Scanning the Past: A 3D Model of Trausch's Library

Scientific Conference (2022, May 05)

Today, modern geospatial technologies and methods are widely used in combination with the documentation and preservation of objects of importance to cultural heritage. In this setting, archeologists and ... [more ▼]

Today, modern geospatial technologies and methods are widely used in combination with the documentation and preservation of objects of importance to cultural heritage. In this setting, archeologists and historians alike benefit from the rapid technological developments over the past decades, which have resulted in instrumentation that allows the capture of real objects and the generation of accurate and precise three-dimensional (3D) digital representations, i.e. models, from these sensed data. Here, the object of interest is the villa of the late historian Professor Gilbert Trausch with its library, for which a virtual library should be created for the general public. The building is an 19th century townhouse located on Limpertsberg in the City of Luxembourg and contains a cellar, three floors as well as a loft. Of particular interest were the cellar, stair cases, the first (the location of Professor Trausch’s office) and second floors as most of the bookshelves are situated there. In line with state-of-the-art approaches for 3D building modelling, a broad spectrum of modern geospatial technologies including classical surveying, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), digital close-range photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning were employed to capture the Villa Trausch and its 33 bookshelves, i.e. Trausch’s Library, in all its details, while providing all data in one homogeneous coordinate system. Models and more photo-realistic visualizations of the exterior and interior have been obtained using, e.g., indoor images captured during the scanning. These allowed us to explore different virtual reality (VR) pathways employed by the gaming industry, for the generation of a first VR experience of the building in the sense of a digital museum. Currently solutions for the development of a public virtual library using commercial providers are investigated. [less ▲]

From #MuseumAtHome to #AtHomeAtTheMuseum: Digital Museums and Dialogical Engagement beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

in ACM Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage (2022), 15(2),

The novel coronavirus spurred a keen interest in digital technologies for museums as both cultural professionals and the public took notice of their uses and limitations throughout the confinement period ... [more ▼]

The novel coronavirus spurred a keen interest in digital technologies for museums as both cultural professionals and the public took notice of their uses and limitations throughout the confinement period. In this study, we investigated the use of digital technologies by museums during a period when in-person interaction was not possible. The aim of the study was to better understand the impact of the confinement period on the use of museum technologies in order to identify implications for future museum experience design. We compared museums across four countries – France, Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States – by conducting an international survey in three languages on the use of digital technologies during the early phase of the pandemic. Additionally, we analyzed the Facebook activity of museums in each country and conducted a series of interviews with digital museology professionals in academia and the private sector. We found that despite a flurry of online activities, especially during the early phase of the pandemic, museums confronted a number of internal and external challenges that were often incongruent with their ability to offer new forms of digital engagement. In general, digital solutions served only as a temporary substitute for the museum experience rather than as an opportunity to usher in a new digital paradigm for cultural mediation, and many cultural professionals cited a lack of digital training as a limiting factor in robust ICT implementation. We also argue that the most successful digital engagement came from those activities that promoted a sense of community or an invitation for self-expression by visitors. We conclude with a framework that describes a ‘virtuous circle of museum participation’, aiming to support public engagement with museums through the development of content that builds on the interconnectedness of on-site and online interactivity. [less ▲]

Casual Leisure in Rich-Prospect: Advancing Visual Information Behavior for Digital Museum Collections

in ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (2021), 14(3),

As digital cultural collections become increasingly sophisticated in their scope and functionality, there is a need to build an in-depth understanding concerning the information behaviors of users in this ... [more ▼]

As digital cultural collections become increasingly sophisticated in their scope and functionality, there is a need to build an in-depth understanding concerning the information behaviors of users in this new domain. Research has demonstrated that many digital museum visitors are engaged in casual leisure during exploration of a collection, suggesting that they do not have an inherent information goal but rather seek new experiences or learning opportunities based on personal curiosity and moments of discovery. Consequently, understanding how to translate casual leisure contexts into meaningful interaction design may play a critical role in designing engaging digital collections. Our study reports on the user experience of a largely unexplored user interface design framework called rich-prospect, which was originally developed to enhance browsing and discovery for complex visual collections. We performed a mixed-method, within-subjects study (N=30) that simulated a casual leisure approach to information browsing and retrieval across three different rich-prospect interfaces for digital cultural heritage. Our results show that rich-prospect scores well in the hedonic facets of its user experience, whereas pragmatic aspects have room for improvement. Additionally, through our qualitative analysis of participant feedback, we derived salient themes relating to the exploratory browsing experience. We conclude with a series of design implications to better connect interactive elements with casual leisure contexts for digital cultural collections. © 2021 Owner/Author. [less ▲]

