An Experience of Digital Interactivity as a way to access to culture and heritage in rural environments
▶Summary
Our goal is to create a best practice example of experiences with digital interactivity as a way to access culture and cultural heritage in rural areas. Various innovative media formats were devel...
▶Objectives
Our goal is to create a best practice example of experiences with digital interactivity as a way to access culture and cultural heritage in rural areas. Various innovative media formats were developed in collaboration with the people who will later use the project results and made permanently available online in all project languages. These templates can be used as motivation and assistance in creating your own digital access to cultural heritage sites. This approach can be used transnationally and transregionally throughout the EU. It thus actively contributes to the democratization of our shared cultural heritage.
▶Activities
Together with partners from Germany, Spain, and Italy, we developed the project activities in monthly Zoom exchanges and three transnational partner meetings in Valladolid, Spain, and Stintino, Sardinia, working with people who are responsible for rural European cultural assets or who will later benefit from the project results. Together, we identified criteria that led to a good selection of exemplary representatives of European cultural heritage. Experiences and wishes regarding the requirements for barrier-free access to cultural heritage and preferred media formats were translated into concrete examples. A combination of 360° panoramic tours with built-in digital media on our online platform offers permanent accessibility to the selected cultural heritage sites. The quality of the results was confirmed in a pilot test in Spain and Italy and at multiplier events in the project countries.
▶Impact
The main output is confirmation of the effectiveness of using innovative digital formats. Concrete results of the project are the 360° panoramic tours in Spain and Sardinia, which are prime examples of the digital documentation and development of rural cultural heritage. With the help of a questionnaire to survey small and resource-poor rural cultural heritage sites, a list of cultural heritage sites eligible for digital development was compiled. These panoramic tours were supplemented with additional digital learning and discovery modules in collaboration with those responsible for the cultural heritage sites and subsequent users, and their high quality was confirmed in a pilot test and multiplier events. The result is a permanently available, barrier-free online access platform with proven ease of navigation and usability for a wide range of educational offerings and tourism needs. This has created useful tools for the participants, partners, people with disabilities, stakeholders of the partners, and those responsible for and owners of European cultural heritage sites to meet their needs and goals.