On the 15-17 of April, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Turku and the University of Bologna organised the workshop “Frontiers in Digital Cultural Heritage: Research and Teaching Methods” at Tallinn University. The seminar was an opportunity for scholars and institutional professionals brought together by the project partners to share their current research and methods. Besides presentations, the seminar provided ample space for discussion, allowing for the exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences encountered in their work. This stimulated discussions on and potential solutions for the archiving of cultural heritage, navigating digital research tools, and the use of AI and emerging technologies in research and teaching.

Marjolein Uittenbogaard (University of Amsterdam & Tallinn University) opened the first day of the seminar by introducing the project partners and presenting the network’s objectives. This was followed by an outline of the seminar’s central aim to address diverse challenges in the digital cultural heritage field through accessibility, inclusion, and open discourse.

The first day of presentations was centred on the theme of archives, starting with Sonic Heritage, discussed by Emily Clark (University of Amsterdam), who introduced an ongoing project investigating ethnographic sound archives in the Netherlands. Through case studies, she argued that recordings of the colonial past tell the story of changing ideologies and values, and shape contemporary meanings and uses of historical sound. Maral Mohsenin (Eye Filmmuseum) discussed access, preservation and challenges in navigating digital materials. She emphasised that digitisation allows access to archived materials, while remaining more complex: digitisation is entangled in issues of funding, technical demands and challenges of the materiality of historical heritage objects. The first presentation session was closed by Marie-Joy van der Deure (University of Amsterdam), who focused on the use of digital audiovisual collections in climate history research by introducing the CLARIAH infrastructure and the Archival Landscapes of AI project. Through sharing insights from teaching initiatives and the advantages of combining archival collections, she argued that digital audiovisual heritage has the potential to facilitate the rediscovery and reconstruction of climate narratives.

The day concluded with a site visit to KuMu Art Museum, where the project members and speakers took part in a tour of the exhibition The Triumph of Galatea: Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The show explored themes of technological development and its interaction with culture and contemporary society. Using artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, the artworks were brought into thought-provoking dialogue with the visitor, exploring their mediation of memory and knowledge-making.

The second day of the seminar was opened by Prof. Hannu Salmi (University of Turku), who introduced the day’s central theme of technological transformation within the humanities and outlined the challenges accompanying this shift. Probing questions of the sustainability of the digital infrastructure, as well as the availability of material and non-digital resources. Moreover, he argued that this shift requires innovative teaching approaches and acknowledgement of its limitations.

Thereafter, Inés Matres (University of Helsinki) emphasised the need for creating a usable infrastructure for research within the cultural heritage sector. She highlighted the need to make these tools accessible to scholars through teaching and engagement. Prof. Eero Hyvönen (Aalto University & University of Helsinki) introduced the practical applications of the research infrastructure developed within the digital humanities. The presentation brought together the Semantic Web and the following projects, such as the Sampo Model. The second day was closed by Prof. Pelle Snickars (University of Lund), with a presentation of the conclusions drawn from the DIGARV Project, its relation to AI and the process of digitalisation of the Swedish film archive. He argued that archives and their digitisation are political, influencing the way these infrastructures are being navigated.

The seminar’s last day focused on the digital practices and cultural heritage through a semiotic lens, introduced by Prof. Francesco Mazzucchelli (University of Bologna). Thereafter, Caterina Manco (University of Bologna) presented the challenges and opportunities encountered throughout the digitisation of Aldrovandi’s archive. She explained the current methods of transcription and the ideas on how to make the process of archiving more efficient and accurate. In her presentation, Prof. Valentina Presutti (University of Bologna) argued that the quality of data archiving is an ethical concern, arguing that digitisation is not merely about the technical limitations but also about the representation of cultural heritage available in the future. Paolo Martinelli (University of Bologna) discussed the use of digital environments for accessibility and inclusion from an educational perspective in the ArchiLabo project. He suggested a broader view of learning environments by using semiotic frameworks to understand literacy as a socially and multimodally constructed practice. The last presentation of the seminar was by Luca Vittori (University of Bologna), who presented on the GEL Database, a platform allowing for international collaboration in teaching contexts. Striving for Global Education, the platform is created with a multilingual approach, expanding the bibliography scope for research and teaching purposes.

Closing the seminar, Prof. Marek Tamm (Tallinn University) shared concluding remarks and prospects of the DIGHT-Net project and its ongoing initiatives. The seminar brought together diverse approaches towards cultural heritage and its digitisation, giving space for interdisciplinary discussions on developments and encountered struggles. The DIGHT-Net project seeks to advance digitisation approaches through collaborative efforts. It aims to support the development of research infrastructures and new teaching approaches, striving for excellence in digital cultural heritage practices.

Michalina Sławek