Call for Papers
Chairs: David BIBBY | Ann DEGRAEVE
(Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart – Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Germany | Heritage Direction, Ministry of the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium)
Keywords: online cultural heritage, online communication, online databases, online participation, online collaboration
… or Jitsis, Skypes, Whatsappes, Wherebyes or Webexes. Archaeology WeTransfers, Sketchfabs, “drops boxes” and connects on social media…”
We can visit online databases such as ARIADNEplus and Europeana and go on virtual interactive digs or wander virtually around a prehistoric village…
How have virtual communication and file-transfer platforms, ranging from activities such as meetings, seminars and data exchange to complete conferences, influenced our communication of and thinking on archaeology and cultural heritage? Do we now use online databases for serious research more than before? Is participation in an online dig a realistic substitute for “the real thing”? Have the radical changes of the last months changed the way we think about or even do archaeology? If so, how? What tools are being used for communication, dissemination, representation? How firmly has this virtual way of working become embedded in our thinking and accepted across the board? How are cultural heritage institutions, universities and educational facilities and the private sector responding to the challenge? In this session we will discuss all aspects of virtual communication and representation of and participation in archaeology and cultural heritage, including presentation techniques (what has changed? What has stayed the same?). How has the development of 3D imagery and virtual and augmented reality across the net influenced our thinking. Do 3D models or virtual or augmented reality on the internet even represent “reality” or do they in fact distort it? What have we learned from the ongoing process – from the “shaky” beginnings of large-scale virtual communication not so long ago to the (mostly) smoothly functioning processes of now? What lessons have we learned? Where are potential advantages for future communication about and dissemination of archaeology and cultural heritage, both for professionals and the interested lay community? What should be developed further? What is working? What isn’t? How does online collaboration compare with physical cooperation? Do we even still need physical interaction..?
Send us your submission until September 3, 2021