures and Technology: An Analysis of Some of the Changes in Progress—Digital, Global and Local Culture
• Interdisciplinary Collaborations in the Creation of Digital Dance and Performance: A Critical Examination
• Sound Archives Accessibility
• Technology and Public Access to Cultural Heritage: The Italian Experience on ICT for Public Historical Archives
• Copyright, Cultural Heritage and Photography: A Gordian Knot?
Part II: Mediated and Unmediated Heritage
• A Case Study of an Inclusive Museum: The National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari Becomes “Liquid”
• The Museum as Information Space: Metadata and Documentation
• The Museum of Gamers: Unmediated Cultural Heritage Through Gaming
Part III: Co-creation and Living Heritage for Social Cohesion
• Change of Museums by Change of Perspective: Reflecting Experiences of Museum Development in the Context of “EuroVision—Museums Exhibiting Europe” (EU Culture Programme)
• Technologies Lead to Adaptability and Lifelong Engagement with Culture Throughout the Cloud
• The Place of Urban Cultural Heritage Festivals: The Case of London’s Notting Hill Carnival
• Tools You Can Trust? Co-design in Community Heritage Work
• Crowdsourcing Culture: Challenges to Change
Part IV: Identity
• The Spanish Republican Exile: Identity, Belonging and Memory in the Digital World
• Growing Up in the ‘Digital’ Age: Chinese Traditional Culture Is Coming Back in Digital Era
Appendix A: RICHES Project and Resources
Appendix B: The RICHES Taxonomy
Access to the book, either for individual chapters or in its entirety, is available via http://riches-project.eu/riches-book.html
CONCLUSION
The RICHES project had an ambitious portfolio of work to undertake within its 30 month lifetime. Drawing upon the knowledge of partners, who have conducted important interviews, undertaken surveys and completed desk research to highlight relevant issues and ultimately make policy recommendations, the project has a series of wide ranging results to share with interested stakeholders. The project’s IPR stance, taxonomy and understanding the context of change (both within institutions and amongst the general public) provided a strong foundation for work that considered minority identity, territorial cohesion and successfully engaged in co-creation activity. The pure economic strand of research was presented in many external conferences and published, but was supported in its work package with exploration of the revitalisation of craft skills, considerations over commodification of places and academic and CH institutional collaboration to utilise technological advances. Vivid examples of RICHES work include the distributed performance in both Barcelona and Falmouth, alongside the co-creation toolkit and Public-Private-Partnership guidelines that make project outcomes relevant to interested stakeholders.
As described previously, detailed research deliverables, Policy Briefs, Think Papers, as well as links to other RICHES outputs and reports of project activity are available at:
• the main project website: www.riches-project.eu
• the website established to provide easy access to project results:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/
• the project blog: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/riches/
RICHES PROJECT PARTNERS
Ten partners have contributed to the successful work of the RICHES project, names and contact details are below.
Coventry University
Neil Forbes: lsx143@coventry.ac.uk
Sarah Whately: adx943@coventry.ac.uk
Moya Kneafsey: apy034@coventry.ac.uk
Tim Hammerton: ab6846@coventry.ac.uk
Hansestadt Rostock
Thomas Werner: Thomas.Werner@rostock.de
Kristina Koebe: k.koebe@rotorwerk-project.de
Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Wayne Modest: wayne.modest@wereldculturen.nl
Ninja Rijnks-Kleikamp: ninja.kleikamp@wereldculturen.nl
Stichting Waag Society
Dick van Dijk: dick@waag.org
Job Spierings: job@waag.org
Janine Prins: janineprins@xs4all.nl
The University of Exeter
Charlotte Waelde: ac2450@coventry.ac.uk
Promoter SRL
Antonella Fresa: fresa@promoter.it
Valentina Bachi: bachi@promoter.it
Claudio Prandoni: Prandoni@promoter.it
Fundacio Privada i2CAT, Internet I Innovacio Digital a Catalunya
Marc Aguilar marc.aguilar@i2cat.net
Syddansk Universitet
Karol Jan Borowiecki: kjb@sam.sdu.dk
Trilce Navarrete: trilce.navarrete@gmail.com
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Monika Hagedorn-Saupe: m.hagedorn@smb.spk-berlin.de
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı
Hakan Koray Özlük: hakan.ozluk@kulturturizm.gov.tr
Bahadır Aydınonat: bahadir.aydinonat@kulturturizm.gov.tr
Attribution of RICHES Results and Outputs
The 'static' outputs from RICHES (the deliverables; Policy Briefs and Think Papers) are available under a CC-BY licence. The BY part will be a requirement to attribute RICHES.
(Any third party materials within these documents (e.g. photos, graphs etc) may need to be separately attributed and whatever licence is they are made available under needs to be added.)
The RICHES taxonomy is made available under a CC-BY-SA licence. This would enable third parties to take and make amendments to the whole or part of the taxonomy - which they then have to make available under a CC-BY-SA licence.
The updated interactive showcase is made available under a CC-BY licence for the material that has been developed by RICHES with the RICHES attribution noted above.
Potential Impact:
RICHES communication, engagement and dissemination activity
The RICHES project has undertaken significant communication, engagement and dissemination activity during its lifetime. As a multi-disciplinary research project, it was important for partners to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, both within project research, but also when sharing results. From the beginning, the RICHES Network of Common Interest was formed, with agreements signed with individuals, organisations and other projects, each of which was featured on the project website: http://riches-project.eu/network.html
The project quickly established its website http://riches-project.eu which was regularly updated, as results became available. Ultimately, a second website was established towards the end of project which was designed for interested browsers to easily find project documentation, policy recommendations and resources; http://resources.riches-project.eu/ To enable users to easily find project outcomes, three heading have been used:
• Research
• Policy
• All Documents
During the final year there were 7,270 unique visitors to the main website, corresponding to 60% of new visitors. On average they look at 2.5 pages and stay for 2.33 minutes. This data shows that on average the visitor’s behaviour is to look at specific information instead of randomly surfing on the website.
To share the message of RICHES, a wide range of materials have been developed, including booklets, posters, bookmarks, newsletters, presentations and research orientated flyers. They are all available for download at: http://riches-project.eu/dissemination.html Over 2,500 thematic flyers were produced and 100 folders for each policy seminar, including Policy Briefs and Think Papers.
The project blog is hosted on Digitalmeetsculture.net which is the official RICHES media partner and is an interactive online magazine dedicated to the theme of digital technologies applied to cultural heritage and the arts.
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/riches/
The latest news and upcoming events relevant to the project were published on the blog. 138 blog posts were published that are related to RICHES activities and news; 159 posts about themes that are relevant to RICHES fields of research and 33 interesting calls for papers have been highlighted.
All the website news, events and call for papers’ links were launched on Twitter (with the hashtag #richesEU) and Facebook by the e-zine Digitalmeetsculture.net). Partners were invited to share the posts through their personal accounts.
#IAMRICHES was launched for the Amsterdam conference.
#decolonizethemuseum was launched at the Pisa conference, in relation to the co-creation activity at the National Museum of World Cultures.
The RICHES project also has a YouTube channel which features videos of project activity, as well as activities related to RICHES activity: https://www.youtube.com/user/richesEU
A significant RICHES objective was the design, development, editing and publishing of a book entitled Cultural Heritage in a Changing World. Contributions were sought that would be useful references for the research community, policy makers, professionals from the heritage sector, cultural ministries and agencies, and more widely communities and citizens interested in the selected topics. The online version of the book was available open access in early May 2016 and later the book was printed in 500 copies to be distributed to the partners and interested stakeholders.
From this page it is possible to access Springer Link:
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-29544-2
As it is an open access publication, interested parties can download either the entire book or individual chapters via this link for free.
The project also undertook a series of workshops, conferences and policy seminars.
Barcelona Workshop, May 2014
A workshop, entitled Building the Project’s Foundation, was held in May 2014 at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona.
The work of the project during the first few months was to agree a taxonomy of terms that would underpin future research work. In addition to the terms generated through the knowledge of the RICHES consortium, it was important to engage more widely with cultural heritage specialists and interested members of the public to gather further ideas, compare terms and reach new definitions. The event in Barcelona was a way to achieve this, involving professionals, external researchers and associates from the Network of Common Interest, as well as the UIC staff and student community. Thematic discussion groups, chaired by RICHES partners, considered and challenged existing definitions and provided new ideas for project partners to explore.
A blog article is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-first-workshop-has-finalized/
as is a video of the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWspqAn05Bo
Pisa Conference, December 2014
The first RICHES international conference took place in Pisa in December 2014 in the Plazzo Lanfranchi‘s Museum of Graphics.
RICHES main objective is to challenge the “democratic deficit” that in Europe still exists between producers/curators of CH and consumers/users of CH and to explore ways of breaking down distinctions between the “making” and “using” of heritage. The topic of Pisa’s International Conference perfectly fitted with this framework; the conference title, “Cultural Heritage: recalibrating relationships” is about decentring culture and cultural heritage away from institutional structures towards the individual, so recalibrating the relationship between CH keepers and CH users.
A video of the conference is available on the project’s website:
http://riches-project.eu/pisaconference2014.html
The dedicated website of the Pisa conference is available at:
http://pisaconference2014.riches-project.eu/
Ankara Workshop, May 2015
A workshop on the Context of Change and the Move from Analogue to Digital was held at the Turkish National Library in Ankara May 2015.
In the 21st century, the world faces epochal changes which affect every part of society, including the arenas in which Cultural Heritage (CH) is made, held, collected, curated, exhibited, or simply exists. The workshop provided the framework to understand this context of change and the impact of the move from analogue to digital in two themes, where best practice examples were presented and open discussion held with the audience (translated into Turkish and English):
Session 1: The move from analogue to digital
Session 2: Cultural Heritage transmission in a changing world
In addition to presentations form project partners, local academics and partners also spoke, including the Mayor Veysel Tiryaki, from the Ankara Municipality of Altindag.
http://riches-project.eu/workshop-on-the-context-of-change-and-the-move-from-analogue-to-digital.html
Berlin Workshop, November 2015
In November 2015, the workshop on the Role of Cultural Heritage for Social and Economic Development took place at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.
With the RICHES social and economic research strands running in parallel, the Berlin workshop was a joint event to introduce the research findings of to an interested audience. The questions that underpinned the day included those of European identity based on diversity, transmission of CH within and across territories and communities, design and shared methodologies for engaging younger generations in CH practice and insights based upon study conducted across various cultural institutions, assessment of the potential of the built environment as a CH resource, transnational study of fiscal issues related to CH, and analyses of the innovation and experimentation in the digital economy.
http://riches-project.eu/workshop-on-the-role-of-ch-for-social-and-economic-development.html
Amsterdam Conference, April 2016
The Identity Matters conference was about change; about renewal and innovation; about trying to understand the way in which people construct their lives and identities through cultural artefacts, media and heritage. The floor was given to initiatives that aim to make a difference, to speakers that can empower people to look at their lives and work. However, it wasn’t only a forum for talking and listening, as various locations within Amsterdam were explored through urban safaris, with different local initiatives incorporated in the presentation of project results, that bring new insights into current practices.
Professionals, experts and policy makers from the fields of heritage, museums and technology met together for a two-day programme to explore collaboratively future visions of heritage. Against the backdrop of Europe's changing society perspectives, policies and case studies were challenged. The identities of the audience themselves was questioned and they were challenged to help others to explore theirs.
The conference programme booklet is available at http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Programme-Identity-Matters-April6th2016-def.pdf
Photographs of the conference can be found at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/waagsociety/sets/72157667025585472
The conference used the hashtag #IAMRICHES
RICHES Policy Seminars in Brussels, October 2015 and May 2016
The RICHES project held two successful Policy Seminars in Brussels. Both seminars comprised political updates by representatives from the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and Round Table discussions involving major stakeholders.
Both events were preceded by a networking session where participants from other EC-funded projects discussed aims and achievements in the light of establishing new, profitable collaborations and synergies.
• The first took place at the European Research Council
http://riches-project.eu/first-policy-seminar.html
• The second event was held at Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
http://riches-project.eu/second-policy-seminar.html
Partners from the RICHES project have regularly presented details of their work at other conferences and workshops across Europe, targeting different stakeholder groups to share the details of research findings. This has also been the opportunity for the distribution of project literature.
Through a series of events, web, web and social media presence, booklets and leaflets, the project has undertaken a diverse approach to communication, engagement and dissemination. The project has achieved its objective to reach different stakeholder groups and to showcase the results of RICHES research.
Actual and potential impact of RICHES work
An interesting question arising from the project was the concept that cultural institutions are the guardians of heritage and that due to ever advancing technological advances, people create their own culture and share it through social media. Institutional curators are constantly working to provide collections to meet public demand and expectations, but this never remains the same as preservation techniques and technological demands shift.
