Building bridges rather than walls – Information Centre – Research & Innovation

© Anton Ivanov Photograph, #363389439, supply:inventory.adobe.com 2021

Scientists in the EU-funded CROSSCULT project developed computer software applications that make it possible for website visitors to far better take pleasure in Europe’s shared record at popular exhibitions and archaeological internet sites across the European Union.

In accordance to project communications coordinator Luc Vandenabeele of the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technologies, CROSSCULT experienced two main goals. The first was to digitally improve visitor experiences in the course of tours of EU historical exhibitions, these as the Montegrotto Terme archaeological internet site around Padua, Italy. The second was to develop events that would endorse both equally a far better knowing of European record and improve how website visitors encounter the events. “We aimed to maximize historical recognition by connecting different venues and viewpoints, and by demonstrating the connections amongst historical phenomena in different eras,” he says.

Sharing by connecting

CROSSCULT’s first motion was to create an on the net system for making Android applications specific to exhibitions and their pilot projects. The application for the National Gallery in London, for example, offers museum maps, enables website visitors to “like” specified museum is effective, and suggests other is effective that the user might like centered on prior input. These mobile applications, out there via Google Play, make it possible for friends to tailor their electronic experiences to their individual preferences.

Another CrossCult-produced Android application, “Cultural Connections”, draws parallels amongst historical and modern day occasions. For example, the application informs consumers that locations of Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece were being united for more than 400 several years in the course of the Roman Empire, and details out that underneath the European Union, they have only been united considering that 1986. The application then asks the user to react by sharing his or her feelings.

When developing the pilot projects linked with the applications, scientists started with the main basic principle that record has no absolute truths, but relatively a variety of interpretations and contrasting viewpoints that encourage particular reflection.
The first pilot project was an art exhibition at London’s National Gallery held on twenty five-29 June 2018. The pilot’s application will help website visitors navigate the Gallery’s is effective and poses questions intended to encourage the contemplation of their cultural and historical significance.

The second project produced another application that explored the therapeutic use of h2o in antiquity. The application authorized consumers to digitally check out historical spas around Lugo, in Spain Chaves, in Portugal Montegrotto, in Italy and the Epidaurus archaeological internet site in Greece.

A scaled-down venue was the aim of the third pilot: the Tripolis Archaeological Museum in Greece. “Visitors went beyond the common degree of historical presentation, these as the type of a statue or its development date,” Vandenabeele says. “Instead, they went into further amounts of reflection, these as more than the social features of lifetime in antiquity.”

The fourth and remaining pilot authorized consumers to look into the cultural heritage of the cities of Valetta in Malta and Luxembourg Town and Belval in Luxembourg. The application for this pilot, entitled “CrossCult: Cities”, utilised on the net maps to guide website visitors on going for walks tours and pointed out internet sites of cultural and historical significance.

Better historical appreciation

The remaining outcomes from CROSSCULT, which finished in late February 2019, incorporate financial gains for participating municipalities. Scientists produced computer software and applications that educators, vacationer operators, and nearby governments can use to improve their solutions. In addition, the computer software system remains out there as a toolkit that cultural heritage experts can use to create their individual customised applications.

“CROSSCULT was an awesome journey,” Vandenabeele says. “It enabled the humanities and engineering to be part of forces to guidance reflections on record and an knowing of our prevalent European past.”