RETOLD

In the second year of the RETOLD project (2022), a large scope of activities took place.

Following the vlogging seminar back in May 2021, RETOLD partners have been testing their new skills and creating RETOLD related videos, either about the project or documenting activities and events taking place. 

The work of the last six months has been focused on the design of a unified database that can accommodate all the data requirements for the project. With the aim of having a standard solution for all the parties we took the CIDOC-CRM specification as the base for structuring the data. CIDOC-CRM is defined as a formal ontology intended to facilitate the integration, mediation and interchange of heterogeneous cultural heritage information and similar information. This ontology tries to inform developers of information systems as a guide to good practice in conceptual modelling, to effectively structure and relate information assets of cultural documentation.

On 15 September 2022, the museum partners of the RETOLD project met online to participate in a workshop on short video marking and editing for social media, focussing on what works best for (open-air) museums.

It’s the first Friday of the month! And that means it’s time to listen in to the latest episode of Finally Friday, where this month we’re joined by two partners in the RETOLD Project to talk about the importance of digitisation, documentation and sharing.

Julia Heeb is one of the key figures in the RETOLD Project and also works as the exhibition and research manager at the Open-Air Museum, Museumdorf Düppel, in Germany, a partner institution on the project. In addition to her work as part of the RETOLD Project, Julia also has a PhD and MA in Experimental Archaeology, focussing on experimental approaches to shafthole copper axes from south-eastern Europe.

As part of the RETOLD project’s survey of the state of digitalisation and documentation in European open-air museums, our partners representing Nuwa Digital Media travelled to the Middelaldercentret (DK) for a week of field work and photogrammetry this past August.

Since the museum is packed with craft demonstrations by staff and guest volunteers, we took the opportunity to try out possible formats for documenting craft activities.

After 18 months of working together digitally, we finally were able to meet in person in Barcelona at the beginning of June. Paloma González-Marcén and Clara Masiera Esquerra as well as the rest of the team at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (ES) were our welcoming hosts for the conference.

The aim was to introduce the RETOLD project to a wider public of specialists and students as well as to test the prototype.

On the morning of 7 June 2022, we started with a series of lectures around digital archaeological heritage presented by several keynote speakers. At first, EXARC director Roeland Paardekooper introduced the RETOLD project and its importance.

With already a year of exploratory research behind us, Nüwa have set themselves a deadline for our first in-person RETOLD meeting in June: We aim to construct a first design prototype for our proposed Digital Archiving and Documentation application, made specifically for use in Open-Air museums.

Through UX (User Experience) analysis and user interviews, we had already found out that most existing digital archiving solutions are more suited to “static” collection-based material, while open-air museums deal with the task of ongoing documentation of outdoor exhibits, often over several decades.

To ensure an ideation process that is focussed on the potential users of our design, we derived user personas from our interviews - the curator, the student volunteer, the craftsperson, and last (but perhaps not least) the museum director...

One of the products of the RETOLD project is a small presentation / exhibition at our three museum partners, explaining the project and what we want to achieve. In October 2021 we decided to make it in three steps, adding each year another chapter. The exhibitions will consist of banners 100 x 200 cm, in both English and local language.

In the first step we produced general banners introducing the partners and the RETOLD project. By March 2022, two banners per partner were made...