Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

The course takes advantage of and empowers the perspective of digital revolution for enhancing new knowledge building and abilities about heritage data and information in a digital society through an historical perspective. Its ambition is to meet the urgent demand of inclusiveness, pluralism and participation to cultural heritage identities, belongs and experiences by providing a knowledge baseline and a critical approach to the use of digital tools. For this purpose, its main aim is to advance knowledge, expertise and skills in digital-led analysis, interpretation and historical understanding of cultural heritage as well as spread of digital heritage through cultural projects.

The course - through both a theoretical and practical teachings - will enhance students’ understanding of the potential of digital heritage with a special focus on urban heritage. Digital urban history will be considered for analysing cities as physical, architectural, economic, political and social space, by considering the goal of a shared multi-cultural and multi-ethnic heritage. It will enrich the capacity of building analytical and critical perspectives in identifying processes, roots, and developments of digital heritage projects by providing specific expertise in creating new cultural projects for society and communities. The course will equip the students with a skill to select and use correct type of digital humanities methodologies depending on the scope, scale, and specific objectives of a heritage project.

• Learn via case studies about digital heritage enquiry and solutions to foster new critical understandings and enhance public knowledge of heritage in society.
  • Conceive heritage project proposals with a historical-critical background in digital environments.
  • Address existing tools for heritage project design, connecting different elements, issues, and scales.
  • Understand heritage in both cultural-historical and physical contexts using digital tools for representing data and information.
  • Critically interpret and analyse complex scenarios with multiple sources (both digitised or born-digital).
  • Experience how to fairly analyze, repurpose, and disseminate GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) digital heritage through lessons and practice.

The course is an introduction to the Digital Heritage field with an historical perspective and a focus on digital methodologies for advancing interpretations of (multi) cultural heritage and spreading research, while increasing collaborative approaches. It focuses on a digital approach to surveys, research and know-how on tangible and intangible heritage. More specifically it presents how historical research in the Heritage field can be improved by a digital approach and the use of digital technologies. The course will investigate digital heritage within this scope. For this purpose, the course deals with diverse types of heritage at different scales and types and explores how to exploit digitised and born-digital cultural heritage of GLAM.

In order to face, into a domain still under development, the great challenge to effectively improve an integration of digital technologies with humanities methodologies in the cultural heritage field, the program deals with a theoretical and practical approach for exploring digital format on cultural heritage. Although some digital tools are widely in use, developments are needed for improving critical approaches to data as well as collaborative approaches and strict methodologies. A critical and accurate integration of digital approach and historical expertise is needed for the development of new reliable and inclusive understandings, to enable insights in the potential of cultural heritage for increasing public knowledge, awareness and resilience of cities and communities.

The contents will focus on tangible and intangible heritage with a special focus on cities and related digital heritage to be identified and linked by a digital approach through spatial scales, collections, heritage categories for diverse purposes and local specifications. On one hand, the use of digital tools for urban heritage will be discussed. On the other hand, cultural heritage will be critically analysed to be connected to its context in space and time to shape rich keys of interpretation of the past and, at the same time, create heritage exploitation in a sustainable urban development vision. Students will be asked to create a digital format as a project that will allows them to deep digital heritage cultural significance fostering new multi-cultural and inclusive heritage understandings.

The course includes theoretical discussions plus practical exercises in which students will form project groups of 2 or 3 persons. Lessons will discuss diverse tools, including digital narratives, digital atlas, 3D models and gamification, for exploring the links between heritage of different scales and digital materials of different formats. For the student projects, the working groups will use GLAM digital collections in order to investigate potential and links among digital heritage and research on cultural heritage with an historical perspective. By considering their diverse digital skills, they will collaboratively develop digital projects about the assigned case study to formulate and respond to a historic curiosity about the city. A specific attention will be paid to Turin’s industrialisation and its heritage as a specific scenario. Students will work their own laptops computer with basic drawing software installed. Students will be assisted to work on themes and methodologies for shaping a virtual environment useful to link diverse primary sources and to experience/design tools useful for their management. The outcome will be a digital heritage project, and groups will be expected to make an oral presentation of their project.

Theoretical and practical parts will develop in an integrated manner. The general distribution will be as follows: Introduction to digital heritage (18 hours), Introduction to the case study and the practice (6 hours), practice (12 hours)

Written test; Compulsory oral exam; Group graphic design project;

The grading will be based on the following criteria: written test 30%, the deliverable of group practice 50%, and oral presentation of the project 20%. The assessment will be done separately for each group member. • Learn via case studies about digital heritage enquiry and solutions to foster new critical understandings and enhance public knowledge of heritage in society. (20% written test)
• Conceive heritage project proposals with a historical-critical background in digital environments. (10% oral presentation of the project)
• Address existing tools for heritage project design, connecting different elements, issues, and scales. (20% group practice)
• Understand heritage in both cultural-historical and physical contexts using digital tools for representing data and information. (20% group practice)
• Critically interpret and analyse complex scenarios with multiple sources (both digitised or born-digital). (10% oral presentation of the project)
• Experience how to fairly analyze, repurpose, and disseminate GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) digital heritage through lessons and practice. (10% written test, 10% group practice)

Bibliographical references will be provided during the lessons according to the topics' development. Some preliminary suggested readings are:
- (2022) R. Tamborrino, 'The impact of digital formats on city museums: displaying, creating heritage and mobilizing cities and citizens’. In: T. Marshall and J. Roca (eds), New Approaches for European City Museums, MUHBA Publications, Barcelona https://www.barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/ca/activitats/posits/european-city-museums
- (2022) Terras, M. 'Digital humanities and digitised cultural heritage'. In J. O'Sullivan (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Digital Humanities (1 ed., pp. 255-266). (Bloomsbury Handbooks). Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350232143.ch-24
- (2021) M. Terras, Coleman, S., Drost, S., Elsden, C., Helgason, I., Lechelt, S., Osborne, N., Panneels, I., Pegado, B., Schafer, B., Smyth, M., Thornton, P., & Speed, C. , 'The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts', Big Data & Society 8 (1) https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006165
- (2015) R. Tamborrino, F. Rinaudo. ‘Digital urban history as an interpretation key of cities' Cultural Heritage’, in Digital Heritage, vol. 2, IEEE, , pp. 235-242. https://iris.polito.it/handle/11583/2980487
- (2014) R. Tamborrino (ed.), Digital urban history: telling the history of the city in the age of the ICT revolution, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, CROMA, Roma
(2013) D. Calabi (ed.), Built city, designed city virtual city: the museum of the city, ed. Università degli Studi Roma Tre, CROMA, Roma.
- (2009) UNESCO , ‘Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage’, adopted during the 32nd Session of the General Conference of UNESCO on 17 October 2003. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000179529.page=2