Between 11th-13th September, the final meeting of the RETOLD project took place in the form of a hybrid conference hosted by EXARC and Museum Batavialand (NL).
The conference focused on the theme of Digitalisation in Open-air Museums, and included presentations and workshops from the RETOLD partners and from others based all around the world. Our RETOLD partners presented their experiences throughout the project, looking at how it had developed and adapted over the last four years. Other talks ranged from immersive experiences in a Dutch museum, to the use of digital technologies to help preserve heritage in Ukraine, to the digitalisation of crafts at a heritage centre in the USA, to the documentation of pit-house reconstructions in Japan.
Many of the speakers were able to travel from all over the world to attend in person, and so there were many interesting discussions and new connections formed over coffee and cake in between the sessions. Thanks to RETOLD, we could also provide a bursary for attendance which allowed some to attend who otherwise could not have, which they found extremely beneficial: "I attended the conference to deepen my understanding of archaeological open‐air museums and their visitors’ needs. I have an MA in Applied Archaeology (Leiden University) and an MA in Medieval Archaeology (University of Pisa). I am interested in the educational implications of Experimental Archaeology and the role it can play in raising social awareness. I am also interested in the ways to collect and share the stories of those museums for the future generations."
Although the in-person experience was therefore a great success, the online interactions were no less so! All of the talks were recorded and published on the EXARC YouTube channel, where they can still be watched by any who are interested (see the link below). There was a live watchalong party hosted on the EXARC Discord server, where online participants watched the talks together in real time and engaged in lively discussions. (Don't forget, our Digitalisation working group is also hosted on the Discord server, so do head over there to chat and interact with likeminded people if any ideas are inspired by the conference talks!) Any questions online were redirected to the in-person speakers by volunteers at Batavialand, so that no matter where you were joining from, you could still be a part of the session discussions.
We'll be sharing more about the conference in the coming weeks, and about the RETOLD project, but for now, we at EXARC want to say a huge thank you to the RETOLD partners, Museum Batavialand, our volunteers, our speakers, and our participants for making the Digitalisation in Open-air Museums conference an interesting and engaging event!
