RETOLD

Like many things in the modern world, digitalisation has transformed the way we interact with the past and opened opportunities for visualisation, curation and sharing. But how do we actually use these digital tools? How do we use them to engage the public? And how do we ensure our digital data is a fair representation of the past?

As we steer towards the completion of RETOLD, the development and evaluation of the RETOLD app have provided significant strategic wisdom.

The application has enhanced our understanding of the current technological landscape and readiness levels as well as the specific needs of the open-air museum sector. It will drive future post-RETOLD digital initiatives that contribute to innovation and creativity in the field of cultural heritage and promote innovative spillovers on other sectors.

We are running high speed now, as we only have four months to go until the big conference. Sometimes you wish there were more hours in the day... We just returned from another visit to Museum Village Düppel in Berlin (14-16 May, 2024). Our goal was to test the Retold app "in the wild", or as this exercise is called, do a User Acceptance Test. Several scenarios were staged, for example: "you want to open the app and document a craft activity".

Retold is in its final year, and yes, things go fast! While our colleagues in Spain are crunching code for the app, some of us went to Northern Germany to the Stone Age Park in Albersdorf, just before their tourist season started (March 2024). It was great to spend a few days with the museum's webmaster, the Social Media coordinator, the young volunteers as well as the Neolithic Farmer. Unfortunately, the Mesolithic Gatherer was still travelling, as they usually do...

In 2022 we developed banners which explained the project goals and the partners. In 2023 it was time to start working on (one of the) the topics, which is Documenting Houses. The last step - in 2024 - was showing the crafts of RETOLD museums members.

We are developing methods to document crafts in museums. We like to share online what is happening out there as there are some pretty amazing craftspeople showing very cool stuff.

In September, the six RETOLD partners met in Germany. With a little over 12 months to go, we realised there were some issues. Our biggest challenge is to make an app which works for open-air museums. The technique on the one side must fit with the museum reality on the other.

In the museum village Düppel (Berlin, Germany), we are currently carrying out a structural damage assessment to evaluate the condition of our reconstructed houses. The 13 houses were built using methods from experimental archaeology, in the years between 1976 and 2008 according to the model of medieval farmhouses. Care was taken to retain the floor plans of the houses found during excavations and to rebuilt the reconstructed houses in their original locations. As the buildings are exposed to the weather and are often used in the museum, their condition is regularly checked and repairs are carried out.