Autore: Linn Rasimelli

The Potential of Digital Tools to Enhance the Promotion of Cultural Heritage

Posted on by Linn Rasimelli

The Portuguese Multiplier Event of the S.I.L.V.HER project will take place live & online on Thursday, the 15th of July 2021, from 14:15 till 17:30 Western European Summer Time.

Venue: Aula Magna of UTAD (Universidade de Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro)

Programme headlines

  • 14:15 Official opening
  • 14:30 Presentation of the S.I.L.V.HER project, in general, and two of the projects of the students (BIL’app of UTAD students and COMPLETE).
  • 15:30 5 speakers will talk for 20 minutes each about the digital tools they produce to promote culture and tourism. Some will be with us in Vila Real, others will join us online.
    • 15:30 Sismotur, represented by Augusto Ramos Méndez
    • 15:50 Realizasom, represented by André Coelho
    • 16:10 Critec, represented by Bruno Vide and João Neto
    • 16:30 O Museu Virtual da Lusofonia, represented by Isabel Macedo
    • 16:50 Immersivus Gallery, represented by Margarida Campolargo
  • 17:10   Discussion and closure

Online registration is for free, but obligatory, via this link: https://bit.ly/3B2lMKe

Should you prefer to attend the session online, you will receive an e-mail with the code after your registration.

More information about the SILVHER project is available at:

https://cetrad.utad.pt/verprojecto/33

www.silvher.eu

https://www.facebook.com/silvheritage

Programme details

At 14:15 WECT, the official opening will be done by Carla Amaral, Pro-rector for Education and Quality at UTAD. Since May 2021 UTAD has a new Rectorate and for the first time a team of three persons was nominated to guarantee the quality of education and training and to innovate over the coming years.

At 14:30 WECT, the responsible for the UTAD team, Veronika Joukes will present the S.I.L.V.HER online course and platform. Student groups will present the project through which they contribute to locally safeguard and valorise cultural heritage, using digital tools.

To illustrate the rich potential of this sector, we invited five leading companies and associations, active in our region, to share their outcomes between 15:30 and 17:30 WECT.

Sismotur implements a smart signage information and management service which enables your travellers to consult your touristic offering, build and book customized trips with the app through INVENTRIP, and share them in social networks or using the latest technologies: Beacons, NFC, QR codes. (http://www.sismotur.com/)

Realizasom designs mobile applications, interactive multimedia guides and audio guides to offer memorable visitor experiences, aimed at visitors with different needs and of all ages in places of cultural, historical and touristic interest. (http://realizasom.com/)

Critec created the mobile application ARt (Augmented Reality Technology) that adds life to urban artworks, and thus promotes local tourism and art icons. Recently the spinoff Hubduction was created in order to explore the full potential of not only AR but also VR creating otherworldly experiences. (http://critec.pt/art/pt/) (http://hubduction.com)

O Museu Virtual da Lusofonia or the Virtual Museum of Lusophony is a platform for academic cooperation in science, education and the arts in mainly Portuguese-speaking countries. Citizens are invited to participate actively, in making records available, in commenting on the ‘works’ preserved in the museum, in (re)building a collective memory. (http://www.museuvirtualdalusofonia.com/)

Immersivus Gallery is the first gallery for immersive arts experiences in Portugal. In their spaces in Porto, Lisbon and Vilamoura (Algarve) they develop a wide range of immersive experiences in which national and international artists are free to explore different themes through an eclectic use of arts and technology. (https://www.immersivus.com/)

In the morning Critec/Hubduction will host a workshop for the students of the SILVHER project from 09:30 till 12:00 WECT.

The workshop is about communication, specially about how to pitch the technological product you are creating. As the projects will need funding, you need to reach people, to make them fall in love with your vision. Sometimes you only have a few minutes to convince someone, sometimes even less. What should you focus on? How do you prepare the presentation? How should you behave on stage? In this workshop we will create a one-minute elevator pitch and a three minutes speech. Then we will record these speeches and analyse them so that you will be better prepared to show your dream to the world.

