Federica Maietti

Accessing and Understanding Cultural Heritage Through Users Experience Within the INCEPTION Project

The interdisciplinary EU funded project INCEPTION – Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling, coordinated by the Department of Architecture of the University of Ferrara, is focused on bringing together innovative 3D modelling and ICT applications and professionals involved in different fields of Cultural Heritage. The aim is to increase knowledge, enhancement and dissemination through 3D digital models in order to promote the inclusiveness and accessibility of European assets. In this direction, a Stakeholder Panel with different skills in the field of Cultural Heritage has been involved leading the research toward effective strategies to increase use and reuse of digital models. These strategies are aimed at maximizing the impact of using digital data for cultural heritage applications involving a wide range of non-expert and expert users, starting from specific requirements for processing, managing, delivering cultural heritage information to a broad audience. A co-design workshop has been organized involving Stakeholders in order to investigate on their requirements and expectations, to obtain information that could be useful for the User Centered process of definition of INCEPTION’s main outcomes and functionalities.

Lo spazio architettonico in un Protocollo per il rilievo 3D integrato finalizzato alla documentazione, rappresentazione e conservazione del patrimonio culturale

Architectural space becomes the connective fabric for the creation of a protocol for optimizing 3D documentation of cultural heritage. The methodology set as a priority the unconventional features/geometries, unique and complex within heritage, avoiding the ‘segmentation’ of the acquired data and facilitating data access and use through an inclusive approach. The elaboration of the protocol for the advancement of data management processes is part of the INCEPTION project, Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling, coordinated by the Department of Architecture of the University of Ferrara and funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 program. The project is currently ongoing, and approaching the end of the second year of development. Future actions are related to the practical application of the holistic digital documentation procedure and of the optimized 3D data acquisition protocol of nine selected case studies in six European countries. The selected sites are representative of different types of cultural heritage assets, for the implementation of the methodology and necessary tools, based on criteria that cover different historical periods, a wide range of sizes and morphologies, different states of conservation, environmental conditions and various risk factors. Planned test-beds in significant heritage sites will allow validation of the documentation methodology, the necessary tools in terms of access and interaction with the3D digital model and the different outcomes based on an inclusive access by different users of semantic models.