CyberParks Songs and Stories - Enriching Public Spaces with Localized Culture Heritage Material such as Digitized Songs and Stories

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the theoretical and technological approach of the CyberParks Songs and Stories concept, which aims at increasing the understanding of European cultures and creating an intercultural bridge to respond to the need for reflective and creative societies. It envisions to provide plural meanings and interpretations of (and on) heritage to citizens through collective and collaborative methods for semantic classification, contextualisation and augmentation of digital assets and associated metadata by means of machine learning, social analysis, gamification and crowd-sourcing. The proposed method has similarities to what Kontkanen et al. (2016) used for species identification in terms of collaborative mechanisms.

To understand and inform the present by richer interpretations of the past, three cases of socio-cultural environments are selected: Fado songs and the identity of Mouraria neighbourhood in Lisbon (PT), oral traditions and expressions of the Patios of Córdoba (ES) and Sami Yoiks and storytelling in Sápmi (Laponia region, SE). The three cases are listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of UNESCO since 1996 (Sami Yoiks), 2011 (Fado) and 2012 (Patios). The three cases are subject to the tension between continuity with the traditions and changes, in particular those that transform substantially the layout of the territories wherein the specific cases of ICH have emerged. This tension undermines safeguarding and may jeopardise the continuity of the ICH. The concept does not define ICH as something frozen and perpetuated, which contradict the procedural nature of the production of ICH, but as socio-cultural subjects consciously embodied in a process of enriching, enhancing and transmitting it. The intergenerational continuum, and the spatio-temporal context of social activity, further impact the fluidity of heritage and identity.

The concept recognises the pressing need in contemporary societies for inclusion and integration of information stored in individuals’ memories to the heritage archives. Specifically understanding information regarding ICH activities as embodied by people, communities and societies, is imperative for capturing non-institutional knowledge, as well as complex semantic and conceptual knowledge, often expressed as non-verbal practices, rites or social relations (Artopoulos and Bakirtzis 2016). In Stiegler’s (2003) terms, humans leave traces of their histories, although not produced intending to immediate transmit memories, they do so, for example writing, photography, phonography and cinematography. This perspective addresses two critical challenges of contemporary approaches to ICH: (a) facilitating access to knowledge stored in archives, collections and digital assets; and (b) exploiting the capacity of digital tools for enabling users to better interpret and understand the big data of ICH.

The three scenarios demonstrate the way this concept will attempt to respond to these challenges:

These three cases reflect a diversity of spaces, from the small scale of a historic city structures (Patios) to a medium scale of historic urban areas and riverside cities (Lisbon), and the large scale of outdoors, green fields and forest landscapes (in the case of Sápmi). Further examples are discussed by Smaniotto et al. (2018).

Cultural heritage is a key factor of European identity. Europe is a polyphonic society and its cultural wealth and advantage stem from the safeguarding and continuity of this diversity, which considers the pluralities of minorities (Pratt 2005). Societal changes affect the perception of cultural heritage by European citizens. Rapid urbanization, migration, wars and economic challenges impact European territories with ever-growing plurality of cultures and identities that must now adapt to a new concept of European citizenship. The importance of space for the preservation and communication of histories and identities has been long recognized. This understanding builds on the premise that space and landscapes contribute to the formation of local cultures and they are the framework of European natural and cultural heritage, contributing to human well-being and consolidating European identity (ELC). Co-safeguard, co-reflection on and transformation of these commons (e.g., heritage assets) can arguably contribute to the emergence of feelings of stability, continuity and belonging for people (i.e., new and existing inhabitants).

Manovich (2001: 193) argues that: “in the information age narration and description has changed roles. If traditional cultures provided people with well-defined narratives (myths, religion) and little ‘stand-alone’ information, today we have too much information and too few narratives which can tie it all together.” The idea behind this concept is to utilise a framework of spatially - and contextually - organised narratives that relies on semantics and machine learning in order to facilitate the analysis and integration of everyday experiences, and the evolving memories of users into relevant digital cultural heritage assets. It envisions to achieve this by means of: (a) multi-user contributions, e.g., software that enables the following operations: mix, edit, reuse, enhance and enrich data features; and, (b) exchange of information, combined with expert input, guidance, reflection and discussion (Fig. 1). This data lifecycle in order to function requires the engagement of the three types of actors: (1) cultural operator, who will classify digital assets based on dedicated ontologies for each case, (2) expert users (cultural bearers), who will contextualize digital assets based on semantic models, and (3) common users, who will reflect on digital assets and add related meaning. This can be seen as an incremental and iterative process, where machine learning is applied for a high grade of automation and where these three main actors participate as part of a crowd-sourcing methodology spurred by gamification techniques. Additional actors will also be supported, such as the researcher (operating on the ontologies and algorithms) and the administrator (administrating and upgrading the platform).

