DC BOX: Digital Curator Training & Tool Box (2021-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000032253)
New technologies and digital communication are transforming societies, changing lifestyles, consumption patterns and power relationships in economic value chains. In this changing landscape, the role of culture is more important than ever. Over the last decades, the application of digital technologies to the production and management of Cultural Heritage (CH)-related data has progressively been replacing traditional methods of data gathering, organization and management. As well, the digital revolution, still in action, have found its way even for the CH sector. Today, almost all museums and cultural places are accompanied by digital tools. Actions like researching, publishing (on-line), exhibiting, communicating or participating are likely to be supported by digital tools, which improves the works of museums and strengthen the public exchange. Thus, developing digital strategies has become a cross-sectorial task, which is influencing the whole ecosystem around the museum as a standalone entity [1]. The opportunities offered by digital solutions for CH are countless; indeed, they do not only make exhibits and artifacts accessible to a wider spectrum of visitors, but they allow to go beyond the physical constrains. Collections can be brought online, creating new environments for exchange and enable participation. Also, to foster the development of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) [2], CH should be a facilitator for local CCI start-up projects and support small creative entrepreneurship in the area of learning, art galleries and workshops, etc. In this scenario, CCI across Europe are severely affected by the CoVid-19 crisis. Cultural institutions for public use/enjoinment, especially museums, have gone from a total closure to reduced accesses according to social distancing measures. The pandemic had a twofold impact: the impossibility of experiencing the physical dimension of places of CH and the increasing attempts to ‘put online’ not yet structured cultural products and services. Considering the vulnerability but also the potential of Culture in crisis time, the project aims to face CoVid-related challenges by working on the second above-mentioned impact while using the former as a new normality to deal with in the 21st century. Considering this background, it emerges the need to shape, design and professionally encourage the figure of the Digital Curator (DC). This figure represents the turnkey toward a real digital transformation, because them can play an essential role in enabling cultural experiences, knowledge creation, preservation, and use and re-use of cultural heritage across the Europe [3-4 -5] The Digital Curator is an emerging professional profile: its relevance has been emphasised by the prolongation of CoVid-19 pandemic and the consequent need to rely on digital, smart and connected museums. Nevertheless, up to date there’s no single, unanimously agreed reference framework to empower learners with skills, competences and expertise a DC should provide, that is a synthesis of technical knowhow and humanistic background.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/culture/library/reports/2014-heritage-mapping_en.pdf
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/digitalsingle-market/en/news/european-commission-report-cultural-heritage-digitisation-online-accessibility-and-digital
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/culture/cultural-heritage/cultural-heritage-eu-policies/european-digital-heritage
[4] https://ec.europa.eu/culture/cultural-heritage/cultural-heritage-eu-policies/cultural-heritage-and-education.
[5] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/factual-summary-report-open-public-consultation-digital-culturalheritage
Objetivos generales
The main goal of DCbox is to create a new generation of European professionals working in the cultural heritage sector, equipped with a recognised, cross-cutting and high-level digital skillset. More specifically, the project is aimed at:
a) better defining the professional figure of ‘digital curator’, owning digital, marketing and communication skills to engage a broader and more variegated audience;
b) taking advantage by positive effects of Digital Transformation in CH and tackling negative effects on museums and archaeological sites brought by COVID-19 through the development of highquality digital contents and virtual visits;
c) creating a cross-European network of Universities, Museums and IT enterprises, acting as a workspace for mutual learning, sharing of experiences and active experimentation in the process of cultural heritage digitalisation.
At the same time, the project deals with distance learning tools for higher education, considering that they have demonstrated a lack of digital readiness, or rather, robustness, particularly for laboratorial and work-based activities, as in the case of the design-oriented courses. Given these objectives and the results, obtained by the implementation plan, DCBox also can depict project outcomes and impacts described as follows:
1) Better and diffused awareness among EU and HE cultural institutions about the digital dimension in the museums: their already available skills, successful practices, adequate transformation strategies, their potential to act as promoters of community-based strategies based on heritage.
2) Better training opportunities, enhanced skills and general knowledge for students about the capacity to actually set up, maintain, improve and promote a permanently digital curated, managed and boosted museum.
3) Greater interest and involvement of HE staff in distance or digital learning and didactic activities, which can leverage students’ participation and engagement as a driver to obtain effective tools for hands-on courses (such as design, drawing and all the ideate/practical courses) or work-based learning practices.
4)Reinforcing stable and continuous collaborations between different public research institutions, cultural associations, organizations dealing with services in museums and archaeological heritage in order to promote the training of highly-skilled staff, and to define agreements and strategies about digital transformation in the museums.
Papel de la Universidad de Córdoba
Creation of Learning Modules: Based on a formal/informal education format (e.g. EOR, virtual and real time lessons, virtual collaborative rooms etc.), these modules will be the basis of a career-based learning programs for Digital Curator professionals (DCH curricula). In particular, the learning modules give to the students the theoretical background in order to complement their already available skills. This output constitutes the basis on which the following VIRTUAL LABs (PR4) are established. PR2 objective is the development of a free and open online course (videos and PowerPoint files) containing researched and innovative educational material regarding the nowledge/skills/competencies identified in the previous project result (DEL 1.1; 1.2). The on-line course will have a general path (which can be followed by any kind of profile) which will present the application of sustainable strategies for CH and general digital notions in which they lack knowledge/skills/competencies, independently of their starting level. It will be followed by 4 specific sub-paths related to the 5 LABs chosen by the partnership (referto PR4). Lastly, the categorization of the produced and researched materials will permit to the interested learners (among various MD students, as well as teachers and associated museums staff) to better understand the level of the competencies at which they are and that they can acquire, identifying existing gaps of knowledge and expertise. Both learners and trainers will benefit from this output, since learner will have the opportunity to increase their competences, while trainer and teachers will manage and test an innovative material to train their learners. Learning modules themes:
• ADVANCED 3D DIGITIZATION
•High resolution (4K) images production
• DIGITAL DATA PRESERVATION – POLICY RULES AND LYCENSING
•DIGITAL ACCESS (UNIVERSAL DESIGN – virtual experiences)
•AI in Cultural Heritage domain
• Tracking of user experiences for virtual/digital museums…
• Communication and marketing strategies in CH
• Storytelling for restoration/conservation project (preconditions, principles, strategies, results)
Investigador principal:Antonio Monterroso Checa
E-mail:amonterroso@uco.es