It is within this context that consideration was given to an IPR framework that was appropriate in the digital age of creative re-use of content and considers people’s human rights to their cultural heritage. An impact of this IPR framework has been in Turkey, as the partner representing the National Library has used RICHES tools to recommend a change in their national law regarding copyright, accession and data sharing.
A RICHES task in the Netherlands took a direct approach to address the difference between institutional and individual perspectives through co-creation activity considering the presentation of collections at The National Museum of World Cultures. The ethnographic museum opened its doors and allowed young people to comment and outline the disconnection between them and the institution. This was a project task that gained momentum throughout the project leading to significant results. The initial feedback raised awareness of colonial language that was used, that was considered to re-enforce stereotypes and had the potential to damage present day relationships. In response, an intervention team of interested people wrote alternative texts, created audio tours, with multiple voices to provide varied perspectives. A social media campaign was also launched #decolonizethemuseum. The following text is displayed at the museum:
“The Tropenmuseum is a museum for people and about people. Therefore, it is important to us to be in direct contact with our visitors. Over the past year we have held several conversations with young people from across Amsterdam. Our aim was to hear their opinions about our exhibition. It became clear that young people with cultural-diverse backgrounds were critical of a number of aspects of our museum presentation. For example: our depiction of the colonial period was too positive, minimizing its negative impact, and our approach on history is too much from a western perspective. We value the criticism of this group of young people because we want to be a museum where people from all cultural backgrounds feel welcome. They have made us rethink what could be changed, or should be changed. It is through these conversations that the project Decolonize the Museum emerged.”
As described, through technologies and social media people have developed online communities to share information, RICHES research looked at this in the context of the use of craft skills and performance. The research showed that skills and knowledge can be transferred between people who may not have had the opportunity to meet before. This has led to hobbies becoming part-time businesses, with the online presence having the dual purpose of acting as a market place for goods and services. Linked with the rise in digital fabrication processes that has simplified and added a new dimension to craft practice, there is certainly a rise in the use of traditional craft skills, supported by technologies leading to new jobs, a revival of traditional heritage activities which are boosting the economy.
Social media has changed the nature of social mobility. RICHES research considered several minority groups across Europe. Some rely upon technology within their day-to-day lives; YouTube gives them access to culture from home and Skype/Facetime enables them to talk to friends and family while eating alone. People travelling abroad can also identify local communities before leaving home to make connections in advance, to ease the process of arriving in a new destination; in some ways digital communication reduces geographical boundaries. RICHES policy recommendations highlighted this diasporic lifestyle and the need for local decision-makers to become aware of it. The RICHES Romanian researcher built a close bond with the Roma community in Coventry and wrote a detailed case study on the use of technologies for social cohesion of minorities. With the community’s approval, it was passed to the Deputy Leader of the Coventry Local Authority where his team analysed the findings and cited them in meetings and fora relating to inclusion and integration, as well as housing and social care, to influence future policy consideration.
Some of the minority communities studied did not integrate technology into their daily lives; this was a note of caution that was raised in other strands of RICHES research. With so many necessary services only available online, older or poorer groups in society that are either digitally illiterate or who do not have access to broadband risk becoming isolated and potentially disenfranchised.
The RICHES project considered territorial cohesion looking at festivals across Europe. There was a clear sense of community that was developed through the common cause of cooperative planning and preparing the event and the pride in hosting and participating. This was further explored through food heritage and the development of communities that grow, share, trade and cook local and regional produce and how this can forge a sense of togetherness. The result has been the creation of distinctive food cultures, revival of lost or threatened foods and the creation of social ties. Community led activities have generated strong themes of solidarity and cohesion and have the potential to rediscover local heritage and can be a force for change.
One of the festivals studied was the Flower parade in Zundert. Its initial findings demonstrated the community cohesion of people from the local community pulling together to create beautifully decorated floats to fit the annual themed procession. Further study revealed that Polish immigrants within the area tended not to join in and that it was the longer standing members of the community that have participated. Independently, building upon the work of the RICHES project, a charitable status organisation of a RICHES researcher has brought the unmediated heritage strand of the project to Zundert, involving a Polish film-maker who will release an animated film of the paintings of Van Gogh (who was born in Zundert) in an attempt to integrate Polish immigrants into the local community. Even after the RICHES project has concluded, themes from its research are followed up, in this instance relating to further social cohesion.
Society is changing, people are no longer happy to merely accept what they are told is important as their cultural heritage; people want to discover this for themselves. This may be due to the advancement of technologies and the ease with which information and ideas can be communicated or through community led initiatives. The co-creation process at the National Museum of World Cultures was one of ten examples explored within the project, all of which engage people in the process of planning, designing and implementing/building/ restoring CH.
There are two further legacy impacts of this work. Having analysed the case studies, a co-creation toolkit was developed that will enable CH organisations to construct and undertake their own process; the guidelines and best practice ideas will remove potential hurdles and encourage interaction and commitment from the start of a new initiative.
The Frieda 23 case was an example of an old building being re-purposed for into a school, art gallery, movie theatre, studio, office, conference centre, event location, technology centre, café and a library by a public-private-partnership. For the first time, communication media was available for the local community to be able to interact with planners and designers to understand what would happen and also to comment and to influence the design work. Frieda 23 was the first time that this experimentation had happened in Rostock. It was adopted as the template for subsequent building works and once again highlights the co-creative voice of the public.
In addition to its demonstration of co-creation, Frieda 23 was also a RICHES case study of a successful public-private-partnership. The project collected examples of varied CH related collaborations and identified strengths and weaknesses, ultimately developing ten points for any public or private institutions to consider ahead of their working together.
An aspect of the RICHES programme that drew upon cutting edge technologies was the virtual performance that was recorded with simultaneous performance in Barcelona and Falmouth. It was seen live by more than 150 spectators distributed in the two venues separated by miles away and was streamed for a further online audience. This was a step change in terms of the way in which performance is made, recorded and shared with people and has great potential for future practice. Several video versions of the event are available, including a 50 minute documentary featuring in depth exploration of topics concerning preservation and transmission of performance-based.
This technology is also permeating CH institutions, as they strive to meet the growing expectations of the public. This isn’t just restricted to social media, but incorporated holograms of historical characters through virtual and augmented reality, gamification, as a way to communicate story and experiences, leading into an environment of wearable technology and a bring your own device requirement with people accessing enhanced experiences through their smart phone or tablet. RICHES has highlighted that CH institutions need to maintain this pace of change and this will have an impact upon their audience engagement and strategies for reaching them, in the future.
CH institutions have always had an educational remit and played an important community role, including addressing issues of literacy. This is balanced by younger people expecting to learn via technology and institutions have to address this within their planning. The RICHES case study highlighted the British Museum’s Samsung Digital Discovery Centre which aligns its activity with educational curricula and although it would not be possible for all CH institutions, it is a model for others to consider. RICHES work can be used by those considering this course of action as the benchmark.
The economic strand of the project’s research looked specifically at the digitally necessitated change within CH institutions and saw a clear correlation of successfully adapting to digital change where an institution had a formal plan in place to make such a transition. Further aspects of this economic analysis considered the ways in which digitised items could be shared with a wider audience through Wikipedia. Rather than having items locked away in storage, they have a new online life that will enable the general public to appreciate them (and potentially creatively re-use them, subject to rights labels.) The third strand of the study considered VAT on books across Europe and concluded that national fiscal policies do not align with CH related policies, as the objectives for the CH sector are often restricted through taxation.
This research was presented at many economic events across Europe enabling feedback and revision and leading to the publication of an article entitled Digitization of heritage collections as indicator of innovation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2016.1164488
RICHES economic research also considered plans that were in place relating to buildings, monument and places of interest; the strategies in place to attract tourists, but still preserve the site from wear and tear and not overwhelm the local community as well as how the historical site could be protected, but visitors receive an authentic experience. As with institutions, approaches vary, including augmented reality, although some found that roaming charges had restricted tourists from utilising these facilities (which should become less of a consideration within the EU and the recent regulation of roaming charges). As with previous strands, educational aspects are considered through dedicated centres and public-private-partnerships often fill the void caused through cuts to public funding.
Policy Briefs
Following their RICHES activity, project partners wrote a series of eight Policy Briefs that provide a synthesis of their research. They have been shared through two Policy Seminars and are available on the RICHES Resources website. Policy Briefs are:
• RICHES Taxonomy of cultural heritage definitions
• Digital copyright framework: the move from analogue to digital and new forms of IPR
• Co-creation strategies: from incidental to transformative
• Toward a craft revival: recalibrating social, cultural, economic and technological dynamics
• The cultural heritage institution: transformation and change in a digital age
• Food heritage and culture: changing spaces of production and consumption
• European minorities and identity: strengthening relationships for a sense of belonging in the digital era
• The economic and fiscal dimension of cultural heritage
The Policy Briefs were presented at the two Policy Seminars and discussed by experts during round table sessions and with an audience of interested participants.
These documents give a synopsis of some of the important findings to emerge from the RICHES research and are aimed at audiences involved with policy-making. They situate themselves within the current CH policy framework within the EU and in particular the European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI). As such they are important not only for re-enforcing many of the messages emanating from the Parliament’s Resolution but in addition they provide valuable evidence for Europe’s CH policy.
At the second Policy Seminar in May 2016, the speaker from DG EAC confirmed that her department would look at both the minorities and identity Policy Brief and the base research deliverable to consider the research findings. As DG GRoW is working on an Action Plan for tourism and the cultural and creative industries, the craft related Policy Brief was forwarded, as a contribution from the RICHES project. The policy briefs will be brought to the attention of policy-makers when opportunities arise into the future, and members of the RICHES team will continue to disseminate the important findings at relevant opportunities into the future.
Partners also developed a series of Think Papers. These raised provocative forward-looking questions around themes arising from their research and were designed to stimulate further thinking around their research outcomes in relation to the aims of the RICHES project and current European policy on CH. Eight Think Papers were written:
• Copyright and Cultural Heritage: Developing a Vision for the Future
• New Forms of Artistic Performances and the Future of Cultural Heritage
• Cultural heritage festivals: belonging, sense of place and identity
• Digital Technologies: Re-thinking Turkish Libraries in an Information Society
• Digital heritage: intellectual rights, democracy and commoditisation of cultural heritage places
• Museum education and learning with digital technologies: shaping a culture of participation and lifelong learning
• Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) for cultural heritage: Opportunities, Challenges, Future Steps
• Cultural Heritage as fuel for innovation: enabling the power of creation
Some of the Policy Seminar audience members were representatives of other CH projects. An objective of the European Parliament Resolution: Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI) had been to pool the knowledge and expertise of as many CH projects as possible. The RICHES project took the opportunity to invite representatives of projects to a networking session ahead of each of the Seminars and gave them the opportunity to introduce themselves during an open CH themed discussion.
As with the on-going work in engaging with policy-makers to talk about the Policy Briefs, although the RICHES project has now ended, this initiative will continue and a meeting of interested parties will be held together with the Europeana Space project’s conference in Berlin in November 2016.
Project partners found the multi-disciplinary project to be beneficial. Strong links have been forged between project partners and with local organisations and communities, providing a greater understanding of stakeholder expectation. Through project workshops and conferences, as well as the networking sessions initiated with other CH projects, partners have communicated directly with policy-makers and entered into mutually beneficial dialogue; an opportunity that ordinarily is rare.
The RICHES project investigated new areas of research, which has led to involvement in new initiatives and developed interest in new lines of research. It is certain that partner networks have grown through interacting with different stakeholder groups/communities both through engagement with research and by sharing of results. New academic research projects have been and are being developed which are grounded in the significant findings to emerge from the RICHES project. For example an ambitious interdisciplinary funding application which seeks to explore cultural heritage through performance and which involves expert researchers from around the world as well as heritage practitioners, has been made by a member of the RICHES project team. The inspiration for this project came directly from the work done within the RICHES project. This is only one of what is likely to be many lines of enquiry that will be pursued directly as a result of the findings of RICHES.
Summary
From the very beginning of the project a wide-ranging communication, engagement and dissemination strategy was designed to reach a wide variety of audiences. Through the Network of Common Interest that builds a community of projects, organisations and individuals, there was a base to reach people through the project website(s), blog articles and newsletters and social media channels. Partners were able to attend other events and conferences, make presentations, join discussions and leave behind high quality literature to share the message of the RICHES project.
The dissemination base that the project built in its early stages, brought partners into contact with stakeholders and communities that were able to contribute to research and broaden the scope of the project’s work. This led to detailed research findings that have been as broad as the multi-disciplinary scope of the project with examples of societal change illustrated regularly and instances of change as a result of impact from RICHES research including the example of the presentation collections at The National Museum of World Cultures and the further exploration of community cohesion in Zundert. The RICHES project can be confident that it has met its objective to disseminate its research findings and illustrate the change undertaken within the wider CH context. The research undertaken in RICHES has also had an impact in a variety of ways and will continue to exert much influence into the future. People and organisations have and will continue to learn from the breadth of RICHES research and implement actions based upon findings and recommendations.
