Articoli taggati con ‘Cultural Heritage’
IVIPRO: Narrating Italy through Videogames
Videogames can become the way to discover the world that surrounds us: this is the premise of the Italian Videogame Program project. IVIPRO is a national and cross-regional project, working closely with all local institutions. On one hand, we are mapping Italy from a videogame-oriented perspective, to identify locations and stories that are more suitable for virtual worlds; on the other hand, we entertain a continuous dialogue with software houses, local institutions and museums, in order to understand their needs and help them in discovering how to promote the Italian heritage inside videogames. The core of the project is the recently launched Places & Tales database, available in Early Access. A tool – based on four different categories: Locations, Themes, Characters and Objects – which can give developers inspiration for the narration of their video games, offering in-depth analysis of Italian places and stories. The article will focus on: an overview on the Italian videogame industry and cultural context; IVIPRO and its goals; an in-depth analysis of the database, plus some concrete examples of games set in Italy and of fascinating locations and stories.
Museum’s self-financing capacity: axes of development to increase Italy’s 1.737 billion euros worth cultural heritage self-generated income.
In Italy, performance measures linked to museums’ self-financing capacity have been systematically disregarded, as cultural heritage has been traditionally considered as a sector incapable of being a State’s profit generating asset. This article aims at outlining innovative revenue streams that museums could develop in order to increase their self-generated income. France’s public cultural institutions’ management is analyzed and considered as an example proving it is possible to have the cultural heritage sector financing its own growth.
Museum Archaeological Collection Storage: reassessing needs and priorities
A museum does not survive if it does not preserve its works. The tools and places essential for preserving the works are the storages (Mottola Molfino 1991). Unfortunately, despite the ever-increasing attention paid to museums, the storage plays a marginal role: an invisible (or almost invisible) resource for the community, whose potential is often little explored and/or valued. In Italy, the awareness of the importance of museum collection storage is a relatively recent achievement that has experienced a considerable delay compared to other countries (Fossà 2005). Recognising the storage – in the same way as the exhibition spaces – a dynamic and multifaceted role linked not only to conservation, but also to research and development (Rémy 1999; Della Monica et al. 2004; Beaujard-Vallet 2011), today constitutes a fundamental challenge for museums, if they want to preserve their role as centres of knowledge at the service of the community. This challenge becomes even more difficult and problematic for storages of archaeological material, which undergo a continuous and exponential increase (Marini Calvani 2004; Shepherd and Benes 2007; Papadopoulos 2015). What is the situation of archaeological museum storage? What problems do they face? In 2014-2015, a statistical survey was conducted by the writer during her doctoral research project at the University of Ferrara, in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and with the National Association of Local and Institutional Museums (Muttillo 2015, 2016, 2017). The purpose of the survey was to create an updated and comprehensive mapping of the archaeological museum heritage not exhibited, collecting information on the management of goods in storage, mainly on: a) inventory and cataloguing; b) preservation: safety and control of risk parameters; c) structure and organization of storage; d) professional figures involved in the study, care and management of the collections; e) valuation of storage, in terms of accessibility, visibility and use. Archaeological museums[1], both state and not state[2], have been investigated through a specially designed questionnaire, also available online [3]. The survey has allowed to identify critical elements and priority areas of intervention.
The Ministry Organization after the introduction of the recent reform
The law number 5 of 29 January 1975 instituted the Ministero per I Beni e le Attività Culturali e Ambientali[2]. Its original tasks were related to the conservation and valorization of artistic heritage and natural beauties. In 1998, the denomination of the Ministry has been changed in Ministero per I Beni e le Attività Cultural[3]i. In 2013, its denomination changed again in Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del Turismo[4] and once again, in 2018, with D.L.[5] 12 July 2018 entered into force on 13 July 2018, the Ministry came back to its previous denomination, with the transfer of the touristic competence to the Ministero delle politiche agricole, alimentari, forestali[6] This intervention is just one of the latest provisions with which, since 2004 (year of the entry into force of the Codice dei Beni Culturali), the legislator started a significative re-organization of the Ministry. Such intervention deals with both the need to adapt the Ministry to the overall provisions adopted in Italy in terms of spending review, and also with the widespread need of redesign the functional and structural organization of the Ministry in order to solve its main disfunctions and deficiencies. The MIBACT, indeed, was characterized by a substantial structural disorganization, an insufficient organigramme and the overlapping of hierarchical lines between the central and peripherical administration. These weaknesses hindered the development of proper investment and resource allocation policies, preventing an efficient management of cultural heritage. The Reform has been thus realized in order to solve the cruxes that were indicated as the main causes of a substantial inadequacy of the Ministry in interpreting and acting coherently with the Article n. 9 of the Italian Constitution referring to the safeguarding and the development of cultural heritage and of the landscape. Therefore, the reform introduced a series of legal instruments that succeeded in sparking several debates in these last 4 years, as also demonstrated by the number of legal provisions adopted in order to update and correct the Reform contents.
