RETOLD 2020-2024 (Creative Europe)

What it is about

Documentation | Digitisation | Sharing
The RETOLD project will ensure that open-air museums can continue telling important cultural heritage stories to a diverse public by developing a standardised workflow to collect, digitise, and share data on buildings, crafts, and traditions. These data will be stored in an open access format so that museum professionals, researchers, and the public can access and use them freely. This will ensure better quality research through more comparable data, the preservation of tacit cultural heritage knowledge, and opportunities for more engaging and impactful story-telling about cultural heritage to the general public.

Open-air museums are vast repositories of cultural heritage data, which are currently located in archival records, photos, video, and the minds of museum staff and volunteers. There is a real risk that without a standardised process for capturing and storing this data, it will be lost forever. Open-air museums are process and action-oriented, rather than artefact oriented. Therefore, the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, that revolves around events and processes (as opposed to objects), will be used. The standardised workflows created by this project will be shared in an open access form on multiple platforms, and open-air museums will be actively encouraged to adopt them.

The RETOLD project will thus create open access knowledge transfer to a new generation of museum professionals, researchers, and the public. This represents an important opportunity for open-air museums to fully leverage the new possibilities of digital technologies, social media and online communities in widely disseminating cultural heritage data. The end result will be enhanced cooperation between historical and archaeological open-air museums and other cultural heritage specialists, a strengthening of the research and interpretation framework of open-air museums, and ultimately the long-term sustainability of open-air museums as guardians of cultural heritage. 

The RETOLD partners are: EXARC Coordinator; Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (ES)Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA (RO)Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (DE)Nüwa Digital Media Content Production Studios Ltd (IE) and Museumsdorf Düppel (DE)

Work Packages

Work Package 1 Management of the Project
Work Package 2 Documentation Instruments & Strategies
Work Package 3 Immersive Media & 3D Storytelling
Work Package 4 Case Studies & Rollout
Work Package 5 Dissemination and Exploitation of Results

Deliverables and planned Actions

Title What Author / Responsible for Project Year
1. Prototype for immersive digital storytelling Website: Online Tool Nüwa Digital Media Content Production Studios Ltd (IE) and the three Museum Partners RETOLD 2022-2024
  a. Research on documentations methods and needs Online / Emails / meetings Museumsdorf Düppel (DE) and Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA (RO) RETOLD 2022-2023
  b. Documentation App Online Tool Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (ES) and Nüwa Digital Media Content Production Studios Ltd (IE) RETOLD 2022-2024
  c. Workshops Immersive Media & 3D Storytelling at Museum Partners Training Nüwa Digital Media Content Production Studios Ltd (IE), Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (DE), Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA (RO), Museumsdorf Düppel (DE) RETOLD 2023-2024
2. Platform with Case Studies & Roll out (database) Website: Online Tool EXARC, Nüwa Digital Media Content Production Studios Ltd (IE) RETOLD 2023-2024
3. WhiteBook for roll out to other museums Website: Online Tool / Print Manual EXARC and Museumsdorf Düppel (DE) with help of all the partners RETOLD 2023-2024
4. Vlogging and trainings
Read more
Training Museumsdorf Düppel (DE) RETOLD 2021-2024
5. Articles in the EXARC Journal Website / Print EXARC with help of all the partners RETOLD 2021-2024
6. Corporate Identity / logo and website (incl. Communication through Social Media)
Read more
Internet / Website EXARC RETOLD 2020-2024
7. Presentation at Museum Partners
Read more
Small Exhibition EXARC RETOLD 2022-2024
8. Midterm external Evaluation by a specialist Report EXARC RETOLD 2023
9. Conferences (working meetings) incl bursaries Meeting EXARC, Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA, Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (DE), Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (ES) RETOLD 2022-2024

RETOLD Meetings and Workshops

September 2023: Retold Meeting at Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (DE)

Date
-
For the semi final meeting of the RETOLD Project, we go to Albersdorf in Northern Germany. Again this is mainly an internal project meeting. We will be testing the RETOLD app which is meant for documentation of houses and crafts. The Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen is an excellent place to try this out as we do not just want to capture data...

March 2023: Retold Meeting at ASTRA Museum (RO)

Date
-
The second meeting of the RETOLD project took place in Sibiu, Romania. Most of the meeting was not open to outsiders. The project entered its third and semi-final year and we took stock of progress in developing our tools for documenting, digitising and sharing of the information and stories of our museums..

June 2022: Retold Meeting at UAB, Barcelona (ES)

Date
-
The RETOLD project is now almost 18 months active, and we have not met in person yet! The previous meeting at ASTRA in Rumania was postponed due to COVID-19 but in June we are going to UAB in Barcelona. During this first RETOLD meeting in person, we are going to introduce the project to a wider public of specialists and students...

October 2021: RETOLD online meeting

Date
-
Co-organised by
EXARC

Even though we would have loved to meet in person, due to the still ongoing pandemic, we decided to host our first conference online. The plan was to meet at Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA, and we hope to go there in October 2022. Instead we met online during three following days to discuss the progress and next steps.

Featured Articles

RETOLD: Review of the Meeting at the Stone Age Park Dithmarschen, Albersdorf, September 2023

Author(s)
Rüdiger Kelm 1
At the end of September 2023 the third face-to-face meeting of the partners from the RETOLD-project took place in Albersdorf in Northern Germany, hosted by the Stone Age Park Dithmarschen (Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen). The meeting took place in the recently opened new museum “Stone Age House” and in the open-air area of the Museum...