List of Websites:
The main project website is www.riches-project.eu. This had been live and updated throughout the project's lifetime.
To share the results of the RICHES project, a second RICHES website was established: http://resources.riches-project.eu/.
RICHES (Renewal, Innovation and Change: Heritage and European Society) was a project that involved 10 partners undertaking a programme of multi-disciplinary research. Its remit was to reduce the distance between people and their cultural heritage; recalibrating the relationship between heritage professionals and users; to enable the social and economic benefit of Cultural Heritage (CH) within European Society.
The 30 month project began in December 2014, its first tasks to establish the contextual framework, to give project partners (and interested stakeholders) a common reference point by developing a shared taxonomy of terms and an IPR framework for the digital age.
RICHES explored the context of change in CH within its socio-economic science and humanities remit. Case studies considered change within cultural institutions (libraries and museums); unmediated heritage, where digital technologies have empowered individuals to define their own culture; the use of craft skills in new contexts, supported by online communities; transformation and change of building/district and how people can contribute via social media; finally, the engagement of audiences and digital impact on performance.
Social considerations comprised research into identity, both through analysing pan-European websites and exploring minority groups; territorial cohesion through festivals and food communities, as well as the process of engaging local people in the process of change through co-creation. Economically, craft skills and the maker movement have created new business models and opportunities; historic sites were studied to understand marketing, while ensuring site preservation and retention of individuality. The cross over between academic research and innovative CH practice was considered, as well as hard economics of VAT on books, digitisation of collections and showcasing digital objects via Wikipedia.
In depth case studies were undertaken considering how cultural institutions present their collections to the public and their educational role in society. Cutting edge technology was used to record a distributed performance, with concurrent filming taking place Barcelona and Falmouth, which demonstrated the potential for new forms of heritage. Other ways of sharing project results are available through the development of a co-creation toolkit to be used within the CH sector, as well as guidance for any public and private organisations that are considering collaboration in the future. The project also sought contributions and published a book entitled Cultural Heritage in a Changing World.
The project held conferences in Pisa and Amsterdam and workshops in Barcelona, Ankara and Berlin, as well as two policy Seminars in Brussels. The seminars presented the synthesised Policy Briefs of eight areas of project research, which were accompanied by eight Think Papers – visionary statements of how research might engage with emerging developments. The seminars also provided the opportunity to invite other CH projects to networking sessions to consider areas of synergy and future collaboration.
The RICHES project was a success. It fulfilled its research obligations, provided insightful conclusions that will have impactful benefit and leave behind a strong research legacy.
Project Context and Objectives:
RICHES (Renewal, Innovation & Change: Heritage and European Society) was a research project about the implications of change in European societies. For many in 21st century Europe, Cultural Heritage (CH) is more about what it is than who we are: though enormously rich, this treasure is often locked away, or crumbling, or in a foreign language, or about a past which to many people - young, old, newcomers to Europe and settled inhabitants - seems of little relevance. But this is changing.
The main project objective was to reduce the distance between people and culture, recalibrating the relationship between heritage professionals and heritage users in order to maximise cultural creativity and ensure that the whole European community can benefit from the social and economic potential of CH.
Digital technologies have permeated all of society and compelled a rethink:
• how can CH institutions renew and remake themselves?
• how should an increasingly diverse society use our CH?
• how may the move from analogue to digital represent a shift from traditional hierarchies of CH to more fluid, decentred practices?
• how, then, can the EU citizen, alone or as part of a community, play a vital co-creative role?
• what are the limitations of new technologies in representing and promoting CH?
• how can CH become closer to its audiences of innovators, skilled makers, curators, artists, economic actors?
• how can CH be a force in the new EU economy?
The RICHES partnership has explored these questions by drawing together 10 partners from 6 EU countries and Turkey, experts from cultural institutions, public and national administrations, SMEs, the humanities and social sciences.
The interdisciplinary team has researched the context of change in which European CH is transmitted, its implications for future CH practices and the frameworks (cultural, legal, financial, educational and technical) to be put in place for the benefit of all audiences and communities in the digital age.
RICHES objectives, that have been successfully met, were:
• to develop and establish the conceptual framework of the research, defining terms, setting up networks and developing new understandings of CH-related copyright and IPR in the digital age;
• to investigate the context of change, to study the forces that apply to CH in this context, to design the scenarios in which CH is preserved, made and performed and to foresee the methods of digital transmission of CH across audiences and generations;
• to identify the directions to be taken to maximise the impact of CH on social and community development within the identified context of changes, including IPR and economics research;
• to devise instruments and to elaborate methodologies for knowledge transfer, developing innovative skills, creating new jobs and exploiting the potential of CH in order to foster the economic growth of Europe;
• to tell stories related to Mediated and Unmediated CH, in which the results of the research are given practical application, illustrated and validated with end-users, through concrete case studies;
• to produce evidence-based policy recommendations, foresight studies, toolkits for building awareness platforms, best practice guidelines for establishing cooperation initiatives.
RICHES research aimed to understand the context of change in which CH is held, preserved, curated and promoted and explore how development and growth can be stimulated by digital technologies and/or co-creation sessions, focusing on:
• museums and libraries adopting or considering digitisation and digital services for preservation, access and transmission;
• living media as privileged domains for young people to get involved in CH;
• performance-based CH and the effects of new digital infrastructures;
• public administrations adapting landscapes and monuments and re-using historical buildings to generate sustainable models, improve quality of life and foster cultural tourism;
• transferring traditional skills into innovative production methods for the creative industry.
As part of its research development and user group testing, the RICHES project team liaised with multiple stakeholders, and shared with them their subsequent research findings:
• cultural ministries;
• regional, national and state authorities;
• public administrations;
• European Institutions;
• CH organisations;
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences experts, researchers;
• SMEs working within the digital cultural economy and associations and organisations dealing with creative industries;
• general public and citizen scientists.
These would be reached, both through local interaction involving interviews and surveys, as well as through project conferences, workshops and policy seminars, the latter incorporating networking sessions with other CH projects.
The RICHES project had a progressive structure; initial research was used and built upon during subsequent tasks, with the objective of providing policy recommendations or tools for interested stakeholders. Further detail of the research outline is provided below.
Establishing the Conceptual Framework
The aim was to establish a baseline of definitions for the project and a set of frameworks, both theoretical and practical, within which the research could be conducted and shared and CH-related practice further developed. The objectives of WP2 were to:
• establish a framework of agreed definitions for the RICHES research
• develop a framework of understanding of copyright and IPR laws as they relate to CH practice in the digital age.
Understanding the Context of Change for Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage
Partner objectives were to study the changes taking place in the management and transmission of CH, largely, but not exclusively, as a consequence of the advent of the digital, in five different areas:
• CH held by cultural institutions
• CH represented in living media
• performance-based CH
• CH linked with physical place
• CH as knowledge and skills
Role of Cultural Heritage in European Social Development
RICHES research sought to identify practices, methodologies and structures that could be applied to CH with the assistance of digital technologies, and how they could contribute to social development in Europe. Its objectives were to:
• research the role of digital CH in the development of a European identity based on diversity
• understand how CH engagement could be facilitated by digital communication, and contribute to forging a sense of European belonging among people of diverse origins
• research how networks of people and organisations, enabled by digital communications, enable the transmission of CH within and across territories and communities
• propose, design and share methodologies for engaging younger generations in CH practice.
Impact of Cultural Heritage on EU Economic Development
This area of research investigated the potential of CH for economic development in Europe to deliver insights based upon study of:
• examples of use traditional craft skills and employment
• assessment of the potential of the built environment as a CH resource
• transnational study of fiscal issues related to CH
• analyses of the innovation and experimentation in the digital economy.
Case Studies
The next objective was to use the findings of the previous areas of research to explore, in greater depth, the status of digital heritage both for the case of CH mediated by memory institutions and for the case of non-mediated CH, such as the performing arts. In particular, the following objectives were pursued:
• in depth investigation of existing applications in the domain of digital libraries and digital exhibitions and the interaction of users with these applications
• the development of experimental virtual performance work
Strategies, Policies and Road-Mapping
Having undertaken detailed research, it was important to present it in a way that was available to interested stakeholders and to:
• provide evidence-based policy reports and recommendations
• create a toolkit for sharing living heritage resources
• offer a collection of guidelines and best practices about Public-Private-Partnerships and Public-Private-Initiatives.
Communication and Dissemination
In addition to research activity, there were a number of tasks dedicated to spreading awareness of the activities and outcomes of the project, in order to maximise the impact of the project’s work through a programme of public events, publications and engagement with key target audiences. This was undertaken using a range of different methods:
• organising two international conferences, three thematic workshops and two policy seminars to showcase and consider the results of the project’s research, the case studies and the policy recommendations and also reach out to other projects in the area
• a dedicated concertation task which identified other projects relevant to RICHES (and vice versa), taking the opportunity to share objectives, results and knowledge with them
• a project website was developed and updated regularly, publishing the outcomes of the project as they emerged
• a call for chapters was launched, leading to the selection of relevant CH topics that were edited and published in a RICHES book.
With the publication of the European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI) the RICHES project had to consider the occurrence of similar themes and issues that overlapped with RICHES. As an objective was that CH in Europe serves a number of purposes and is important for growth and prosperity in the EU, a further project objective became apparent, the need to bring together CH related projects in a network to share knowledge, experience and best practice.
Project Results:
The RICHES project had a range of ambitious multi-disciplinary objectives. This section outlines how they were approached, successfully met and the research findings and conclusions that were drawn as a result of this process.
Throughout the section links are provided to webpages pages on:
• the main project website: www.riches-project.eu
• the website established to provide easy access to project results:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/
• the project blog: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/riches/
Detailed research deliverables are available at http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/research-deliverables/ and are summarised below. Equally, RICHES partners summarised research findings to create a series of Policy Briefs and forward looking Think Papers; these are available at http://riches-project.eu/policy-recommendations.html
ESTABLISHING THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
At the beginning of the project, it was important for a contextual framework to be developed, which all other project research would be built upon. Primarily, this involved a framework through which to consider IPR within a digital age and a taxonomy that would define important terms to ensure that partners had a shared understanding when undertaking joint research tasks.
The move from analogue to digital and new forms of IP
A challenge for the RICHES project was to re-think the intersections between cultural heritage, copyright and human (cultural) rights in the digitised era. The last two decades have witnessed significant changes to the ways in which cultural heritage is created, used and disseminated. From the once linear, hierarchical and authoritative relationships between memory institutions and the receiver [user] of cultural heritage (CH), the digital era is forcing a re-think of every aspect of the cultural heritage ecosystem. From the meaning to the making of cultural heritage, from the legal frameworks to the roles of the Institutions, each element and each of the relationships between elements is under scrutiny. Within this, how should the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) framework that supports the cultural heritage system be reconsidered in order to respond to the changing and challenging times?
Given the work that was to take place within the project, it was important, at an early stage to develop an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) framework based upon the move from analogue to digital. This provided a platform for, and a framework within which, cultural heritage is created, re-created and re-used in the digital era and involved a re-thinking of the IPR framework that supports our cultural heritage system and has included:
• Research into IP, CH and human rights
• Drafting an outline of a new IPR framework taking into account the intersections between cultural heritage, copyright and human (cultural) rights.
• considering how IP and copyright relates to and impacts on each of the RICHES research strands:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-and-intellectual-properties-ip/
The work of this task was to develop a common framework of understanding of the RICHES project in relation to the law of copyright (and performer’s rights) and its importance for digital CH, cultural working practices that embrace co-creation as the norm and CH that is transformed from analogue to digital. It includes an argument for considering Intellectual Property Rights differently from the traditional closed viewpoint, instead considering UNESCO human rights definitions. As an enquiry, it is set within and will inform the environment within which these changes are taking place and the role of CH in European social, political, legal and economic development.
A flyer relating to the RICHES IP strategy is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/rch_flyer_IPR_exe.pdf
RICHES Taxonomy
For conversations between project partners and indeed all stakeholders within the cultural heritage sector, it is important to have a common language and to ensure that terms are used with the same meaning. From the very first month of the project activity began to identify and define terms that should be included within the RICHES taxonomy. All partners submitted terms and subsequently definitions which were grouped and shared for review and acceptance or amendment.
In addition to the terms generated through the knowledge of the RICHES consortium, it was important to engage more widely with cultural heritage specialists and interested members of the public to gather more ideas, compare terms and reach new definitions. To achieve this, a dedicated Workshop, entitled Building the Project’s Foundation, was held in May 2014 at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona, where thematic discussion groups, chaired by RICHES partners, considered and challenged existing definitions and provided new ideas for project partners to explore. The groups were:
• General common terms related to Cultural Heritage/Digital Cultural Heritage
• Understanding the context of change for tangible and intangible CH. How digital practices are transforming the CH practices of cultural institutions
• Digital copyrights framework
• Digital presentation and output. The changes in the process of distribution, circulation, creation and sharing of CH
• Digital Cultural Heritage. E-books, online catalogues, digital libraries, metadata records and new users demands
• Role of CH in European social development including cohesion and inclusion
• Impact of CH on European economic development including impact on employment, new economic strategies and alliances in the EU.