The cellular structure illustrated in Fig. 2 is based on modules for Big Data Management (handling digital assets and associated metadata), the proposed platform (integrating and adapting existing tools), Machine Learning (techniques for reasoning on metadata through semantic analysis), and enabling techniques (gamification, crowdsourcing, Arianna, and social analysis), in order to facilitate the study of socio-cultural representations, and participant memories and interpretations that require the various groups of actors to operate feed and steer them. The interaction between the supporting ICT and each group of actors (cultural operator, expert users and common users) is made possible through participatory development methods (e.g., FormIT methods¹. The practical results of this interaction are illustrated in Fig. 1, in particular the iterative and incremental augmentation of digital assets with metadata in steps 1-5-9-13-16. Through the proposed technological and enabling solutions this iterative process is envisioned to become catalyst in the exponential engagement of ever larger groups of users. The use of state-of-the-art technologies, such as machine learning, and novel combination of participation and engagement methods, such as co-creation, crowdsourcing and gamification, not only responds to the needs of local communities, but also promotes formation of new communities, around special cross-thematic topics (e.g., semantics, metadata management, machine learning and gamification), and facilitates drawing links between digital assets of intangible heritage and their relevant tangible heritage.

The ICT platform should consider the following:

The ICT platform, available on cloud and accessible through computers and mobile applications, consists of the following main components:

The most current need of researchers and scholars operating in the field of digital cultural heritage is how to produce quality from quantity, how to devise critical methodologies that produce meaning and generate knowledge out of big data. The process of interpretation is cross-disciplinary in nature and involves various faculties of human activity that rely on data processing, such as logical reasoning, associative analysis, descriptive capacity, linguistics and semiotic processes, decoding, and therefore cognition, abstraction and visualization, in order to reveal patterns and narratives, address the whole and provoke affection. After more than a decade of large-scale digitization processes spurring from most museum, libraries and archives, the next big challenge that all cultural heritage stakeholders are facing is to make sense, to add value and establish methods of interpretation that are common, comprehensive, sharable and easily applicable to the vast archives of data and complexity of digital assets in big data.

Existing digital platforms foster collaborations among specialists instead of promoting transdisciplinary research, e.g., researchers in museums, collections, cultural and social institutions and organizations are usually establishing intra-institutional collaborations, e.g. the H2020 e-Infrastructures Project Virtual research environment for regional interdisciplinary communities in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean². Even more so CH user communities point to the strong need for tools that will enrich the capacity of researchers to utilize technological advances to move beyond digitisation tools and storage of data, seeking for new tools that will enable them to address critical interpretation problems of ICH, an area of research that due to its context is highly transdisciplinary but has yet to invest in the digital in order to transform its models and practices. Mobile app platforms and services already available on the market include: Detour³ is a GPS-enabled audio guide that contains audio clips for historical or pop culture spots around the globe. It can sync with other smartphones that run the application so that many people experience the same audio tour at the same time; Guidekick⁴ is built for the San Francisco Bay Area’s top historical destinations with fully interactive 3D maps, music, and narrative clips. Figure 3 illustrates a possible feature of the interface envisaged by the concept using the ICH Patios de Cordoba.

The CyberParks Songs and Stories concept builds on existing repositories (provided by the cultural operators of each case of ICH) to offer an innovative combination of automation (using machine learning methods) and crowd-sourcing (user contextualisation and reasoning), combining machine and human processing. This effort is innovative in several ways:

The concept introduced is highly inter- and multi-disciplinary ranging from the consideration of social inclusion and gamification aspects to the application of crowdsourcing and machine-learning techniques. The belief is that the societal impact would be large if such a system would be employed for enriching public spaces with localized culture heritage material. The impacts could be:

All in all, ICH digital assets such as digitized songs and stories can thus reach a much wider audience and interest, promoting cultural heritage and its place in the modern European society. The connections between the ICH digital assets and public spaces are very important, as they provide an effective context for identifying and promoting cultural heritage. From a technical perspective, the most prominent novelties lye within the systemization of such a solution, but there are particular challenges identified:

The technologies utilised to expose cultural heritage through open access to ICH digital assets are expected to foster the development of a more inclusive and considering society that bring forth the strength of the multicultural Europe to challenge the trends of growing ultra-nationalism in many countries.

This chapter addresses a potential contribution of an innovative methodology for promoting intercultural dialogue beyond Euro-centred views and assumptions by enriching European cultural expressions by means of new knowledge on heritage. It is expected that this practice will create mechanisms that collect and diffuse the cultural assets, e.g. of those who are not established cultural authorities or even by marginalized categories. Through this process it is envisioned that it will safeguard European patrimonies through everyday use of ICH digital assets that offer new ways to enhance the understanding of cultural heritage. Concluding, this research aspires to build intercultural bridges, by offering tools to foster intercultural dialogue, focused on spatially-bound ICH, on immaterial heritage associated with specific locations, to construct an inviting idea of immaterial patrimony in Europe. The technological challenges include how to manage and provide (open) access to ICH digital assets, considering the rights associated to these, how to produce meta-data and annotations to increase quality and searchability, and how to engage users through third party applications.