RURITAGE Summer School in Politecnico di Torino
Ruritage Summer School in Torino, 26th June – 2nd July, just ended with a significant student audience gathering in that Italian city. The course was organized by Politecnico di Torino (POLITO) – Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), H2020 RURITAGE European Research Project, UNESCO, and Cotsen Institute of Archaeology – University of Los Angeles, California (UCLA).
The program attracted participants from 8 countries: USA, Italy, Thailand, Brazil, China, India, Philippines, and Turkey consisting of 14 females, and 8 males in total during 7 seminar days.
The overall aims of the Summer School were to develop a critical approach to digital tools for Cultural Natural Heritage knowledge in multi-scale composite contexts, to create links among heritage types, contextualising relations, conceptualising and characterising heritage assets, creating narratives, building information, to experience collaborative and participatory processes for engaging local stakeholders with digital tools to enhance CNH as a driver of empowerment and resilience, to apply collaborative digital tools for heritage knowledge and management (co-mapping and co-building methodologies, digital surveying, gamification..)
The intensive program was based on lectures, workshops, and group work that started on Monday and continued to Friday. The general structure divided the mornings dedicated to lectures and workshops, and afternoons for group working slots. The lectures and workshops organized with the help of different RURITAGE partners focused on Cultural Natural Heritage themes linked to Digital Collaborative Engagement methods.
In the afternoons, the participants had the opportunity to work in parallel groups on three different case studies with the help of tutors with different disciplinary backgrounds. The three selected case studies were: Crete Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark and Migrants hospitality in Asti Province as RURITAGE Role Models, and Nubian archaeological site in Egypt as a part of the UNESCO Campaign.
The common approach of working groups was to identify the challenges, aims and potential solutions to enhance the Cultural Natural Heritage of the sites by engaging local stakeholders and by using diverse digital tools.
The Psiloritis Geopark group’s focus was on ‘’Intangible Cultural Heritage as a Tool for Rural Regeneration’’. They mainly focused on intangible values of the site such as traditions, untold histories, myths and so on. Their main outcome was producing a story map, co-creating an interactive map, and identifying possible attributes by using ArcGIS StoryMap, ArcGIS Survey 123, and Online ArcGIS tools.
The Asti Migrant Association group focused on fostering social cohesion through heritage knowledge exchange in a multi-cultural and multi-generational rural context by filling the communication gap between temporary communities of migrants and local communities and ensuring both parties’ access to Natural Cultural Heritage as a basic human right. Their final outcome was “ACTION Asti Cohesive Digital HeriTage Hub for Inclusive COmmuNity”, a multi-sided digital platform designed to fulfil the local community’s needs throughout different levels of users’ engagement.
The last group working on Nubian Village focused on intangible values of the site by identifying the challenges, stakeholders, and aims, and by collecting their contents under the title ‘’Digital Nubia: The Voice of Memory’’. Their approach directed them to create a prototype website including a video game, timeline, 3D reconstruction of the site, and glossary consisting of diverse historical documents such as photographs, articles, diaries, and so on.
The three outcomes were exhibited to the teaching committee and local stakeholders of each case study on Saturday and discussions were held to critically examine the contents, ideas, and opportunities for future developments.