A project Editorial Group was formed to oversee the process, providing a structure for taxonomic definitions, merging and reshaping terms and considering them within the scope of the RICHES project’s objectives. At the end of the development process, more than 80 concepts and terms had been prepared and defined through the shared work of the RICHES project partners and associated contributors.
The taxonomy has been published on the RICHES Resources website:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/taxonomy/
The flyer is available on the project website:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/RICHES-Taxonomy-Flyer_off.pdf
The video of the workshop in Barcelona and blog post about the event are available:
http://riches-project.eu/workshop-on-the-project%e2%80%99s-foundations.html
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-first-workshop-has-finalized/
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE FOR TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
The RICHES project’s consideration of transformation, change and best practices for CH processes was significant. This was the starting point for many of the reoccurring multi-disciplinary research themes of the project, with later tasks building upon the platform developed here.
At an early stage, it was decided not to provide an overarching structure for the five research areas that considered the context of change and to let each task forge its own pathway independently of the others in terms of methodology, approach and style, to see where it led and then to bring together all chapters and identify commonalities of themes and issues.
Context of change in which CH is held, preserved, curated and accessed
The first task considered the institutional perspective and the context of change within museums and libraries. It acknowledges the significant changes made over the past 20 years, but how technological change and public expectations continue to move the goal posts, as institutions consider the implications of making their content available online. Although their roles are changing, they still make significant contributions to their communities, both socially and educationally, as content can be used to provide more interactive and vivid learning experiences.
Mediated and Unmediated Heritage
The advantage of the unstructured approach to this research area was the sharp contrast of viewpoints between this and the previous task. Although acknowledging the mediated role of CH institutions (and that museums and libraries are racing to keep up with demand), the second study considers the view of the wider public and how they use culture and their heritage. The advances in technologies have given young adults opportunities to be creative and with the freedom from the constraints of time and preservation quality of institutional curators. They have a very different perspective on the world and of what can be achieved, and having the opportunity to create unmediated approaches, including through their own social media/YouTube channels
Transferring traditional knowledge to new productive contexts
The third area built upon this unmediated approach and examined the impacts of post-industrial technology on the European crafts sector (with case studies in the UK and Romania) and identified challenges and opportunities for craft professionals, with a focus on prospects opened up by the transfer of craft skills to other industry sectors.
In the same way that people can use new technologies creatively, they can also be used to learn craft skills online through dedicated communities, speed up processes and to easily create brand awareness. Rather than the general perception that technologies will cause craft skills to become outdated, through a blended approach, they become more relevant and enable traditional heritage to be maintained, enabling hobbies to be translated into small businesses through the ability to quickly reach a wider audience.
Transformation of physical spaces, places and territories
Reaching an audience quickly was an important theme of the next chapter, as the transformations of the Frieda 23 building in Rostock and the district of Hamamönü in Ankara have benefitted from technologies to both interact between administrator, civic society and also the general public. Through websites and social media, people were able to comment in a way that had not previously been possible, which added a whole new dimension to the shaping of the projects and established templates for the future.
The house Frieda 23 was a former GDR school building in style of a housing block of flats that is now used as a school, art gallery, movie theatre, studio, office, conference centre, event location, technology centre, café, a library and much more. This centre of culture and media offers a wide range of culture, education and leisure activities for all ages.
The transformation of the Hamamönü District in Ankara was significant, as this was a decaying space that, due to the vision of the Mayor, was revitalised and now houses a thriving community, including a crafts market.
Context of change in which performance-based CH is made
The final case study also incorporates the themes of its predecessors; change in performance based cultural heritage had significantly transformed practices. Sharing messages with audiences is enhanced and feedback is quickly gathered, as performers and organisations can shape and amend their brand. Here there is also the chance to experiment in an unmediated fashion with new styles of performance and also to preserve performance as future heritage.
This research aim was to investigate the context of change for performance-based cultural heritage, with a focus on the impacts brought by the advent of digital technologies. The research primarily considered findings in Spain and the UK, supported by desk research to ensure European coverage.
Summary
There are clear areas of overlap, but also differences between the five areas, all of which are transforming society and the lives of people and their relationships with CH; with interesting questions asked, including the comparison of mediated heritage and unmediated culture, as institutions work hard to keep up with the technological requirements of digital preservation, whereas social media has empowered individuals to create their own culture, share their voice, learn new skills and market their own products/ performance. This has enabled some people to turn their hobby, be it craft or performance related, into a part-time business, utilising online communities to share ideas and knowledge, as well as to generate customer bases and audiences.
It is important to realise that the world is not just about digital technologies, as some areas of Europe might not have access to the same opportunities as others. People also want to maintain a base in reality, retaining human interaction, not wanting their craft or performance obscured; often needing a bond to a local community or place. In this way some traditional approaches will be retained, perhaps drawing upon technological advances where there is a coincidental advantage, but not as the core of their work.
One thing is true, technology will lead to yet further change and the challenge for society is to cater for both the digital native communities that thrive in this environment, as well as the older or poorer sectors of society that are digitally illiterate that could be at risk of becoming socially disenfranchised. Cultural institutions have an important community role to play in supporting the latter group, but also to consider the imminent Web 3.0 linked open data, gamification experiences and users bringing their own devices to access content, which will become ever more prevalent.
Technologies have already had, and will continue to have, a strong impact upon on all fields of the production and presentation cultural heritage, how it is consumed and the impact that it has upon society.
THE ROLE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
This area of the RICHES project aimed to identify practices, methodologies and structures that can be applied to cultural heritage, with the assistance of digital technologies and their potential contributions to social development in Europe.
Three separate pieces of research were undertaken by RICHES project partners to consider various aspects of cultural heritage within social development. In reflection upon this work, there are a series of themes and parallels that have emerged; particularly interesting are those considering identity, belonging and community.
European identity and belonging and the role of digital CH
The first part of this study focused upon an analysis of digital content that concentrated upon European identity issues. This included an analysis of official and ‘non-official’ cultural heritage websites/web-platforms and their potential to strengthen a European identity among their users. Exploratory research and user analysis was undertaken with 20 people of different nationalities, age and gender. The participants who responded to the survey and user analysis inquiry speak at least one more language beside their mother tongue. The websites considered were:
• Europeana – www.europeana.eu (including thematic collections: Europeana 1914-1918 – www.europeana1914-1918.eu and Europeana 1989 – www.europeana1989.eu)
• Euromuse – www.euromuse.net
• Inventing Europe – www.inventingeurope.eu/.
The group was asked to explore the selected websites and answer questions concerning their views on European identity, the relevance of the contents in relation to European Cultural Heritage and the digital practices that can enhance a feeling of belonging to Europe.
The overall response was that European digital Cultural Heritage content should be inclusive and reflect cultural pluralism through a network of interrelated identities and their interactions. For all respondents, European Cultural Heritage is intrinsically related to language diversity. There is a lot still to do for multilingual access and multilingual content that would reflect European cultural diversity with digital Cultural Heritage and foster a better understanding of the commonalities and differences among European cultures.
Although the majority of the respondents were interested in Cultural Heritage objects from the collections of museums, fewer than half of them considered that this was giving a sense of belonging to Europe. On the contrary, individual testimonies of historical events were more likely to awaken a feeling of European belonging among all age groups. It is also necessary to explore new ways to mediate content by making best use of novel ideas and innovative technologies, and also to connect digital Cultural Heritage with living heritage practices, especially for younger audiences.
The second part focused on communities from four European countries, in order to strengthen the European dimension of this study and to give insights into the multicultural scenario of Europe. RICHES partners each analysed the digital CH activity of a community in their region or country and to investigate if and how communities could represent, preserve and transmit their heritage in digital format. The selected case studies represent an interesting mix of diverse communities, exactly as it is required in the DoW:
• Ethnic and regional minority: Romani people of Coventry, United Kingdom
• Religious and regional minority: Jewish community in Rostock, Germany
• Virtual and ethnic minority: online community of Marrokko.nl in the Netherlands
• Religious group; Protestant Waldensian church community in Italy
• Community with a shared past: Dutch-Surinamese communities in the Netherlands
• Language community and regional minority: The Spanish speaking community in Berlin, Germany
The study concluded that Europe has changed over the past century, with people adapting to political, social and economic upheaval, but above all holding on to their cultural identities. If anything, the pace of change has now increased with the great advances in digital technologies. However, the development of a European identity and feeling of belonging is highly individual and not easily influenced, digital technologies offer new opportunities and this has had further impact upon majority and minority cultures and will continue to do so throughout the 21st century.
This research considered some of the advantages and disadvantages of this technological change and how some groups within European society have adapted to it and other have resisted it. It has explored the enhanced availability of culture and heritage, but recognises that to influence feelings of belonging and identity-forming, further work with new digital technologies is needed, to more effectively bring Cultural Heritage to people online. However, for communities, the technological change has offered new ways of communication and interaction and even increased the opportunities for social mobility, as people know the societies and communities that will greet them, while still being able to stay in touch with friends and news/culture from home.
This study has highlighted the ways that society is changing, how digital technologies have influenced that change and how this ‘new Europe’ must be considered at policy and planning levels as people move across the continent, but continue to interact with their culture and heritage.
Structures for community and territorial cohesion
This area of the project’s work examined the role of cultural heritage in relation to community and territorial cohesion. The task focused upon how cultural heritage resources can be deployed in the construction of localised and spatially defined communities, and where relevant, it has examined the ways in which digital technology is being used in this process. The research is based on case studies of urban and rural heritage festivals and local food movements which, in different ways, exploit heritage resources either directly or indirectly for the purpose of community and/or territorial cohesion.
The Notting Hill Carnival study investigated how the event has overcome a range of social, economic and organisational challenges to fulfil its objective of promoting racial solidarity in a community of high diversity and to celebrate African Caribbean culture. The Corso Zundert Dutch Flower Parade case examined local people’s reflection on social cohesion, the processes involved in its creation and its impact on inhabitants’ way of life. Rostock’s Hanse Sail Festival example considers the event’s economic contribution to the region and its reliance on volunteers in strengthening cooperation and solidarity of people living in Rostock and the Baltic area.
Analysis of each case study is fused with discussion of the role of digital technologies in the organisation, communication and transmission of events and their impact on social and territorial cohesion.
The second theme examined the relationship between food heritage, community and territorial cohesion and draws on a range of examples from the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The focus was on place-based initiatives to preserve particular food cultures through growing, sharing, trading and cooking at a local or regional scale.
It is argued that community-led and/or citizen-led food initiatives show how culture can be a force for change and how citizens can co-create cultural heritage in three key ways. Firstly, they maintain and develop food skills and knowledge, and this helps to develop and strengthen distinctive food cultures and can also lead to the creation of new ‘fusion’ cultures. Secondly, they remember and revive food heritage. This can include re-discovering or rescuing ‘lost’ or threatened varieties of food such as certain plant breeds (‘heritage’ or ‘heirloom’ varieties) or animals (such as rare breeds). Thirdly, they create new social ties and economic spaces. The new social ties can be between people of different generations, or different ethnic groups, as in the case study of ‘exotic’ vegetable growing and seed saving in England. The new economic spaces can consist of new physical spaces, such as re-used parts of the urban built environment (e.g. rooftops, reclaimed gardens) and new economic relationships based on principles of solidarity, social economy and participatory democracy.
A flyer and blog post representing this research on food culture are available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rch_flyer_foodculture_exe.pdf
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/food-as-european-cultural-heritage/
Good practice and methods for co-creation
Many cultural heritage (CH) institutions state the ambition to invoke a sense of belonging and citizenship within their community, and to foster a relationship with future generations through their collections. However, not many have the experience or the tools to do so in an open, creative and responsive way. This area of research reflects upon the processes of reversing the role between cultural institutions and society, where the audience is central and consumers become producers. It sought to identify what it means for a museum to represent society, fostering recognition of identity, history and contemporary life.
Co-creation describes joint or partnership-oriented creative approaches between two or more parties, especially between an institution and its stakeholders, towards achieving a desired outcome. A co-creation process can enable organizations to:
• find a connection between groups that would normally not collaborate;
• raise awareness and sensitivity towards important issues with certain groups/individuals;
• create a safe space for sharing;
• create a common understanding;
• enable the creation of more layered and nuanced exhibitions and events;
• build relationships between groups/individuals that exist well beyond the scope of a project.