Cultural Heritage between administrative organization and non-for-profit initiative
Italian Cultural Heritage is worldwide acknowledged. Artworks, Archaeological Sites, Museums and even whole cities are by now part of the collective imaginary. In spite of this, there are several criticalities characterizing Italian Cultural Heritage. Most of them are the results of an anachronistic interpretation of the role that Cultural Heritage could play in our daily lives. Following this interpretation, Cultural Heritage should not be associated with (direct or indirect) private intervention because private intervention is only targeted to a “profit” and the “profit” is a great enemy for the public interest. Regardless of how unreasonable it may sound, this has been, for long, the unexpressed belief of many Italian Cultural Operators and decision makers. This interpretation led several consequences that could be summarized in an almost completely public management of Cultural Heritage, performed regardless to the results of the activity run by the public administration. Fortunately, in recent years the “cultural establishment” acknowledged the need for a change that was widespread invoked by cultural practitioner and civil society. Obviously, this “switch” is also the result of the substantial evolution that has characterized the Cultural Heritage Management globally as well as the transition from an industrial-led economy to a knowledge-led economy. The main effects of this change are in everyone’s eyes: never in history as today, museums are, in many countries, the living center of the society. Cultural Heritage and Activities are at the very heart of urban development and, most of all, it has been finally acknowledged that Cultural Heritage and Activities could be one of the key economic sectors for the development of entire regions or countries.
Non-hype instruments for territorial development
As occurs in almost every branch of human activity, our sector is often influenced by trends that condition the work of academicians and practitioners. Today as yesterday, we assist to the explosion of tools whose impact could affect both the cultural and economic development of territories. Yesterday it was the case of festivals, today is what occurs with Blockchain and smart contracts. Nevertheless, following these fashions we leave behind tools or assets that could be very helpful in the construction of a territorial policy for a culture-based development. This number of Tafter Journal is dedicated to two instruments, highly differentiated, that nowadays are not as cool as big-data or the AI applications, but that could concretely concur to the diversification of territorial cultural offer contributing, at the same time, to the specialization of cultural and economic production of a region or a city. Who’s involved in day-by-day working on territory knows that are plenty of resources (as much as obstacles and difficulties) that need to be managed: historic buildings, contemporary production, cultural associations, natural heritage and so on. Properly, our role is indeed to underline further opportunities that could extend that set of assets, and show how these new (or old) tools work or they could do.
Culture and life
Is not possible to start a discussion about culture without mentioning what in these days is scaring Europe: the IS terrorist attack in the heart of Paris is nothing but a menace to all of us. But there is also another reflection that we, as researchers and practitioners of culture, must underline in this act, and is that the choice of the sites point the attention on the very heart of our lifestyle: culture. Since its beginnings IS has attacked with peculiar attention cultural sites: firstly site under the protection of the UNESCO, and then irreverent voices of European Culture (Charlie Hebdo). Now the attack has been addressed versus a theatre, a stadium and versus people who was spending their time in cafès. This should make us consider once more the importance of culture in our lives. The nature of the attack followed the evolution of what has been for centuries intended with the word Culture: first the heritage, then the literature and freedom of expression and ultimately (this is our hope) the music and the sports. I’m not a conflict expert, but to every observer should be clear that IS is fighting its war mainly on two dimensions: the fear and the symbol. Destroying cultural heritage sites has been for century one of the main abused symbols of war, but stadiums, theatres and boulevards are something new. In my opinion it is not only a security level topic, there is something more. There is the importance of our immaterial infrastructure, the knowledge on which we base our lifestyle. Everyone would be pleased to do anything in order to avoid any other attacks.
Made in Italy museums. Some reflections on company heritage networking and communication
Corporate museums arise today as a powerful identity medium for companies and brands representing Made in Italy worldwide. At the beginning of the new millennium, such cultural centers, preserving and communicating the Italian economic history, are extending their presence in most of the country and market sectors. They define a very fragmentary universe (indeed, a still largely underground “dorsal” of Made in Italy culture), but also an investment which could support the cultivation of innovative quality relationships among companies, territory, and society. From this scenario, the paper aims to offer a synthetic overview of the phenomenon concerning company museums and its contemporary evolution within the Italian context, where it appears to be unique for both dimensions and its qualitative features if compared with the international scenario. Indeed, this means also to reflect about the special affinity which seems to exist between museum format and the essence of Made in Italy culture, rising nowadays internationally as a strategic communication discourse.
Does movie poetics dream of territories?
A concept we can not avoid in our days talking about culture and the direction we’re heading towards is globalization. It stretches itself out like an umbrella surrounding cultural phenome-na in a way not experienced before, and its creations make us wonder about our cinema lan-guages. In the global movie market certain national movie industries like the US one are more dominant than others. One might question if there is a kind of ‘cultural homogenization pro-cess’ behind? Still, there is a language emphasizing the local, there are movies that give us tales and stories about the site-specific grounded into their own cities. This article focuses upon these movies, relying on some basic theories within Cultural Semiotics by Jurij Lotman. Per-haps it is possible to see some kind of interaction and connection between these different kinds of movies, or perhaps they are two separate languages living in their own spheres?
The future art of storytelling: Future Fabulating in Madeira Island
Introduction The practice of predicting the future has a long history, ranging from personal consultation in the patterns of coffee grounds to global computational projections derived from vast sums of data. The longing for a vision of the future offering some certitude seems to cross cultural boundaries. Engineer Alan Kay stated that […]
Where is Berlin? Too many (virtual) walls shape the town and its communities
Whenever approaching a city for the first time there are different ways, patterns, walls, and stories to unearth its hidden string. I moved to Berlin in Ma, 2014 and suddenly, even before my arrival, I was already playing the most popular sport of the city: speaking about Berlin. This sport has been played with abandon by both recent newcomers to the city and long time Berliners. Such a crowded curiosity makes almost impossible to craft a suitable answer to the main question: where is Berlin? If we want to interpret and understand the city as the backbone for fertile arts field we need to start from the development and diversification of its cultural spaces.