Making History Together: Public Participation in Museums

Scientific Conference (2020, December 15)

The international online symposium brought together scholars, museum professionals and heritage practitioners to discuss how participatory history is constructed, developed, and implemented in museums ... [more ▼]

The international online symposium brought together scholars, museum professionals and heritage practitioners to discuss how participatory history is constructed, developed, and implemented in museums. 'Making History Together: Public Participation in Museums' took place on 15 December 2020 and has brought together participants and case studies from all over the world. Sessions include discussions on co-creation and co-production, community of interpretation, digital public participatory practices, empowerment, and overall impact on making history in museums. [less ▲]

Networked Governance and Multistakeholder Cooperation

Presentation (2020, September 08)

At the crossroads of three topics of the workshop (Critical testimonies on the implementation or experiments with new modes of governance; Presentation and analysis of online decision-making tools ... [more ▼]

At the crossroads of three topics of the workshop (Critical testimonies on the implementation or experiments with new modes of governance; Presentation and analysis of online decision-making tools; Prospective outlook on the governance of knowledge and research infrastructures), this presentation allows us to discuss how to increase multistakeholder cooperation between scientists and other stakeholders in practice and to gather perspectives from different cultural backgrounds into the discussion. [less ▲]

Networked Governance, Enabling Multistakeholder Cooperation

Scientific Conference (2020, June 12)

This workshop gathering 10 participants focused on finding the root cause for the need and purpose for multistakeholder cooperation between social scientists and civil society.

Making sense of non-sense. Tracing topics in a historical corpus on psychiatry facing low OCR quality

Scientific Conference (2019, September 12)

Digital Resources and Tools in Historical Research

in Kollmann, Stefanie; Müller, Lars; Reh, Sabine (Eds.) et al Picture archives and the emergence of visual history of education. ISCHE 40 pre-conference workshop. 3rd workshop "Pictura Paedagogica Online: educational knowledge in images (2018, December 21)

One of the characteristic features of modern life is the omnipresence of images - in public life as well as in the private surroundings. At latest with coining the term "Visual history" at the beginning ... [more ▼]

One of the characteristic features of modern life is the omnipresence of images - in public life as well as in the private surroundings. At latest with coining the term "Visual history" at the beginning of the nineteen nineties historical disciplines are dealing with this ever growing pool of pictorial sources. This is also true for educational history - especially when keeping in mind that the use of images in an educational context is common practice since early modern ages. This concerns the presentation practices, the design of didactic visual media and their use in educational practice as well as the illustrated traces of historical educational practice and historical educational knowledge (e.g. photographs of school buildings or educational scenes). There are various digital picture archives to address the research questions of many historical disciplines. These databases, though, differ widely in purpose and design - and of course they cannot serve every scientific demand. According to Gerhard Paul there should be at least four layers of information evaluation when analysing historical images (reality of depiction, genesis, use and impact). Thus, building up a corpus of image sources with sufficient accompanying information can be quite challenging. As major topic the Pre-Conference Workshop will focus on the impact of the discipline on developing and maintaining of a picture archive. (DIPF/Orig.) [less ▲]

TEI Transviewer

Software (2018)

TEI Transviewer is an interface intended to the exploration of primary and secondary sources, at the document level, in historical or other types of digital editions involving the representation of ... [more ▼]

TEI Transviewer is an interface intended to the exploration of primary and secondary sources, at the document level, in historical or other types of digital editions involving the representation of original material. Its name comes from the combination of the terms transformation and viewing, supposing the transformation of documents in XML-TEI format (directly in the browser or by means of a server/dedicated editor) so that they can be viewed in the browser. [less ▲]

histograph. Graph-based exploration, crowd-based annotation

Presentation (2017)