• empower minority perspectives
Ten cases were studied, all of which have a different approach to co-creation, involve different types of stakeholders and aim to achieve different goals. They offer a broad overview of the current co-creation practice in Europe’s CH institutions, key success factors and lessons learned. The selected cases are:
1. Europeana, Europeana 1914-1918
2. Rijksmuseum, Rijksstudio
3. Chester Beatty Library, Young Curators, Digital Design & the Living Archive
4. Museum of World Cultures, RICHES interventions
5. Imagine IC
6. Allard Pierson Museum, Museon, Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra, meSch
7. Foam, West Side Stories
8. Dutch Botanic Gardens, Planting the Future
9. Science Museum, Oramics to Electronica
10. Derby Silk Mill, Re:Make the Museum
Included in these ten cases are two cases developed by the RICHES partners: the interventions at the Museum of World Cultures, focusing on young people and their relationship with the museum, and the co-creation trajectory with the Dutch Botanic Gardens, focusing on creating new connections to new and existing audiences.
During three co-creation sessions at the Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands, questions were explored through various interactive methods, such as constructing an ideal museum experience and visiting museums and museum storage. Sessions were designed and facilitated to be used in creative ways to find innovative solutions to (social) problems. The preliminary results, including an early edit of a film, and the framework were highlighted during the afternoon session at the Pisa conference, which was a significant commitment for the project to give a platform to young people whose opinions would not normally be heard in such a forum. Ahead of this conference the hashtag #decolonizethemuseum was launched in Pisa. The project partner museum continued to pursue this theme, organised three gatherings for an intervention team during 2015 and subsequently organised a conference outside of the RICHES project to explore this theme further. The intervention team wrote alternative texts for the Tropenmuseum which were put into place to describe various collections in April 2016. Text published at the museums in the name of the “Management Tropenmuseum, Afrika Museum ad Museum Volenkunde” as a result of this activity is:
“The Tropenmuseum is a museum for people and about people. Therefore, it is important to us to be in direct contact with our visitors. Over the past year we have held several conversations with young people from across Amsterdam. Our aim was to hear their opinions about our exhibition. It became clear that young people with cultural-diverse backgrounds were critical of a number of aspects of our museum presentation. For example: our depiction of the colonial period was too positive, minimizing its negative impact, and our approach on history is too much from a western perspective.
We value the criticism of this group of young people because we want to be a museum where people from all cultural backgrounds feel welcome. They have made us rethink what could be changed, or should be changed. It is through these conversations that the project Decolonize the Museum emerged.
As part of this project you will find text panels in the museum with uncensored personal experiences, reactions and criticisms from the young people. We would like to stimulate your response and reflections on our perspective on today’s world and on the history that created the world we live in.
We will gladly take your remarks and suggestions into account in developing new museum presentations.
Via #DecolonizetheMuseum you can respond directly to the text of the young people. You can also mail us for general remarks on our presentation.”
A flyer and blog post representing this research on co-creation are available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/RICHES_Co-creation.pdf
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/pisa-is-approaching-and-we-start-co-creating/
Summary
Across the three themes of research, the project has examined the idea of shared identity through European websites, before looking more specifically at the identity of communities that use technologies to maintain their culture and heritage outside of their native countries. By considering carnivals and festivals, the project identified the sense of identity and values generated within local communities which was explored in further depth within the importance of growing local food. The study of co-creation has also explored the ways in which cultural institutions can work more closely with their communities and involve them in future planning for their mutual benefit. Considered from different angles, the RICHES project has reached interesting conclusions regarding the important topics of identity and community.
THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE ON EUROPEAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Economic factors have a significant role to play in the field of CH, although often this is only considered in terms of budget cuts. Across four different aspects of research, RICHES partners have considered the potential of CH and how it can be used, together with new digital technologies, to create jobs, influence policy and engage the public.
The use of craft skills in new contexts
This first strand of the economically focussed research examined how craft-related knowledge and skills can be used strategically to stimulate creativity, spearhead innovation and generate economic value and new employment opportunities. The study specifically addresses craft-related knowledge, skills and techniques, and sheds light on how they can be revived, not as cultural instances to be safeguarded, but as important sources of competitive advantage, particularly when employed in conjunction with digital technology.
Current European and worldwide trends, such as the Maker Movement, demonstrate the revival of crafts and a resurgence of interest in its underlying body of knowledge and skills, as well as the qualities of uniqueness and aesthetics that distinguish craft objects among those mass produced. If these trends are sustained the economic value of crafts will grow, in addition to the role they play in connecting contemporary societies to values, traditions and knowledge that are deeply embedded in craft practice and serve as a link of cultural and historical continuity.
In addition to the Maker Movement, the role of cultural institutions in sustaining crafts is investigated, shedding light on their educational function in the transmission of craft-related knowledge, in inspiring contemporary craft and design practice, as well as their economic role, as a retail venue for craft products.
Two pathways for value generation have been prefigured: through the integration of new technologies to configure new ways of using craft skills; and through the transfer of sector-specific skills to other economic sectors, with a focus on design and fashion. These analytical foci are captured in three research objectives:
• Understand how craft skills can be a source of innovation and value generation for the creative economy by leveraging on the potential of digital technology and through their transfer in other economic sectors
• Understand how new technologies impact on craft-related careers in the creative industries
• Examine the role of digital technologies in the transmission and transformation of craft skills, with a focus on informal education venues and experimental approaches
Place-making, promotion and commodification of CH resources
This study explored the role of place making and promotion in the commodification of cultural heritage resources and how digital technologies intertwine with these processes. This research examines whether locations have coherent strategies to appeal to consumers using cultural resources and attributes such as place promotion, product and quality. The study adopts a culture economy approach, which is concerned with the exploitation of cultural products for achieving territorial development goals. These products comprise historical and pre-historical sites, landscapes, artisanship, languages, dialects, folklore, drama, literary references and visual arts. A further dimension under consideration is the watering down or ‘Disneyfication’ effect of commodification on place image and identity. This relates to practice or situations where cultural items, interpretations and rituals are homogenised or diluted to the extent that they are no longer meaningful or representative of local people.
Drawing on case studies of reshaping built environments across Europe, the study examines efforts to promote and produce distinctive place images using digital technologies, which are able to compete in an increasingly crowded virtual marketplace. The research further considers the economic role of localism, local initiatives and community action in taking responsibility for local cultural heritage.
The case studies are:
• Empúries archaeological site on the Iberian Peninsula, Catalonia, Spain;
• the Monastery of the Holy Cross, Rostock, Germany;
• Palazzo Pretorio in Pontedera, an industrial town in the Arno Valley, Pisa, Italy;
• Talking Statues, Copenhagen, Denmark.
In addition, three larger scale examples are considered to further illustrate how place making, promotion and commodification of cultural heritage resources have become intertwined with digital technology innovations. These are:
• the digital operation of Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK;
• a brief description of the UNESCO and Google partnership to virtually visit 19 European World Heritage sites
• the use of digital technologies in the Vatican Museum’s Sistine Chapel to manage the effects of heighted tourist visits.
The results show that digital technologies such as Augmented Reality and dedicated mobile phone applications can be used to enhance visitors’ experiences of cultural heritage and bolster the promotion of place and production of distinctive place images in the commodification of cultural heritage resources. This enhances visitors’ engagement, interaction and enjoyment of sites, offering a new and exciting approach in public participation and engagement with cultural heritage.
Fiscal and Economic Issues in the Digital Age
The goal of this research strand was to provide an economic analysis of the impact of taxation, public support and private contribution to the production, distribution and consumption of cultural heritage and to improve understanding of the geography of cultural activities and ways in which fiscal policy can become more efficient in the age of digitisation. This was done through a thorough analysis in three steps:
• the examination of fiscal policy for cultural goods across the EU Member States over time
• through study of the current market of digital heritage and its ability to fuel innovation
• by looking at the global use of European heritage content online.
In order to shed light on the changes brought to the production, dissemination and consumption of heritage through the increasing use of digital technology and to identify differences across Member States in Europe, a three-level quantitative analysis was undertaken. The goal was to isolate the impact of taxation and of private and public support on the digital heritage market. The three-level analysis permitted a sharp focus on three discreet subjects (books, heritage institutions, and digital images) and on three key elements (fiscal policy, digital heritage market, consumer preference) essential in the make-up of an efficient cultural policy for Europe. Such an approach enabled the delivery of practical and feasible results that could inform future policy making.
Quantitative analysis was performed: firstly, focussing on the fiscal policy developments across Europe over the past two decades to identify the potential benefits or caveats of using VAT as a fiscal instrument to support cultural policy. This examined the correlation of VAT rates across EU Member States over a period of time, and the relationship between VAT and prices, and expenditure. Results inform the impact of taxation on the heritage market. Secondly, analysis of the current heritage market was made and its response to the adoption of digital technology in order to single out the conditions that support or inhibit innovation. Results inform the impact of public support on the heritage market. For that, the level of digitisation, adoption of a digitisation policy and the use of the heritage collections was studied. Finally, the changes in consumption as heritage is made available onsite (i.e. museum visit) and online (i.e. on Wikipedia) was analysed to better understand the impact of adopting a digital distribution and consumption practice. Results inform the impact of private support on the heritage market. For this, the access to objects (through object mobility and their visibility) was compared both onsite and online and identified the observable consumer preferences.
A flyer representing this economics of culture research is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rch_flyer_econculture_exe.pdf
Cultural Heritage Best Practice in the Digital Economy
The final area of economically focussed research addressed one the most important issues for the future of cultural heritage: experimentation and innovation in digital technology in a time of social and technological change.
The digital economy has transformed all sectors of society and the cultural heritage (CH) institution, as a social institution has undergone a ‘digital renaissance’. The ways in which we engage with, understand, communicate, participate and disseminate CH has been transformed through the use of digital technology. The CH institution has shifted practice from being object centred and a custodian of CH to a social institution where visitors can be interactive, participative and co-creative and where they can access CH in new, creative and novel ways through the use of digital technologies.
There is a great deal of experimentation and ideas within CH and digital technologies that takes place within academic research institutions. This research addresses this body of knowledge and how, by working in partnership with the CH sector, it can contribute to the transformation of how European CH is accessed, communicated, interpreted and disseminated. It acknowledges that the CH sector is important to Europe’s creative economy and that experimentation and innovation in digital technology is contingent on funding. It gives an overview of European strategies and funding bodies that promote and support collaborative projects that are experimental in developing innovative digital technology for the CH sector and which are engaging and enhance the CH visitor experience.
Through a series of examples of best practice in collaborations between the CH sector and the academic research institution this study identifies what has been done in publicly-funded projects that aim to transform cultural artefacts and our understanding, and experience of CH, using new technologies and which narrow the gap between the experimental in the research institution and its practical implementation in the digital economy. It suggests that CH has cultural value as well as economic value. It emphasises the importance of experimentation and innovation in digital technologies in the European CH sector to attract a new generation of CH visitors and increase the potential to contribute to Europe’s economic growth and to avoid a digital dark age.
Summary
Through four very different studies, RICHES research has shown that digital technologies have helped cultural institutions to reappraise their way of presenting and maximising the economic potential of cultural heritage collections and reaching out to the public in a manner that is expected in the 21st century. It has also demonstrated a revival of traditional craft skills, which are being shared through online media, with many communities of knowledge appearing. However, there is also a note of caution, as the study notes that national fiscal policies are not always in line with their stance on supporting cultural heritage.
RICHES CASE STUDIES
Following the research undertaken previously, RICHES case studies has the opportunity to explore in greater depth the status of digital heritage, both for the case of CH mediated by memory institutions and non-mediated CH, such as the performing arts. There are two distinct case studies that have been undertaken within the RICHES project:
• Digital Libraries, collections, exhibitions and users
• Virtual Performances
Each adds a further dimension to the research findings presented in earlier work packages.
Digital Libraries, collections, exhibitions and users
Rooted in a long and rich tradition going back to the 19th century, cultural heritage institutions are keepers of traditions and values - scientific, educational, economic and social value – enjoying an extraordinary trust among their audiences. However, the integration of digital technologies challenges the traditional mission of cultural heritage institutions as they have significantly transformed the ways in which these institutions curate, interpret and disseminate their collections as well as the ways in which they interact with their audiences.
Cultural practices, learning and information seeking behaviours of the audiences have changed dramatically over the past years under the influence of rapid technological changes – fast networks, mobile devices, social media channels. As recent studies show, younger generations are increasingly becoming co-creators, co-authors and co-producers of digital content, initiating the shift from interactive technologies towards a participatory culture. The digital era has accelerated social changes and opened up opportunities for cultural participation, co-creation, for more fluid and inclusive, democratic cultural practices, as well as new methods for education and learning. Memory institutions are striving to adapt to these changes that have made the traditional models - one way, top-down and ‘one size fits all’- of communication obsolete.
Four detailed case were prepared building upon various aspects of prior RICHES research:
• The Fine Arts System, online collection of the Turkish National Library
• SMB-digital: digital strategies for bridging the gap between cultural heritage institutions and users
• Online collections
• The Samsung Digital Discovery Centre at the British Museum
These cases investigated digital collections and online exhibitions developed by memory institutions. It focuses on their impact on different kinds of users in terms of needs, expectations and required skills and on their potential to increase cultural participation and audience engagement with digital heritage. Moreover, the research examines the broader context by providing valuable insights into the institutional choices that shape the mediation and communication of digital heritage.