RETOLD: A SWOT Analysis

Author(s)
George Tomegea 1
Publication Date
After two years of implementing the RETOLD Project, we made a SWOT Analysis of the current stage of using digital technology in the daily activities of open-air museums, as far as documentation, digitization and sharing heritage are concerned. The analysis was made based on the answers from a questionnaire applied in the three partner museums involved in the projects...

RETOLD: Review of the Meeting at ASTRA, Sibiu, March 2023

Author(s)
George Tomegea 1
Publication Date
At the end of March 2023 the second face-to-face meeting of the partners from the RETOLD Project was organised in Sibiu. The host was the ASTRA National Museum Complex. The meeting took place in the Open-Air Museum of Dumbrava Sibiului, one of the largest open air museums in Europe that comprises over 400 traditional dwellings...

RETOLD: Documenting Houses, Sharing the Story with the Visitors

Author(s)
Magdalena Zielińska 1
Publication Date
Open-air museums host much cultural heritage data. You can find them in archival records, photos, video, and the minds of people. These data are at risk of being lost. This is where RETOLD comes in, a European Project (Creative Europe Program) with six partners working together on a solution.

RETOLD: On the Way for a Digital Future of Documentation in Open-air Museums – User Requirements for Data Entry and a Management Product for the RETOLD-Project

Author(s)
Cordula Hansen 1,
Rüdiger Kelm 2
Publication Date
As part of the RETOLD project, which runs from 2020 until 2024 and is funded by the Creative Europe Programme, Nüwa Digital Media Production Studios (Ireland) in collaboration with the Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf (AÖZA, Germany) have carried out a year-long user research project for a future digital tool, that will enable open-air museums to collect and manage data...

RETOLD: Open-air Museum Mobile Applications UX Report - Looking for Inspiration

Author(s)
Pau Sanchis Rota 1
Publication Date
This article presents the methodology and results of the report on Open-air Museums Mobile Apps, developed by the RETOLD Project in October 2021. From the analysis of a sample composed by 15 Open-air Museums mobile applications, three models for Open-air museums mobile apps are proposed according to different visit experiences...

RETOLD: Initial Survey to Capture Current State of Digital Tech in Open-Air Museums

Author(s)
Cordula Hansen 1,
Rüdiger Kelm 2
Publication Date
The motivation and purpose of the RETOLD project is to capture and preserve the wealth of data from evidence informing building reconstructions and craft processes of open-air museums. Additionally, the project seeks to develop and use alternative formats of oral histories as a way of share intangible cultural heritage with a wide audience. From an artistic point of view, immersive media are to...

RETOLD: Documenting House (Re)constructions – An Excerpt of European Approaches

Author(s)
Julia Heeb 1 ✉,
George Tomegea 2
Publication Date
As part of the EU project RETOLD, the Stadtmuseum Berlin in Germany is responsible for creating standardised documentation strategies for archaeological house models and evaluating them by engaging with the open-air museums of Astra in Romania and the Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen in Germany. In order to start creating these workflows, as a first step, other open-air museum were approached ...

RETOLD: A European Project Digitises Memories of Experimental Archaeology for Their Preservation

Author(s)
Paloma González Marcén 1,
Clara Masriera Esquerra 1
Publication Date
The origins of the European RETOLD project, led by the international association EXARC, lie in a concern to preserve the heritage generated by archaeological open-air museums through the creation of a standardised system for collecting, digitising and disseminating knowledge (memories) of the processes of building reconstruction and handcrafted objects. The project has a duration of four years ...

Approaches to the Documentation of Houses in Open-Air Museums

Author(s)
Enrico Lehnhardt 1 ✉,
Stefan Solleder 1
Publication Date
The seminar was divided into two parts. One group professionally documented the long-term experiment “House 1” in the Museums Village Düppel for the first time. The house was built in the 1970s and left to decay in 1990. The area was freed from vegetation and photographed at regular intervals. The second group reflected on the continuous documentation of reconstructed houses in archaeological...

Discussion: The Concept of Authenticity in Collections of Open-Air Museums

Author(s)
Joerie van Sister 1 ✉,
Marc van Hasselt 1,
Thit Birk Petersen 2,
Lara Comis 3,
Maura Stefani 4,
David Freeman 5,
Sverre Christoffer Guldberg 6,
Randi Stoltz 7,
Henrik Zipsane 8,
Léontine Meijer-van Mensch 9,
Martin Schmidt 10,
John Ertl 11,
Thomas Bloch Ravn 12,
Nigel Copsey 13
Publication Date

How is it possible that if you go into an arts museum, the ceramics you see may be made yesterday and may be a valued and legitimate part of the museum collection, while in open-air museums, a similar object ...

Documentation Strategies at Butser Ancient Farm

Author(s)
Trevor Creighton 1
Publication Date
Butser Ancient Farm has been at the forefront of experimental archaeology in Britain1. for more than 45 years. The pioneering work of its first director Dr Peter Reynolds in the evaluation of Iron Age structures and agriculture demonstrated beyond doubt the importance of experiment in archaeology in the UK and international experimental archaeology work...

Digital Saryazd: Increasing Tourist Engagement Using Digital Documentation

Author(s)
Kristy-Lee Seaton 1 ✉,
Miglena Raykovska 1
Publication Date
Saryazd Castle is located in Yazd Province, Iran. The castle dates to the Samani era, with later expansion during the Safavid era. Constructed entirely of mud-brick, Saryazd was continuously used until the mid-20th century as a vault, protecting both people and their property. Earthenware structures require continual renewal in order to maintain the integrity of the structure. Today, visitors can...