Culture and digitisation: articles
The Ancient Life of Dacian Empire Recast in a Virtual Museum
The 2nd century clashes of Roman and Dacian armies on the territory of today’s Romania have not left much behind other than another story about the expansion of Roman Empire. The little that remained, however, now offers an invaluable insight into the culture of what once had been one of the best...
Reconstructing the Silicon Valley of the 18th Century: A Digital Perspective on the Industrial Revolution in Newcastle
Newcastle of the 18th century. The heavy industry thrives, people from rural parts are flocking into the town in pursuit of a job, shelter and a new life. Many of them are afraid of new technology and the great social shift it announces. They are confused, if somewhat resistant to the change, yet...
National Museum of Sweden Releases 3,000 Digitised Artworks, More to Come
Anne Vallayer-Coster’s Portrait of a Violinist, Alexander Roslin’s 1768 masterpiece The Lady with the Veil and the 1603 Interior of a Baroque Church by Bartholomeus Bassen are just some of Swedish art gems available in the Sweden’s National Museum online database. Open to everyone’s gaze, these...
Electronic Paper Displays at Estonia’s National Museum Help Voice the Ugro-Finish Past
Since the Estonian National Museum building was repurposed by the Soviet army during the World War II, many of its collections of Ugro-Finish culture have been silently waiting to tell their story. Numerous artefacts, works of art and everyday items witnessing the folk culture and everyday life...
British Film Institute to Digitally Reinvent 100,000 Classic TV Shows
Growing up in the Great Britain of the 70’s and 80’s was often intrinsically connected to quirky characters from early British TV comedies or insightful remarks from various children’s shows. With documentaries and dramas serving the older audience groups, the rich programme of the up and coming...
British Library Embraces Digitisation to Make Shakespeare Relatable to Digital Natives
Describing the bygone era of rigid Elizabethan norms and often even bordering on fantasy, Shakespeare’s plays may be too much to swallow for the average 21st century reader. This is particularly true for young people, most of whom struggle to understand his socially and politically complex plots,...
On Art and Algorithms, a Blend that Draws Digital Audience to the World of Culture
On Art and Algorithms, a Blend that Draws Digital Audience to the World of Culture When ING Bank and J. Walter Thompson unveiled “The Next Rembrandt” in April 2016, a painting that would have even Rembrandt scratching his head trying to remember, the idea of using digital technology to recreate...
Georgia is Looking to Launch a Large-Scale Film Heritage Digitisation Project
As one of the first provinces of the old Russian Empire to have a dedicated cinema studio, Georgia has one of the longest film traditions in Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century, its capital Tbilisi had as many cinema houses as St Petersburg and was a home to numerous filmmakers, artists...
Uncovering the hidden histories of Malta Online
Discoloured papers containing copies of 17th century letters by Giovanni Pio de Piro, 1st Baron of Budach and 1st Marquis de Piro, have recently been made available online thanks to The Malta Private Archive Digitisation Project. Containing 600 items in which the baron discussed both business and...
A Ripper victim comes to Life in the Police Museum’s Virtual Reality Project
Since Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman’s 1959 big screen production of the Whitechapel murders narrative, London’s notorious killer Jack the Ripper has been a protagonist of different cinematic recreations. And while most of them managed to properly depict the spirit of the 19th century London or...
Drama Goes Digital: Bringing European Theatre Closer to Online Communities
Be it though smartphone apps, streaming media or 3D effects, digital technology has creeped into the modern theatre a while ago. Artists and art directors have been experimenting with technology for years to use enrich their work, revitalise theatrical performance, and make theatre more relevant...
Safeguarding People’s Privacy Online Central to EU Commission’s Next Generation Internet Initiative
The ubiquity of smart technologies has pushed both individuals and organisations towards the virtual space as the ultimate source of information. Yet, as Roberto Viola, Director General of DG Connect, cleverly notes: “Today, even if omnipresent and intensively used, many Europeans still have some...
Transcription of Archival Documents Reinvented
Prior to the emergence of Handwritten Text Recognition technology, historic manuscripts would often take years to be transcribed. Complex handwritings, arbitrary text layouts and unusual writing styles were all impediments to researchers reading and interpreting historic texts with certainty. To...
Bringing a Russian Royal Couple Back to Life in Denmark’s New Digitisation Project
The crackly sound of an old wax cylinder recording can evoke the past in an incredibly immediate way. In the State and University Library of Denmark, many such recordings have been digitised in order to provide a deeper look into the national history and unveil hidden truths of the past. One of...
New Study Reveals Key Audience Engagement Strategies for Museums
A vibrant hallway echoing with voices of tour guides and the silent steps of visitors is no longer the principal association of a museum experience. Contemporary cultural institutions have moved a long way from expecting their visitors only to consume passively the information on art and history...
Digital Cultural Heritage vital for shaping future Smart Cities
The rapidly evolving civic technology such as smart street lights and traffic-tracking sensors has already helped build cities resembling those that previously existed in science fiction novels only. By 2050, when it is estimated that 70% of the world’s population will be urban, these futuristic...
Symphonologie Project Blends Art and Big Data to Highlight Agitations of the Modern World
One of the most thrilling aspects of technology is its ability to recreate familiar concepts in unexpected ways. Classical music performances can be visually or auditorily enhanced to give a new form to music that has existed for centuries. On the 20th September, the world’s largest museum and...