They also explored museum learning integrating digital technologies using a lifelong learning perspective to analyse and map learning engagements with museum collections. Museums develop a wide array of learning applications and programmes integrating digital technologies in innovative ways to facilitate learning in different contexts, in interactive learning spaces within the museum, on museum websites and cultural platforms, on social media and crowdsourced platforms, or on mobile devices. The research showed how developments in the social role of museum nestle with advances in digital technologies, and how these can reconfigure and bring a strong focus on education in museums’ mission providing innovative tools and platforms to engage their visitors in learning experiences.
A flyer entitled Digital Libraries, Collections, Exhibitions and Users is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rch_flyer_digitallibraries_exe.pdf
An Interactive Showcase was established and features a number of museums and CH institutions that have been considered within RICHES research, such as SMB digital, the Louvre, Inventing Europe, Europeana, the Städel Museum, as well as a number of other famous institutions such as the Guggenheim Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the British Museum Collection. This is a single location that provides links to a number of institutional collections and as a live space would welcome further recommendations to further enhance the showcase.
The Interactive Showcase is available at:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/interactive-showcase/
Virtual Performances
As defined in the RICHES Taxonomy, virtual distributed performances are performing arts productions in which interactive technology and virtual spaces are used to mediate or augment interactions among performers, between performers and the performing space, or between performers and the audience. A wide range of virtual performances can be enacted, depending on artistic intentions and the modes of technology integration. Technology-enhanced interactions are generally distinguished by the way that they facilitate connections among one or several physical spaces, among different virtual spaces, or combinations of virtual and physical spaces.
Distributed performances push the boundaries of what is traditionally recognised as cultural heritage. They propose a hybridisation of disciplines, a creative partnership between the performing arts and engineering. In many instances, this interplay entails an ingenious recrafting of cultural heritage elements to take full advantage of the possibilities of digital technologies. In doing so, they force people to reconsider deeply held notions of their cultural identity, placing under scrutiny the meanings we attach to elements of our tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Ultraorbism was an interactive distributed action between two networked connected spaces in two cities; Barcelona and Falmouth. It was conceived by Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca (Moià, Barcelona, 1959), well-known in the international art scene for his mechanotronic performances and robotic installations, as a joint creative venture with i2CAT Foundation, Coventry University and Falmouth University. The piece was performed simultaneously in Barcelona’s Centre d’Art Santa Mònica and Falmouth University on the 9th April 2015.
The performance became a live demonstration of how advanced conference systems, streaming media, networked and distributed environments can support creativity in the fields of scenic arts, especially theatre, dance and performance. The performance was seen live by more than 150 spectators distributed in the two venues separated by miles away and was streamed for a further online audience.
Ultimately, ULTRAORBISM opens new doors for experimental and creative formats using advanced visual environments in the field of telematics and distributed events. The potential utilities of the results are very rich from a technical point of view and also from an artistic perspective, and the excellent results of this experience present a very optimistic future in the development of co-creation environments in Europe and the use of ICT in the fields of culture and the arts.
A blog post on the RICHES virtual performance is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/the-distributed-performance-ultraorbism-bring-performing-arts-a-step-forward/
The film of the performance is available:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/virtual-performances/
STRATEGIES, POLICIES AND ROAD MAPPING
After the project had established its conceptual framework, considered the context of change and then explored social and economic aspects of cultural heritage in greater depth, the next stage was to produce results that would benefit interested stakeholders. This area of the project’s work has produced a series of policy recommendations, a co-creation toolkit for living heritage, as well as guidelines for public-private partnerships.
Evidence-based policy reports and recommendations************
This task aimed to maximise the impact of RICHES research outcomes. As a culmination of RICHES research, it drew together the main themes and research findings. Through a collaborative effort, a series of Policy Briefs and Think Papers were developed that are evidence based policy reports, foresight studies and recommendations focused.
The Policy Briefs make specific recommendations and guidelines based on RICHES research and are aimed at European, national and regional policy-makers. The priorities identified by RICHES partners aim to shape policy and should be considered by policy-makers in the planning of their initiatives. The reports and recommendations lay out the main themes, opportunities and problems for policy-makers with recommendations about how to overcome any barriers and exploit opportunities within the current context of change.
A formal template for the brief was supplied by the EU divided into sections:
• Introduction
• Evidence and Analysis
• Policy Implications and Recommendations
• Research Parameters
Eight Policy Briefs were submitted, based upon collaborative partnership work, making recommendations, illustrated with appropriate tables, graphs or images.
• RICHES Taxonomy of cultural heritage definitions
• Digital copyright framework: the move from analogue to digital and new forms of IPR
• Co-creation strategies: from incidental to transformative
• Toward a craft revival: recalibrating social, cultural, economic and technological dynamics
• The cultural heritage institution: transformation and change in a digital age
• Food heritage and culture: changing spaces of production and consumption
• European minorities and identity: strengthening relationships for a sense of belonging in the digital era
• The economic and fiscal dimension of cultural heritage
The Think Papers are shorter documents aimed at a more general audience to raise awareness of the themes addressed in RICHES and raise questions about issues and themes in the RICHES project to stimulate debate and future thinking around the various topics addressed in the project. Eight Think Papers were written:
• Copyright and Cultural Heritage: Developing a Vision for the Future
• New Forms of Artistic Performances and the Future of Cultural Heritage
• Cultural heritage festivals: belonging, sense of place and identity
• Digital Technologies: Re-thinking Turkish Libraries in an Information Society
• Digital heritage: intellectual rights, democracy and commoditisation of cultural heritage places
• Museum education and learning with digital technologies: shaping a culture of participation and lifelong learning
• Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) for cultural heritage: Opportunities, Challenges, Future Steps
• Cultural Heritage as fuel for innovation: enabling the power of creation
The recent European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI) identified similar themes and issues that overlap with RICHES: that CH in Europe serves a number of purposes and is important for growth and prosperity within the EU. It was decided to map these with the research carried out by the RICHES project; a process that helped to define the Policy Briefs to be prepared.
Policy brief and think papers are available at:
http://riches-project.eu/policy-recommendations.html
Online resources for living heritage
After running co-creation activities and analysing other cases within the research on the social aspect of cultural heritage, focus has been on the design of a toolkit that gives practical support to practitioners to sustain their work involving communities for co-creation. The objective of the RICHES toolkit is to help people to prepare for a co-creation process, align internal ideas and ambitions, help them to understand the attitude that is needed in co-creation and the consequences of working in co-creation, as these aspects seem to be most important.
The toolkit has been designed, developed and tested with cultural heritage professionals and takes into consideration the analysis of the good practices within the earlier case studies, as well as the co-creation activities within the project. This defined a specific focus for the toolkit; it should be used at a very early stage in setting up a co-creation a process.
Co-creation, when moved from an ad hoc activity as part of creating an exhibition to an ambition on an organisational level, can provide cultural heritage institutions with tools needed to broaden their perspective and allow them to establish long-term relationships with both existing and new audiences. Practically the toolkit will help cultural heritage professionals that would like to explore what it means to work in co-creation to critically look at their own organisation, explore the skills they would need to engage in co-creation, identify potential stakeholders and clearly define the impact they want to have.
As co-creation can have different purposes and can be used in different contexts and different stages, the toolkit needs to be open and flexible enough to serve that purpose: is the aim getting to know new people? Is the aim to empower an existing relationship? Is the end goal a shared exhibition or shared understanding?
The co-creation toolkit is available at:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/research/living-heritage/
Public-Private-Partnership Guidelines for CH
Although there are a wide variety of definitions Public-Private-Partnerships entail collaboration between public bodies and private sector partners, with the aim of providing projects of public interest with funds coming from non-public sources (i.e. different from taxpayers’ money). In theory, this should be a win-win situation combining a substantial representation of both public and private interests in the achievement of a specific goal. At least, this is the ideal scenario that would be highly welcomed by anyone interested in taking part into such a partnership.
The objective of the PPP task has been to develop a collection of guidelines and best practices about Public-Private-Partnerships and public-private initiatives, with a particular focus on actions for cultural heritage. The study evaluated the outcomes of a desk research and analysis of the PPP phenomenon and gathered stories of different partnership experiences that can be considered examples of PPP related to cultural heritage and activities, most of them with an important impact on the civil society, in terms of creating facilities, improving education or engaging citizens.
Having considered a range of best practice examples, a series of lessons learned have been identified which are available for others considering entering the PPP route, as well as 10 points for public sector decision makers to think about while contemplating a partnership. The RICHES project was designed in such a way as to build upon its research and have tangible results that would be available for interested stakeholders. Through the refinement of research results into Policy Briefs and Think Papers to easily share messages with politicians, the guidelines for CH organisations wanting to enter into public-private partnership and the co-creation toolkit that can aid organisations to effectively plan for the future, the project has fulfilled its objective.
Policy Seminars: NEW HORIZONS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE – Recalibrating relationships: bringing cultural heritage and people together in a changing Europe
The RICHES project has held two policy seminars, the scope of which was to discuss how the project could provide insights to support evidence-based policymaking in Europe. Both days reflected upon different areas of project research and were considered to be a success and the findings of project research well received.
Both seminars comprised political updates by representatives from the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and Round Table discussions involving major stakeholders. Time was also devoted to engaging the audience in dialogue and debate.
The programme of the first seminar in October 2015 offered to participants the opportunity to challenge institutional points of view with some practical results of the research conducted by RICHES; in this instance, the taxonomy, IPR/copyright framework and co-creation.
The programme of the second Policy Seminar in May 2016 provided RICHES partners with the opportunity to present further researched themes, this time relating to food and cultural heritage in the urban age, the economics of culture, the use of craft skills in new contexts, institutional changes and European identity, belonging and the role for digital cultural heritage.
For the final part of the second seminar two overarching themes were selected and discussed in world café style discussion groups with the aim of providing ‘joined-up’ policy recommendations to be used in the definition of the H2020 work programme for 2018-2020. The themes were:
• In the run-up to the European Year of CH in 2018, what policies should be developed in order to ensure that the celebrations are inclusive?
• How might developments in policy help to bring about an integrated approach to safeguarding CH?
The first Policy Seminar took place shortly after the approval of the European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI). It became clear that it identified similar themes and issues that overlapped with RICHES: that CH in Europe serves a number of purposes and is important for growth and prosperity in the EU. It was decided to map these with the research carried out by RICHES; and informed the direction of the project thereafter.
One of the recommendations of the EP Resolution was for projects and CH stakeholders to come together and pool their knowledge, expertise and research findings. The RICHES team, in liaison with the Project Officer, quickly organised a networking meeting of CH related projects which took place in the morning ahead of the first Policy Seminar. Ahead of the event each project completed a questionnaire which was used to group into families of projects with similar objectives. Each was given a presentation slot to introduce their work; this was followed by an open discussion was held to capture ideas and themes as they arose.
The networking event and Policy Seminar were really positive and caught the mood of the CH sector and enabled valuable dialogue to take place.
As a result, the second seminar, held in May, followed a similar model, once again with the opportunity for members of the audience to join the debate and identify new, profitable collaborations and synergies.
In light of the European Parliament Resolution, a Berlin Charter was established, to be signed by interested CH stakeholders. The document contains a set of principles for encouraging and supporting citizens’ engagement in cultural heritage and humanities research in the digital age. The Charter is open to be adopted by all interested parties, namely private organisations, public institutions, artists, professionals, researchers and interested citizens.
Blog posts for each event are available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-policy-seminar/
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/new-horizons-for-cultural-heritage/
The outcomes for both days, including presentations by the speakers and other resources are available:
First Policy seminar: http://riches-project.eu/first-policy-seminar.html
Second Policy Seminar: http://riches-project.eu/second-policy-seminar.html
The RICHES Book - Cultural Heritage in a Changing World
A further method used to disseminate project results has been the design, development, editing and publishing of an open access book that considered pertinent topics within the scope of the project’s socio-economic and humanities remit entitled Cultural Heritage in a Changing World.
After nine outline topics were drawn up by the editorial team, a call for chapters was launched through public channels. Contributions were sought that would be useful references for the research community, policy makers, professionals from the heritage sector, cultural ministries and agencies, and more widely communities and citizens interested in the selected topics.
The editorial team reviewed submissions (from partners and external experts), selected chapters and worked with authors. In parallel, an agreement was reached with publisher Springer International that ultimately copy edited chapters and produced the final book, providing 500 copies for distribution.
The list of chapters contained within the book is detailed here:
Part I: Context of Change
• Cultures and Technology: An Analysis of Some of the Changes in Progress—Digital, Global and Local Culture
• Interdisciplinary Collaborations in the Creation of Digital Dance and Performance: A Critical Examination
• Sound Archives Accessibility
• Technology and Public Access to Cultural Heritage: The Italian Experience on ICT for Public Historical Archives
• Copyright, Cultural Heritage and Photography: A Gordian Knot?
