ICOM AVICOM- Audiovisual and New technologies
ICOM Museum International Commetee
Dear AVICOM members,
I cordially invite you to our this year’s General Assembly (hybrid) which will be held during our conference in Turin.
If you want to participate online, please inform our General Secretary, Anna Maria Marras: secretary.avicom@icom.museum
Link to the registration form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScE3s9QidYgY7J-es51HERbMTje2fUUkxzbwVfqiXl-YQ67iQ/viewform
Any problems with the registration? Please contact: secretary.avicom@icom.museum
Dear colleagues,
The final program, including off-site events and the registration form, will follow shortly.
Preliminary program AVICOM Conference 2024
Registration form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScE3s9QidYgY7J-es51HERbMTje2fUUkxzbwVfqiXl-YQ67iQ/viewform
If you have any problems with this form, please contact: secretary.avicom@icom.museum
Participation is free! Here you find the informations about the workshops and the application form:
Museum Digital Sustainability Talks
This year, the ICOM SAREC Committee is supporting a project jointly conducted by ICOM Italy, ICOM Europe, and AVICOM, which aims at providing hybrid training on sustainable digital practices in museums. It aims to explore the integration of new technologies in the cultural landscape with an emphasis on sustainability and durability.
Cultural and museum professionals will be guided through the latest digital trends during a period divided into online talks and a final on-site meeting. The project offers three free English-language workshops, for which participants can submit their questions on the respective workshop topics in advance.
The reports and results of the workshops will be incorporated into a hybrid project conference to be held on October 16, 2024, one day before the start of the AVICOM annual conference in Turin. The program of the project conference is still being developed and will be announced in due time, among other channels, on the AVICOM website avicom.mini.icom.museum.
Please note that the number of workshop participants is limited. Therefore, early registration is recommended! Please use the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScNsJOxMWkWfUXfKnfcBg25wFaCnCu1uW3S3JsBTFGIGaejcg/viewform
Do you have technical problems with the registration or further questions? Please contact: info@icom-italia.org
Workshop Participants: Advanced students, young professionals, and experienced experts in the fields of museology, museum research, museum education, curation, media production, museum management, public relations …
Workshop Duration: approximately 2 hours
Workshop Format: English, online, via Zoom
Participation is free of charge.
Registration deadlines: 1st workshop: July 20; 2nd / 3rd workshop: July 31
What emotions can do for museum engagement
Despite the well known relationship between emotions and aesthetic experience acknowledged since the classical age, top down approaches to visitors’ engagement tend to leave them to personal appreciation of art. Emotions, in fact, still represent an uneven and slippery terrain for designing methods that ensure predictable and controllable experiences.
Today, however, computational technologies provide a variety of methods for dealing with emotions, ranging from natural language processing tools for detecting, extracting and analysing emotions to face expression recognition techniques that allow measuring the emotional response of the audience using non-intrusive, portable devices.
Partly a response to the pervasiveness of emotions in social media languages and codes, these technologies can help create novel applications for engaging museum visitors with relatively simple tools. In this talk, I will review and discuss a set of case studies that illustrate this opportunity, with an eye on inclusion and sustainability.
Workshop Leader: Prof. Rossana Damiano
Rossana Damiano is an associate professor of Computer Science at Università degli Studi di Torino (Department of Computer Science), Turin, Italy, where she teaches Web Programming and Semantic Technologies. Her research interests mainly concern artificial intelligence for cultural heritage, with a focus on affect and storytelling. She has taken part in several applicative projects, ranging from social semantic environments for learning and cultural dissemination, to semantic annotation of cultural heritage, and artificial characters.
How can emergent technology help Museums contribute to Sustainable Communities?
Emerging technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence offer engaging and novel ways of communicating. This workshop will address the challenges, opportunities, threats, and barriers associated with museums realizing the potential of these emerging technologies. Augmented reality offers the possibility of extending the walls of the museum and taking digital representations of heritage into the surrounding landscape. Virtual reality enables virtual time travel, supporting exploration of the past and potential climate futures. Artificial intelligence offers the prospect of personalized interpretation, connecting heritage with sustainable development and sustainable communities. By considering these technologies from the perspective of contributing to sustainable communities, we will draw on positive experiences and case studies and explore how this knowledge can be disseminated.
Workshop Leader: Dr. Alan Miller
Dr. Alan Miller is a lecturer at the School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, Scotland. He has been involved in the use of virtual world technologies for cultural heritage for over 10 years. He is a member of the Open Virtual Worlds (OVW) research group at the University of St Andrews and co-CEO of Smart History and Smart Heritage.
Navigating Copyright and AI in Virtual Museum Offerings
Join us for a comprehensive workshop led by an experienced attorney, focusing on the intersection of copyright and exploitation rights in virtual museum offerings and the use of artificial intelligence. Over two hours, we will explore crucial aspects of copyright law and data protection in the digital realm, with a particular emphasis on AI applications. Participants will engage in hands-on assignments and develop recommendations for citation practices in the context of AI usage. The workshop will also cover the implications of the EU AI Act for the museum sector, providing a solid foundation for legal and ethical AI integration in museums.
Workshop Leader: Yasmin Mahmoudi
Ms. Yasmin Mahmoudi is partner at the law firm Dr. Mahmoudi & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB, Cologne, specialist lawyer for intellectual property, lecturer at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Chairwoman of the Board of the Society for the Promotion of ZADIK e.V. (https://zadik.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/zadik-ev/vorstand). She advises museums, galleries, auction houses and collectors as well as artists, also pro bono through her involvement with Kölner Kulturpaten e.V..