For the filming of the speeches we can also count with the support of the Audio-visual Service of UTAD, namely with their studio with a green screen.

BIL’APP – the application that leads students, residents and visitors to the intangible heritage of Vila Real

Posted on by Linn Rasimelli

The Portuguese students Carolina Branco, Catarina Pantoja, Laura Fraga, Mariana Abreu participate, since 2019, in the international project S.I.L.V.HER (Safeguarding Intangible and CulturaL Values and HERitage).

With the support of the online course “Digital Valorisation of Cultural Heritage” they have meanwhile elaborated a first version of their pilot idea that is called Bil’app.

Students and carefully selected partners will develop an application allowing its users to discover Vila Real from an innovative perspective: what do the places in the city centre mean to students and to residents? The application will improve and facilitate access to information about the history of the city, its culture and traditions, its recent innovations, its sustainable practices, and so on.

Inhabitants, tourists and students, especially juniors, will get to know Vila Real, especially from a perspective promoting immaterial cultural heritage. Thus, so much more than the typical list with museums, churches and all kinds of built cultural heritage will be shared.

The main goals of Bil’app will be to share cultural heritage, to provide information about events and activities, to learn peculiarities about different local spots and also to offer new tourist and historical itineraries, using AR as the main tool. Users will be able to earn points by participating and visiting certain events and places – museums, traditional bars and restaurants, among others – that have a partnership with Bil’app. Points can be converted into discounts and used in the same places, mainly selected to promote local gastronomy and culture.

In order to enhance the dissemination of this application, social media like Instagram and Facebook will be used and agreements with competent entities, such as hotel units, the local university UTAD and the City Council will be elaborated. Bil’app, in addition to supporting local commerce, promotes tourism and encourages tourists, inhabitants and students to discover what Vila Real can offer.

In this city, that is so meaningful to this group of SILVHER-students, Carolina, Catarina, Laura, and Mariana are searching for a solution to improve everyone’s experience, even in COVID times.

DAISSy research group of the Hellenic Open University organised the Greek online multiplier event for the S.I.L.V.HER project

Posted on by Linn Rasimelli

On Monday, June 14, 2021, the DAISSy research group of the Hellenic Open University held the Greek online event entitled “Valorization and promotion of Cultural Heritage”, in order to disseminate the results of the Erasmus+ project S.I.L.V.HER – Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Values and Heritage.

The Director of DAISSy group, Professor Achilles Kameas, opened the event with an introductory speech about the research activities of the DAISSy group, which are related to the promotion of Cultural Heritage.

The outcomes of the project SILVHER were presented by Mrs. Vicky Maratou, researcher and project manager with the DAISSy group. The presentation demonstrated the blended learning course of SILVHER and the e-learning platform, as well as some project ideas of the involved students related to the promotion of their local cultural heritage.

The event continued with two invited speeches for specific initiatives on how storytelling can promote the cultural heritage.

Mrs. Artemis Stamatelou, Public Relations Officer at the European Parliament in the Directorate-General for Translation, presented the open platform “My House of European History”, a digital collection of written personal stories, as narrated by people from all over the world. It is a collaborative and multilingual active project, a mosaic of stories related to Europe, from the past and the present. The platform is available to anyone who would like to share a personal story about Europe.

Mrs. Maria Aivalioti, Tour script editor at Clio Muse Tours, presented the European project RePAST, focusing on the success story of the project: Dark pages of the History in an audio tour. The challenge of how people could discover and learn about their History, was addressed through the creation of eight thematic and interactive audio tours related to specific dark events of the contemporary History in each participating country. The company Clio Muse Tours creates thematic digital audio tours for cultural places in Greece and abroad.

The second part of the multiplier event consisted of presentations of other European projects which DAISSy group either coordinates or participates in, and are related to the tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, the Cultural Heritage management and Tourism.

The audience of the event consisted of students and graduates of study programmes related to Culture and Tourism, researchers and educators. The event was organized online due to the epidemiological data of the country during that period, and it was broadcasted live on the DAISSy YouTube channel.