Part II: Mediated and Unmediated Heritage
• A Case Study of an Inclusive Museum: The National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari Becomes “Liquid”
• The Museum as Information Space: Metadata and Documentation
• The Museum of Gamers: Unmediated Cultural Heritage Through Gaming
Part III: Co-creation and Living Heritage for Social Cohesion
• Change of Museums by Change of Perspective: Reflecting Experiences of Museum Development in the Context of “EuroVision—Museums Exhibiting Europe” (EU Culture Programme)
• Technologies Lead to Adaptability and Lifelong Engagement with Culture Throughout the Cloud
• The Place of Urban Cultural Heritage Festivals: The Case of London’s Notting Hill Carnival
• Tools You Can Trust? Co-design in Community Heritage Work
• Crowdsourcing Culture: Challenges to Change
Part IV: Identity
• The Spanish Republican Exile: Identity, Belonging and Memory in the Digital World
• Growing Up in the ‘Digital’ Age: Chinese Traditional Culture Is Coming Back in Digital Era
Appendix A: RICHES Project and Resources
Appendix B: The RICHES Taxonomy
Access to the book, either for individual chapters or in its entirety, is available via http://riches-project.eu/riches-book.html
CONCLUSION
The RICHES project had an ambitious portfolio of work to undertake within its 30 month lifetime. Drawing upon the knowledge of partners, who have conducted important interviews, undertaken surveys and completed desk research to highlight relevant issues and ultimately make policy recommendations, the project has a series of wide ranging results to share with interested stakeholders. The project’s IPR stance, taxonomy and understanding the context of change (both within institutions and amongst the general public) provided a strong foundation for work that considered minority identity, territorial cohesion and successfully engaged in co-creation activity. The pure economic strand of research was presented in many external conferences and published, but was supported in its work package with exploration of the revitalisation of craft skills, considerations over commodification of places and academic and CH institutional collaboration to utilise technological advances. Vivid examples of RICHES work include the distributed performance in both Barcelona and Falmouth, alongside the co-creation toolkit and Public-Private-Partnership guidelines that make project outcomes relevant to interested stakeholders.
As described previously, detailed research deliverables, Policy Briefs, Think Papers, as well as links to other RICHES outputs and reports of project activity are available at:
• the main project website: www.riches-project.eu
• the website established to provide easy access to project results:
http://resources.riches-project.eu/
• the project blog: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/riches/
RICHES PROJECT PARTNERS
Ten partners have contributed to the successful work of the RICHES project, names and contact details are below.
Coventry University
Neil Forbes: lsx143@coventry.ac.uk
Sarah Whately: adx943@coventry.ac.uk
Moya Kneafsey: apy034@coventry.ac.uk
Tim Hammerton: ab6846@coventry.ac.uk
Hansestadt Rostock
Thomas Werner: Thomas.Werner@rostock.de
Kristina Koebe: k.koebe@rotorwerk-project.de
Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Wayne Modest: wayne.modest@wereldculturen.nl
Ninja Rijnks-Kleikamp: ninja.kleikamp@wereldculturen.nl
Stichting Waag Society
Dick van Dijk: dick@waag.org
Job Spierings: job@waag.org
Janine Prins: janineprins@xs4all.nl
The University of Exeter
Charlotte Waelde: ac2450@coventry.ac.uk
Promoter SRL
Antonella Fresa: fresa@promoter.it
Valentina Bachi: bachi@promoter.it
Claudio Prandoni: Prandoni@promoter.it
Fundacio Privada i2CAT, Internet I Innovacio Digital a Catalunya
Marc Aguilar marc.aguilar@i2cat.net
Syddansk Universitet
Karol Jan Borowiecki: kjb@sam.sdu.dk
Trilce Navarrete: trilce.navarrete@gmail.com
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Monika Hagedorn-Saupe: m.hagedorn@smb.spk-berlin.de
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı
Hakan Koray Özlük: hakan.ozluk@kulturturizm.gov.tr
Bahadır Aydınonat: bahadir.aydinonat@kulturturizm.gov.tr
Attribution of RICHES Results and Outputs
The 'static' outputs from RICHES (the deliverables; Policy Briefs and Think Papers) are available under a CC-BY licence. The BY part will be a requirement to attribute RICHES.
(Any third party materials within these documents (e.g. photos, graphs etc) may need to be separately attributed and whatever licence is they are made available under needs to be added.)
The RICHES taxonomy is made available under a CC-BY-SA licence. This would enable third parties to take and make amendments to the whole or part of the taxonomy - which they then have to make available under a CC-BY-SA licence.
The updated interactive showcase is made available under a CC-BY licence for the material that has been developed by RICHES with the RICHES attribution noted above.
Potential Impact:
RICHES communication, engagement and dissemination activity
The RICHES project has undertaken significant communication, engagement and dissemination activity during its lifetime. As a multi-disciplinary research project, it was important for partners to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, both within project research, but also when sharing results. From the beginning, the RICHES Network of Common Interest was formed, with agreements signed with individuals, organisations and other projects, each of which was featured on the project website: http://riches-project.eu/network.html
The project quickly established its website http://riches-project.eu which was regularly updated, as results became available. Ultimately, a second website was established towards the end of project which was designed for interested browsers to easily find project documentation, policy recommendations and resources; http://resources.riches-project.eu/ To enable users to easily find project outcomes, three heading have been used:
• Research
• Policy
• All Documents
During the final year there were 7,270 unique visitors to the main website, corresponding to 60% of new visitors. On average they look at 2.5 pages and stay for 2.33 minutes. This data shows that on average the visitor’s behaviour is to look at specific information instead of randomly surfing on the website.
To share the message of RICHES, a wide range of materials have been developed, including booklets, posters, bookmarks, newsletters, presentations and research orientated flyers. They are all available for download at: http://riches-project.eu/dissemination.html Over 2,500 thematic flyers were produced and 100 folders for each policy seminar, including Policy Briefs and Think Papers.
The project blog is hosted on Digitalmeetsculture.net which is the official RICHES media partner and is an interactive online magazine dedicated to the theme of digital technologies applied to cultural heritage and the arts.
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/projects/riches/
The latest news and upcoming events relevant to the project were published on the blog. 138 blog posts were published that are related to RICHES activities and news; 159 posts about themes that are relevant to RICHES fields of research and 33 interesting calls for papers have been highlighted.
All the website news, events and call for papers’ links were launched on Twitter (with the hashtag #richesEU) and Facebook by the e-zine Digitalmeetsculture.net). Partners were invited to share the posts through their personal accounts.
#IAMRICHES was launched for the Amsterdam conference.
#decolonizethemuseum was launched at the Pisa conference, in relation to the co-creation activity at the National Museum of World Cultures.
The RICHES project also has a YouTube channel which features videos of project activity, as well as activities related to RICHES activity: https://www.youtube.com/user/richesEU
A significant RICHES objective was the design, development, editing and publishing of a book entitled Cultural Heritage in a Changing World. Contributions were sought that would be useful references for the research community, policy makers, professionals from the heritage sector, cultural ministries and agencies, and more widely communities and citizens interested in the selected topics. The online version of the book was available open access in early May 2016 and later the book was printed in 500 copies to be distributed to the partners and interested stakeholders.
From this page it is possible to access Springer Link:
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-29544-2
As it is an open access publication, interested parties can download either the entire book or individual chapters via this link for free.
The project also undertook a series of workshops, conferences and policy seminars.
Barcelona Workshop, May 2014
A workshop, entitled Building the Project’s Foundation, was held in May 2014 at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Barcelona.
The work of the project during the first few months was to agree a taxonomy of terms that would underpin future research work. In addition to the terms generated through the knowledge of the RICHES consortium, it was important to engage more widely with cultural heritage specialists and interested members of the public to gather further ideas, compare terms and reach new definitions. The event in Barcelona was a way to achieve this, involving professionals, external researchers and associates from the Network of Common Interest, as well as the UIC staff and student community. Thematic discussion groups, chaired by RICHES partners, considered and challenged existing definitions and provided new ideas for project partners to explore.
A blog article is available:
http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/riches-first-workshop-has-finalized/
as is a video of the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWspqAn05Bo
Pisa Conference, December 2014
The first RICHES international conference took place in Pisa in December 2014 in the Plazzo Lanfranchi‘s Museum of Graphics.
RICHES main objective is to challenge the “democratic deficit” that in Europe still exists between producers/curators of CH and consumers/users of CH and to explore ways of breaking down distinctions between the “making” and “using” of heritage. The topic of Pisa’s International Conference perfectly fitted with this framework; the conference title, “Cultural Heritage: recalibrating relationships” is about decentring culture and cultural heritage away from institutional structures towards the individual, so recalibrating the relationship between CH keepers and CH users.
A video of the conference is available on the project’s website:
http://riches-project.eu/pisaconference2014.html
The dedicated website of the Pisa conference is available at:
http://pisaconference2014.riches-project.eu/
Ankara Workshop, May 2015
A workshop on the Context of Change and the Move from Analogue to Digital was held at the Turkish National Library in Ankara May 2015.
In the 21st century, the world faces epochal changes which affect every part of society, including the arenas in which Cultural Heritage (CH) is made, held, collected, curated, exhibited, or simply exists. The workshop provided the framework to understand this context of change and the impact of the move from analogue to digital in two themes, where best practice examples were presented and open discussion held with the audience (translated into Turkish and English):
Session 1: The move from analogue to digital
Session 2: Cultural Heritage transmission in a changing world
In addition to presentations form project partners, local academics and partners also spoke, including the Mayor Veysel Tiryaki, from the Ankara Municipality of Altindag.
http://riches-project.eu/workshop-on-the-context-of-change-and-the-move-from-analogue-to-digital.html
Berlin Workshop, November 2015
In November 2015, the workshop on the Role of Cultural Heritage for Social and Economic Development took place at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.
With the RICHES social and economic research strands running in parallel, the Berlin workshop was a joint event to introduce the research findings of to an interested audience. The questions that underpinned the day included those of European identity based on diversity, transmission of CH within and across territories and communities, design and shared methodologies for engaging younger generations in CH practice and insights based upon study conducted across various cultural institutions, assessment of the potential of the built environment as a CH resource, transnational study of fiscal issues related to CH, and analyses of the innovation and experimentation in the digital economy.
http://riches-project.eu/workshop-on-the-role-of-ch-for-social-and-economic-development.html
Amsterdam Conference, April 2016
The Identity Matters conference was about change; about renewal and innovation; about trying to understand the way in which people construct their lives and identities through cultural artefacts, media and heritage. The floor was given to initiatives that aim to make a difference, to speakers that can empower people to look at their lives and work. However, it wasn’t only a forum for talking and listening, as various locations within Amsterdam were explored through urban safaris, with different local initiatives incorporated in the presentation of project results, that bring new insights into current practices.
Professionals, experts and policy makers from the fields of heritage, museums and technology met together for a two-day programme to explore collaboratively future visions of heritage. Against the backdrop of Europe's changing society perspectives, policies and case studies were challenged. The identities of the audience themselves was questioned and they were challenged to help others to explore theirs.
The conference programme booklet is available at http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Programme-Identity-Matters-April6th2016-def.pdf
Photographs of the conference can be found at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/waagsociety/sets/72157667025585472
The conference used the hashtag #IAMRICHES
RICHES Policy Seminars in Brussels, October 2015 and May 2016
The RICHES project held two successful Policy Seminars in Brussels. Both seminars comprised political updates by representatives from the European Commission, the presentation of policy recommendations from the RICHES project and Round Table discussions involving major stakeholders.
Both events were preceded by a networking session where participants from other EC-funded projects discussed aims and achievements in the light of establishing new, profitable collaborations and synergies.
• The first took place at the European Research Council
http://riches-project.eu/first-policy-seminar.html
• The second event was held at Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
http://riches-project.eu/second-policy-seminar.html
Partners from the RICHES project have regularly presented details of their work at other conferences and workshops across Europe, targeting different stakeholder groups to share the details of research findings. This has also been the opportunity for the distribution of project literature.
Through a series of events, web, web and social media presence, booklets and leaflets, the project has undertaken a diverse approach to communication, engagement and dissemination. The project has achieved its objective to reach different stakeholder groups and to showcase the results of RICHES research.
Actual and potential impact of RICHES work
An interesting question arising from the project was the concept that cultural institutions are the guardians of heritage and that due to ever advancing technological advances, people create their own culture and share it through social media. Institutional curators are constantly working to provide collections to meet public demand and expectations, but this never remains the same as preservation techniques and technological demands shift.
It is within this context that consideration was given to an IPR framework that was appropriate in the digital age of creative re-use of content and considers people’s human rights to their cultural heritage. An impact of this IPR framework has been in Turkey, as the partner representing the National Library has used RICHES tools to recommend a change in their national law regarding copyright, accession and data sharing.
