Research & Development
We carry out applied research for the promotion
of tangible and intangible cultural and historical heritage through ICT and new
media. Our current research activities study the following areas:
We apply the service design process to create human
centric model strategies to promote an understanding of cultural heritage
fields which moves away from a “stop-and-go” consumer-oriented approach. Our
research models put humans and circular economy at the centre while
accounting for nature, diversity and giving control to local
communities over how their cultural and historical heritage is
communicated. People do not experience culture in a vacuum, but within complex
chains of interactions. We conceptualise significant interactions and their
far-reaching aspects to ideate solutions for CH products to deliver on
expectations optimally and sustainably.
Service Design
Today more than ever, the cultural and
historical heritage field seeks innovative ways to engage crowds through
digital means. However, it seldom manages to break away from screen-based
interactions. We experiment with approaches which can bridge the gap between
the tangible aspects of cultural heritage and the virtual world while delivering
personalized digital content to complement the onsite visiting
experience. Our research utilizes RFID, Barcode and physical computing blocks
(sensors, actuators, single board computers) to connect tangible items to
online content or applications.
Tangible Experiences
Communities rich in cultural and/or historical
heritage and cultural heritage organizations are always faced with critical
decisions when seeking to transform their “product” (e.g.
historic city centre) to make it more appealing or to manage a crisis
(e.g. impact of the pandemic). We develop action based content to
support the implementation of personalized transformation strategies
which manifest in response to the geographical, situational and societal
characteristics of CH “product” owners. Different types of actions
materializing a strategy are grouped under sections such as “actions at local
level” and “obstacles/barriers”.
Personalised CH Strategies
Games support freedom of expression,
diversity, dialogue, inclusion and are ideal for generating cultural and heritage
awareness. Through abstraction, gamification provides new learning models which
are very appropriate for communicating efficiently cultural and historical
heritage, both tangible and intangible, between people. We
create storyboards which harness the power of gamification as a powerful knowledge
awareness tool. Our gamified scenarios for promoting CH products experiment
with Game Based Learning approaches for disseminating knowledge for
specific tangible or intangible CH elements while remaining technology agnostic
and encapsulate best practices for gamified engagement of
audiences which can be implemented cross-platform.
Gamified Engagement
