Wednesday 22 March, 1.15pm – 2.00pm
Parallel Sessions 3a, 3b & 3c
Hosted online
Session 3a
Chair: Professor Stefanos Kollias
Sissi Xiu, MA graduate, UCL, UK
‘A Transformative Use of Digital Artefacts for Museum Education Before and After Covid-19’
Abstract
This essay explores the different uses of digital artefacts in museum education before and after Covid-19, and how they challenge the incompatibility between the essence of the museum and the essence of the computer. This ‘museum digital revolution’ adds value to museum learning activity from three perspectives: (1) learning scenario: from ‘temple’ to the Internet; (2) learning access: from centralization to democratization; (3) learning identity: from visitor to user. Case studies from V&A, Natural History Museum, Louvre Museum, Roman Bath and Museum of London are discussed in this essay.
Sissi Xiu
MA graduate
UCL, UK
Sissi Xiu is a MA graduate from Museums and Galleries in Education, Institute of Education, and Visitor Welcome Assistant at the British Museum. Her research interests include young adult engagement and community collaborations.
Monika Keenan, Independent Graduate, Scotland
‘Mixed Reality Displays for Accessible, Multi-user Engagement with Digital Heritage’
Abstract
To address questions of physical and cognitive access to heritage, barriers to engagement with digital heritage objects, and the lack of opportunities to interact with digital or virtual heritage in a social context, Monika will demonstrate the design, construction and installation of a novel AR display device which is low-tech, user-friendly and affordable, but provides impressive results and exciting possibilities.
Monika Keenan
Independent Graduate
Scotland
Monika Keenan is a recent graduate of the MSc in Heritage Visualisation at the Glasgow School of Art, where she received the Chair’s Medal for the School of Simulation and Visualisation for her research. Monika’s work in digital heritage has focussed on the development of embodied experiences, blending digital objects or environments with the physical surroundings, and making the experiences user-friendly and engaging for everyone.
Session 3b
Chair: Dr Jim Cheshire
Naomi Korn, Researcher (PhD), University of Edinburgh, UK
‘Online Access to Orphan Works by UK Cultural Heritage Organisations Post Brexit: What we can learn from international legislative and licensing solutions’
Abstract
When the UK left the EU, UK cultural heritage and educational establishments lost an important piece of copyright legislation which enabled them to publish online their orphan works (works in copyright where rights holders are either unknown or cannot be traced). This paper will explore the loss of the EU Orphan Works Exception from the UK’s legislative framework following Brexit. It will present different international legislative and licensing orphan works solutions and discuss what UK cultural heritage organisations, funders and policy makers can now learn from these in their management and use of orphan works, thus unlocking access to millions of items potentially languishing in a digital black hole of cultural heritage.
Naomi Korn
Researcher (PhD)
University of Edinburgh, UK
Naomi Korn is a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh. Naomi’s research specialises in the impact of Brexit on the management of copyright works by UK cultural heritage organisations. She is a leading UK specialist in copyright, licensing and data protection, working across the UK’s cultural heritage sector for over 20 years. Her particular research interests are the balance between legal compliance and proportionate pragmatism in the context of mass digitisation.
Professor Harold Thwaites, Director CRCDM & VARRN, Sunway University, Malaysia
‘Creating Accessible Cultural Heritage Visitor Experiences’
Abstract
This paper will present an overview related to the creation and exhibition of our cultural heritage projects for increased public access. It highlights the information design process applied to the preservation and re-presentation of cultural heritage via digital media in the research-creation work carried by the Centre for Research Creation (CRCDM) at Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It will focus on disappearing tangible and intangible heritage comprising the use of digital media to build new forms of user experience and raise awareness. Visitors encountered a variety of immersive content comprising unique exemplars of Malaysian cultural heritage, storytelling and craft traditions in these two projects.
Professor Harold Thwaites
Director CRCDM & VARRN
Sunway University, Malaysia
Harold Thwaites is Professor and Director of the Centre for Research-Creation in Digital Media (CRCDM) and Virtual and Augmented Reality Research Network, (VARRN) at the School of Arts at Sunway University. Originally from Canada, he was a tenured Associate Professor of the Communication Studies Department at Concordia University in Montreal for 31 years. His research and teaching comprise: Media Studies, Digital Heritage, Experiential Media Arts, Information Design, and Digital Humanities. At Sunway University his current research-creation centres on the digital preservation of Malaysian cultural heritage, and museum experiences for the cultural imaginary. He continues to share his experience and passion to innovate new projects and fields of research, with staff and students in Malaysia.
Session 3c
Chair: Melina Smirniou
Alessandro Pesaro, Digital Archivist, University of Lincoln, UK
‘Cultural heritage digitisation as Information Supply Chain. A reconceptualization’
Abstract
It is contended that cultural heritage digitisation is a specific case of a supply chain, a model in which different actors aim to match supply and demand in a timely and effective way. Drawing on the experience of the IBCC Digital Archive (a crowdsourced digitisation project of contested heritage at risk) it will be shown how existing management practices fail to adequately describe the idiosyncrasies of a growing number of projects in which a) the extent of heritage is unknown and b) staff have limited control over it. Findings have implications in terms of management, access, and resource allocations.
Alessandro Pesaro
Digital Archivist
University of Lincoln, UK
Alessandro is a digital humanities specialist with cross-border experience in delivering digitisation projects of archival collections, books and library materials. Alessandro also provides expertise for the delivery of digitisation projects undertaken by the Lincoln International Business School, while at the same time being responsible for the maintenance and management of the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. He currently teaches Cultural and heritage attractions management and Digitising of cultural heritage collections in partnership with the Universities of Lingnan and Guizhou.
Thomas Buckley, Artist, UK
‘Memory Bar – speakeasy meet archive’
Abstract
As an artist Thomas works with memory as my medium, and will share the project “Memory Bar” – a mixture between a speak-easy / archive where through community engagement Thomas and their team discover sensory memories which are later served to the public as immersive cocktails in spaces activated with emergent technologies.
Thomas Buckley
Artist, UK
An alumni immersive fellow of The Royal Shakespeare Company, Thomas works with emerging and immersive technologies and sensory experiences internationally. They lead a porous collaborative studio of creatives – believing in work that makes us feel more human with focus on memory and social histories. Most recently Thomas has worked with: BAFTA Award Winning Alchemy Immersive; Real Ideas Market Hall Plymouth; University of Portsmouth CCiXR.