A RICHES task in the Netherlands took a direct approach to address the difference between institutional and individual perspectives through co-creation activity considering the presentation of collections at The National Museum of World Cultures. The ethnographic museum opened its doors and allowed young people to comment and outline the disconnection between them and the institution. This was a project task that gained momentum throughout the project leading to significant results. The initial feedback raised awareness of colonial language that was used, that was considered to re-enforce stereotypes and had the potential to damage present day relationships. In response, an intervention team of interested people wrote alternative texts, created audio tours, with multiple voices to provide varied perspectives. A social media campaign was also launched #decolonizethemuseum. The following text is displayed at the museum:
“The Tropenmuseum is a museum for people and about people. Therefore, it is important to us to be in direct contact with our visitors. Over the past year we have held several conversations with young people from across Amsterdam. Our aim was to hear their opinions about our exhibition. It became clear that young people with cultural-diverse backgrounds were critical of a number of aspects of our museum presentation. For example: our depiction of the colonial period was too positive, minimizing its negative impact, and our approach on history is too much from a western perspective. We value the criticism of this group of young people because we want to be a museum where people from all cultural backgrounds feel welcome. They have made us rethink what could be changed, or should be changed. It is through these conversations that the project Decolonize the Museum emerged.”
As described, through technologies and social media people have developed online communities to share information, RICHES research looked at this in the context of the use of craft skills and performance. The research showed that skills and knowledge can be transferred between people who may not have had the opportunity to meet before. This has led to hobbies becoming part-time businesses, with the online presence having the dual purpose of acting as a market place for goods and services. Linked with the rise in digital fabrication processes that has simplified and added a new dimension to craft practice, there is certainly a rise in the use of traditional craft skills, supported by technologies leading to new jobs, a revival of traditional heritage activities which are boosting the economy.
Social media has changed the nature of social mobility. RICHES research considered several minority groups across Europe. Some rely upon technology within their day-to-day lives; YouTube gives them access to culture from home and Skype/Facetime enables them to talk to friends and family while eating alone. People travelling abroad can also identify local communities before leaving home to make connections in advance, to ease the process of arriving in a new destination; in some ways digital communication reduces geographical boundaries. RICHES policy recommendations highlighted this diasporic lifestyle and the need for local decision-makers to become aware of it. The RICHES Romanian researcher built a close bond with the Roma community in Coventry and wrote a detailed case study on the use of technologies for social cohesion of minorities. With the community’s approval, it was passed to the Deputy Leader of the Coventry Local Authority where his team analysed the findings and cited them in meetings and fora relating to inclusion and integration, as well as housing and social care, to influence future policy consideration.
Some of the minority communities studied did not integrate technology into their daily lives; this was a note of caution that was raised in other strands of RICHES research. With so many necessary services only available online, older or poorer groups in society that are either digitally illiterate or who do not have access to broadband risk becoming isolated and potentially disenfranchised.
The RICHES project considered territorial cohesion looking at festivals across Europe. There was a clear sense of community that was developed through the common cause of cooperative planning and preparing the event and the pride in hosting and participating. This was further explored through food heritage and the development of communities that grow, share, trade and cook local and regional produce and how this can forge a sense of togetherness. The result has been the creation of distinctive food cultures, revival of lost or threatened foods and the creation of social ties. Community led activities have generated strong themes of solidarity and cohesion and have the potential to rediscover local heritage and can be a force for change.
One of the festivals studied was the Flower parade in Zundert. Its initial findings demonstrated the community cohesion of people from the local community pulling together to create beautifully decorated floats to fit the annual themed procession. Further study revealed that Polish immigrants within the area tended not to join in and that it was the longer standing members of the community that have participated. Independently, building upon the work of the RICHES project, a charitable status organisation of a RICHES researcher has brought the unmediated heritage strand of the project to Zundert, involving a Polish film-maker who will release an animated film of the paintings of Van Gogh (who was born in Zundert) in an attempt to integrate Polish immigrants into the local community. Even after the RICHES project has concluded, themes from its research are followed up, in this instance relating to further social cohesion.
Society is changing, people are no longer happy to merely accept what they are told is important as their cultural heritage; people want to discover this for themselves. This may be due to the advancement of technologies and the ease with which information and ideas can be communicated or through community led initiatives. The co-creation process at the National Museum of World Cultures was one of ten examples explored within the project, all of which engage people in the process of planning, designing and implementing/building/ restoring CH.
There are two further legacy impacts of this work. Having analysed the case studies, a co-creation toolkit was developed that will enable CH organisations to construct and undertake their own process; the guidelines and best practice ideas will remove potential hurdles and encourage interaction and commitment from the start of a new initiative.
The Frieda 23 case was an example of an old building being re-purposed for into a school, art gallery, movie theatre, studio, office, conference centre, event location, technology centre, café and a library by a public-private-partnership. For the first time, communication media was available for the local community to be able to interact with planners and designers to understand what would happen and also to comment and to influence the design work. Frieda 23 was the first time that this experimentation had happened in Rostock. It was adopted as the template for subsequent building works and once again highlights the co-creative voice of the public.
In addition to its demonstration of co-creation, Frieda 23 was also a RICHES case study of a successful public-private-partnership. The project collected examples of varied CH related collaborations and identified strengths and weaknesses, ultimately developing ten points for any public or private institutions to consider ahead of their working together.
An aspect of the RICHES programme that drew upon cutting edge technologies was the virtual performance that was recorded with simultaneous performance in Barcelona and Falmouth. It was seen live by more than 150 spectators distributed in the two venues separated by miles away and was streamed for a further online audience. This was a step change in terms of the way in which performance is made, recorded and shared with people and has great potential for future practice. Several video versions of the event are available, including a 50 minute documentary featuring in depth exploration of topics concerning preservation and transmission of performance-based.
This technology is also permeating CH institutions, as they strive to meet the growing expectations of the public. This isn’t just restricted to social media, but incorporated holograms of historical characters through virtual and augmented reality, gamification, as a way to communicate story and experiences, leading into an environment of wearable technology and a bring your own device requirement with people accessing enhanced experiences through their smart phone or tablet. RICHES has highlighted that CH institutions need to maintain this pace of change and this will have an impact upon their audience engagement and strategies for reaching them, in the future.
CH institutions have always had an educational remit and played an important community role, including addressing issues of literacy. This is balanced by younger people expecting to learn via technology and institutions have to address this within their planning. The RICHES case study highlighted the British Museum’s Samsung Digital Discovery Centre which aligns its activity with educational curricula and although it would not be possible for all CH institutions, it is a model for others to consider. RICHES work can be used by those considering this course of action as the benchmark.
The economic strand of the project’s research looked specifically at the digitally necessitated change within CH institutions and saw a clear correlation of successfully adapting to digital change where an institution had a formal plan in place to make such a transition. Further aspects of this economic analysis considered the ways in which digitised items could be shared with a wider audience through Wikipedia. Rather than having items locked away in storage, they have a new online life that will enable the general public to appreciate them (and potentially creatively re-use them, subject to rights labels.) The third strand of the study considered VAT on books across Europe and concluded that national fiscal policies do not align with CH related policies, as the objectives for the CH sector are often restricted through taxation.
This research was presented at many economic events across Europe enabling feedback and revision and leading to the publication of an article entitled Digitization of heritage collections as indicator of innovation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2016.1164488
RICHES economic research also considered plans that were in place relating to buildings, monument and places of interest; the strategies in place to attract tourists, but still preserve the site from wear and tear and not overwhelm the local community as well as how the historical site could be protected, but visitors receive an authentic experience. As with institutions, approaches vary, including augmented reality, although some found that roaming charges had restricted tourists from utilising these facilities (which should become less of a consideration within the EU and the recent regulation of roaming charges). As with previous strands, educational aspects are considered through dedicated centres and public-private-partnerships often fill the void caused through cuts to public funding.
Policy Briefs
Following their RICHES activity, project partners wrote a series of eight Policy Briefs that provide a synthesis of their research. They have been shared through two Policy Seminars and are available on the RICHES Resources website. Policy Briefs are:
• RICHES Taxonomy of cultural heritage definitions
• Digital copyright framework: the move from analogue to digital and new forms of IPR
• Co-creation strategies: from incidental to transformative
• Toward a craft revival: recalibrating social, cultural, economic and technological dynamics
• The cultural heritage institution: transformation and change in a digital age
• Food heritage and culture: changing spaces of production and consumption
• European minorities and identity: strengthening relationships for a sense of belonging in the digital era
• The economic and fiscal dimension of cultural heritage
The Policy Briefs were presented at the two Policy Seminars and discussed by experts during round table sessions and with an audience of interested participants.
These documents give a synopsis of some of the important findings to emerge from the RICHES research and are aimed at audiences involved with policy-making. They situate themselves within the current CH policy framework within the EU and in particular the European Parliament Resolution of 8 September 2015, Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI). As such they are important not only for re-enforcing many of the messages emanating from the Parliament’s Resolution but in addition they provide valuable evidence for Europe’s CH policy.
At the second Policy Seminar in May 2016, the speaker from DG EAC confirmed that her department would look at both the minorities and identity Policy Brief and the base research deliverable to consider the research findings. As DG GRoW is working on an Action Plan for tourism and the cultural and creative industries, the craft related Policy Brief was forwarded, as a contribution from the RICHES project. The policy briefs will be brought to the attention of policy-makers when opportunities arise into the future, and members of the RICHES team will continue to disseminate the important findings at relevant opportunities into the future.
Partners also developed a series of Think Papers. These raised provocative forward-looking questions around themes arising from their research and were designed to stimulate further thinking around their research outcomes in relation to the aims of the RICHES project and current European policy on CH. Eight Think Papers were written:
• Copyright and Cultural Heritage: Developing a Vision for the Future
• New Forms of Artistic Performances and the Future of Cultural Heritage
• Cultural heritage festivals: belonging, sense of place and identity
• Digital Technologies: Re-thinking Turkish Libraries in an Information Society
• Digital heritage: intellectual rights, democracy and commoditisation of cultural heritage places
• Museum education and learning with digital technologies: shaping a culture of participation and lifelong learning
• Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) for cultural heritage: Opportunities, Challenges, Future Steps
• Cultural Heritage as fuel for innovation: enabling the power of creation
Some of the Policy Seminar audience members were representatives of other CH projects. An objective of the European Parliament Resolution: Towards an Integrated Approach to Cultural Heritage for Europe, (2014/2149(INI) had been to pool the knowledge and expertise of as many CH projects as possible. The RICHES project took the opportunity to invite representatives of projects to a networking session ahead of each of the Seminars and gave them the opportunity to introduce themselves during an open CH themed discussion.
As with the on-going work in engaging with policy-makers to talk about the Policy Briefs, although the RICHES project has now ended, this initiative will continue and a meeting of interested parties will be held together with the Europeana Space project’s conference in Berlin in November 2016.
Project partners found the multi-disciplinary project to be beneficial. Strong links have been forged between project partners and with local organisations and communities, providing a greater understanding of stakeholder expectation. Through project workshops and conferences, as well as the networking sessions initiated with other CH projects, partners have communicated directly with policy-makers and entered into mutually beneficial dialogue; an opportunity that ordinarily is rare.
The RICHES project investigated new areas of research, which has led to involvement in new initiatives and developed interest in new lines of research. It is certain that partner networks have grown through interacting with different stakeholder groups/communities both through engagement with research and by sharing of results. New academic research projects have been and are being developed which are grounded in the significant findings to emerge from the RICHES project. For example an ambitious interdisciplinary funding application which seeks to explore cultural heritage through performance and which involves expert researchers from around the world as well as heritage practitioners, has been made by a member of the RICHES project team. The inspiration for this project came directly from the work done within the RICHES project. This is only one of what is likely to be many lines of enquiry that will be pursued directly as a result of the findings of RICHES.
Summary
From the very beginning of the project a wide-ranging communication, engagement and dissemination strategy was designed to reach a wide variety of audiences. Through the Network of Common Interest that builds a community of projects, organisations and individuals, there was a base to reach people through the project website(s), blog articles and newsletters and social media channels. Partners were able to attend other events and conferences, make presentations, join discussions and leave behind high quality literature to share the message of the RICHES project.
The dissemination base that the project built in its early stages, brought partners into contact with stakeholders and communities that were able to contribute to research and broaden the scope of the project’s work. This led to detailed research findings that have been as broad as the multi-disciplinary scope of the project with examples of societal change illustrated regularly and instances of change as a result of impact from RICHES research including the example of the presentation collections at The National Museum of World Cultures and the further exploration of community cohesion in Zundert. The RICHES project can be confident that it has met its objective to disseminate its research findings and illustrate the change undertaken within the wider CH context. The research undertaken in RICHES has also had an impact in a variety of ways and will continue to exert much influence into the future. People and organisations have and will continue to learn from the breadth of RICHES research and implement actions based upon findings and recommendations.
List of Websites:
The main project website is www.riches-project.eu. This had been live and updated throughout the project's lifetime.
To share the results of the RICHES project, a second RICHES website was established: http://resources.riches-project.eu/.