Dear colleagues,
You will find now a selection of the contributions to our last year’s conference under “Reports”.
Hpnx9420, Turin monte cappuccini, CC BY 3.0
AVICOM Annual Conference 2024 “News from the Digital Museum World”
From October 17 to 19, 2024, AVICOM will host its annual conference in a hybrid format, combined with the annual General Assembly, in Turin. This time, the theme is deliberately chosen to be broader to cover diverse focal points that are all directly related:
Sustainability, Climate Change and Climate Protection, Equality and Inclusion: How are these aspects or demands considered in digital museum presentations? Which museums dedicate (digital) exhibitions and activities to the topic of climate change and climate protection?
Innovative Examples / Best Practice Examples of Resource-Conserving Digital Presentations and Exhibition Installations
Artificial Intelligence: How can museums use it, and what ethical and legal aspects need to be considered?
Digitally Created or Digitized Artworks: What legal aspects need to be considered?
Virtual Museums and Exhibitions: Definition, Requirements, Advantages and Disadvantages, Legal Aspects…
Digital Educational Formats: Examples of Cooperation between University and Museum
You are all – students, young professionals, and experienced colleagues from the museum and media world – cordially invited to participate with a presentation, either on-site or online. We are happy to accept your proposals/applications from now on. Please send them to: dr.m.faber[at]t-online.de. Please refer to the attached information for details!
AVICOM looks forward to collaborating at the annual conference with: ICOM Italy, University of Turin, Museo diffuso della Resistenza, della Deportazione, della Guerra, dei Diritti e della Libertà, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
Photo: Coffee House. Chester Beatty Library Dublin. Copyright: MWNF
Following AVICOM’s Annual Conference in St Andrews, Scotland, on “Sustainable Preservation and Promotion of Heritage: The Virtual Museum”:
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN MUSEUM WITH NO FRONTIER’S (MWNF) NEW ONLINE EXHIBITION ON FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT, WITH SPECIFIC FOCUS ON THE ISLAMIC WORLD:
Exhibition title:
THE TABLE IS SET. Food traditions and legacy in the Islamic World.
A MWNF online Exhibition inspired by the Exhibition DINING WITH THE SULTAN. The fine art of feasting organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Foreseen Themes:
SOCIAL LIFE (sharing food at Islamic courts; sharing food in today’s societies; Ramadan; etc.) RELIGION (eating rules of Islam; special dishes/tableware; Ramadan, etc.)
ENVIRONMENT (the balance between food and nature; preservation methods and innovation; seasonal cuisine; techniques of recycling; water; etc.)
GENDERED ROLES (tasks and responsibilities of men and of women in agriculture and animal husbandry; the production and preparation of food; feasts; etc.)
COEXISTANCE (how food contributes to mutual knowledge; culinary syncretism; etc.)
The Exhibition will be set up in cooperation with our Partners. Its development will be based on the MWNF methodology, which is the result of many years of experience in this field. Further to the recent AVICOM event in St Andrews it is a great pleasure to extend the invitation to all museums that are interested in the topic of the Exhibition.
MWNF online Exhibitions are conceived as an opportunity for MWNF Partner institutions to jointly create new exhibitions using material that is already in the MWNF database as well as any new material selected specifically for the Exhibition. The shared curatorial work is at the heart of our process and platform. Here we have to bear in mind that the MWNF network includes museums hosting collections that are closely related to the country’s history and culture (e.g. Amman Citadel Museum) and museums hosting collections concerning primarily other countries and cultures (e.g. The British Museum).
Photo: Jordan Qusayr Amra
The overall thematic structure and curatorial concept of all MWNF online Exhibitions is that they must provide equal opportunities for both types of Partners to contribute to an Exhibition.
Also, it should be reminded that MWNF Exhibitions do not foresee an overall curatorial responsibility but the Exhibition will be the result of different approaches, different perspectives and different interpretations of the items on display. The Exhibition project is designed to facilitate synergies between the various contributions and to facilitate the development of a logical narrative that can be followed by visitors.
The MWNF online Museum includes a Permanent Collection, Exhibitions and a Database. It is set up as an independent entity and is managed by Museum With No Frontiers. Access to all MWNF products is free.
If you are interested in joining, please get in touch with Eva Schubert at eva.schubert@museumwnf.net.
We look forward to welcoming you!
More about MWNF: https://www.museumwnf.org/ & https://www.museumwnf.org/about
Participants’ travel to the conference: more than 40.000 kilometers: AVICOM conference 2023
With around 40 participants on site and more than 90 participants who used the streaming service or joined in as speakers via Zoom, AVICOM looks back on a very successful annual conference on the topic of “Virtual Museum”.
In the venerable Parliament Hall in St Andrews, Scotland, 17 contributions and a workshop dealt with questions, requirements and possibilities for virtual museum education. The workshop in particular made it clear how necessary a definition of “virtual museum” is that is based on ICOM’s new museum definition. Because not every virtual museum presentation can be equated with a virtual museum.
The topic of “Virtual Museum” will therefore continue to occupy AVICOM: in a joint working group with the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, which hosted the conference, and the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics. The next AVICOM annual conference will also be dedicated to this topic.
Looking back on a successful conference: AVICOM board together with Dr. Kamila Oles and Dr. Alan Miller (3rd and 4th from right) from the University of St Andrews
Workshop working groups
Speakers and board
