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Automated Scanning Technology for 3D Digitisation© Public domain

#Heritage_digitised

How can cultural heritage be preserved digitally? With #Heritage_digitised we delve into discourses surrounding the digitisation of art and cultural heritage to ask what does this imply for narratives around postcolonialism, sustainability, representation and diversity? Through engaging discussions, insightful perspectives and the interactive competition GIF IT UP; where you can remix your own cultural heritage, #Heritage_digitised invites artists, scholars, activists, and cultural enthusiasts to participate in the exploration and reimagining of digitisation.

Understanding digitised heritage

What actually is digital restitution? Photo on slide 1: View of the "I miss you" exhibition of 96 Benin bronzes returned by Germany to Nigeria in 2022 at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne. Photo: Raimond Spekking (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Knowledge
 Understanding digital restitution

What actually is sustainable digitisation?

Knowledge
 Understanding sustainable digitisation

What actually is inclusive metadata? © Public Domain

Knowledge
 Understanding inclusive metadata

Over the next few weeks, our Instagram channels will focus on the digital aspects of cultural heritage. We’ll host Instagram Lives with experts and answer your questions through our posts: What is the carbon footprint of digital art collections? What is digital restitution, and what is inclusive metadata? Whose artworks get digitised - and whose don‘t? Stay tuned to the Instagram channels of the Goethe-Instituts in London, Glasgow, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.

Videos

Dr. Anne Luther and Medhavi Ghandi Dr. Anne Luther and Medhavi Ghandi

Interview recording
 What does effective digital restitution look like?

Dr. Anne Luther, founder of the Institute for Digital Heritage, is talking about current practices and emerging approaches to digital restitution.

Barbara Fischer and Medhavi Ghandi Barbara Fischer and Medhavi Ghandi

Interview recording
 How can museums use technology to pave the way for a greener future?

Barbara Fischer, Liaison Counsel at the German National Library, is talking about museums, digitisation and climate crisis.

Adriana Muñoz and Medhavi Gandhi Adriana Muñoz and Medhavi Gandhi

Interview recording
 How can digital technology shape an inclusive narrative?

Adriana Muñoz, curator for the Americas at the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden, is talking about bias and community work in regards to heritage digitisation.

Interviews with experts

A small knitted emblem belonging to Bolivian Kallawaya. Statens museer för världskultur

Interview
 Opening the archives to other voices

Adriana Muñoz is curator for the Americas at the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden. Over the last decade, she has been involved in questions of restitution, practices of decolonisation and access to collections. For this interview, we spoke to her about decolonising data, the incorrect labelling of objects and working with communities.

UKI - Viral Love by Shu Lea Cheang (excerpt) Photo by Pau Ros. Courtesy Furtherfield

Interview
"The sustainability of digitising artwork requires a holistic approach"

Ruth Catlow is the co-director of Furtherfield for art, technology and eco-social change, and co-principal Investigator at Serpentine Galleries' Blockchain Lab. For this article, we spoke to Ruth about “art action research”, the sustainable possibilities of digital exhibitions and the value of friendship.
 

CATPC - balot.org

Interview
"Digitisation is a vital step to safeguard cultural heritage"

María Paula Fernández is the co-founder at jpg.space and the Department of Decentralization. For this interview, we spoke to her about the history of NFTs and their potential for reshaping how we think about art and digital restitution.

DeBias-Project © Europeana

Interview
Nothing about us without us

The DE-BIAS project aims to promote a more inclusive and respectful approach to the description of digital collections and the telling of stories and histories of minoritised communities. For this interview, we spoke to Kerstin Herlt (Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum) and Marta Franceschini (The European Fashion Heritage Association) about the project. 

An interactive game station in “Roads not Taken”, a special exhibition at the German Historical Museum in Berlin: about thirty different German museums have joined forces in the “museum4punkt0” project to pursue digital approaches to cultural education. Photo (detail): © museum4punkt0/David von Becker

Cultural heritage
 German Museums Go Virtual

In the past, whenever cultural heritage was destroyed by natural disasters or wars, that destruction was irremediable. But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore: here’s how digital technologies can preserve cultural heritage for posterity.

Remixing digitised heritage: GIF IT UP

GIF IT UP 2023 Europeana

Competition
 Remix your own digital artwork - and win a German course!

GIF IT UP is an annual competition which challenges people to use digitised cultural heritage material - like artworks and photographs - to produce unique gifs and share them online. The competition is run by Europeana with cultural institutions around the world. Throughout October, everyone is invited to create brand new GIFs. This year’s special theme, sponsered by the Goethe-Institut, is "diversity and inclusion", focussing on people and communities that historically haven’t been in the spotlight.

Related projects

A woman standing in front of Nigerian crude oil as part of the Series of Personal Questions exhibitionblank projects

Lives of Objects

Ongoing debates about the restitution of cultural heritage objects that were stolen within various colonial contexts have gained momentum in tandem with a general awareness about the prevalence of various social injustices throughout society. While these discussions have primarily involved academics & museum professionals, artists, activists, and community members have also played an important role in reconfiguring and complicating the discourse.
 

Ounasjoki river in October, when the reindeers are taken to the other side of Ounasjoki for the winter © Tanja Koistinen

The Right to be Cold

The cross-border interdisciplinary project The Right To Be Cold focuses on the arctic and boreal region. The initiative, which mainly takes the form of a circumpolar chain of residencies and a virtual exchange in 2021, embraces issues relating to indigenous knowledge, ecology, climate justice and culture. The overarching theme is climate change, which is fundamentally challenging and changing living conditions in the northern regions.  

DAOWO Global Initiative - square© Goethe-Institut | Studio Hyte

DAOWO Global Initiative

The DAOWO Global Initiative forges a transnational network of arts and blockchain cooperation with leading international arts and technology institutions and communities in cities around the world.

Two images of Gala and James with a number on top of it Pieter Hugo and Eber Lee

TALKING CULTURE #15: LIVES OF OBJECTS: GALA PORRAS-KIM AND JAMES WEBB

This is the first podcast episode of the Lives of Objects series. For it, we invited eminent artists Gala Porras-Kim and James Webb to discuss the ways in which we think about the lives of objects through an artistic lens. The two have been breaking boundaries within their own disciplines to rethink how we present museological objects and artefacts, particularly those with historical, socio-political and spiritual importance. 

Talking Culture #9 Dan Hicks© Dan Hicks

TALKING CULTURE #9: CONTEXTS OF INJUSTICE - DISMANTLING COLONIAL LEGACIES FROM BERLIN TO LONDON

In this episode of the Talking Culture podcast, author and curator Dan Hicks, best known for his book The Brutish Museums (2020), takes stock of the debate around the enduring legacies of empire in our museums, universities and society at large. 

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