iHERITAGE: ICT Mediterranean platform for UNESCO cultural heritage
How lazily the sun goes down in Granada, it hides beneath the water, it conceals in the Alhambra!
Ernest Hemingway
UNESCO’s Mediterranean cultural world heritage is calling for new techniques able to improve its level of interpretation, and to do so it must take advantage of new technologies and commercialize the latest research results.
In this sense, iHERITAGE will provide new solutions through an innovation-driven growth process to encourage cross-border technology transfer, Living Labs, collaboration between industry and academia and the creation of spin-offs and new products, using the latest Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
The project will also focus on socio-economic challenges at cross-border level through the active participation of young people, unemployed and other communities who will collaborate actively to the Living Labs (living lab) and training courses, as well as in the creation of spin-offs, favouring the increase of employment opportunities and the development of innovation.
The project will encourage collaborations between universities, SMEs, start-ups and spin-offs dedicated to the creation of AR/VR/MR products. Finally, iHERITAGE will work on the compilation of UNESCO Mediterranean cultural heritage elements.
HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECTIONS
Holography on the evolution of the gardens of El Generalife
GENERALIFE
Moorish
16th century
GENERALIFE
Post-Romantic Period
19th century
GENERALIFE
Monumento público
1934
VIRTUAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION
Hypothetical recreation of an agricultural property from al-Andalus period. Almunia del Chapiz, Granada. 14th century.
Hypothetical recreation of an agricultural property from al-Andalus period. Almunia del Chapiz, Granada. 14th century
360º VIDEO TRAILERS
The Generalife. A World Heritage Garden
The Generalife. A World Heritage Garden
HOLOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION
Gardens. Heritage and dreams
The holographic exhibition Gardens. Heritage and dreams opened doors last 2nd December 2022, inaugurated by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Mr. Victor Manuel González García and the Managing Director of El legado andalusí Andalusian Public Foundation, Ms. María de la Concepción de Santa Ana Fernández.
The exhibition has been developed and devised by El legado andalusí Andalusian Public Foundation within the framework of iHeritage Project, ICT Mediterranean platform for UNESCO cultural heritage, which is co-financed by the European Union through the ENI CBC MED Programme.
Curated by the artist María Teresa Martín-Vivaldi and the Botany University Professor José Tito Rojo, the exhibition reflects on the values of the garden, as well as the numerous connections existing between European gardens, with special emphasis on the gardens of the heritage of al-Andalus and the Mediterranean.
The exhibition combines the concepts of garden and heritage, as reflected in the very title. It is an invitation to visitors to reflect on the garden as an ornamental and heritage element We will immerse ourselves in real and imaginary gardens, made of paper, stone, sound and music, gardens for children, gardens in engravings, in painting, in photography, gardens that have inspired all the arts, and even gardens recreated using the latest technologies, along the lines outlined by the European project iHERITAGE.
There is room for very diverse elements, which despite their heterogeneity, dialogue perfectly with each other: we will find real plants, of course, but also works of art, ancient photographs, museum objects, books, and as a differentiating element, high-tech devices, such as holographies and virtual archaeological reconstructions that will show the latest results of research in heritage sites recognised by UNESCO.
EXHIBITION Gardens. Heritage and dreams
2 December, 2022 – 12 March, 2023
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Headquarters of El legado andalusí Andalusian Public Foundation
Corral del Carbón. Calle Mariana Pineda s/n. Granada
LIVING LAB
“The interpretation of World Heritage in Andalusia in the 21st century. Advanced technological solutions in the world today”
Living Lab in the frame of the European project iHERITAGE ICT Mediterranean Platform for UNESCO Cultural Heritage with the co-financing of the European Union through the ENI CBC MED Programme.
The living lab was organised by the Andalusian Public Foundation El legado andalusí (Andalusian Regional Ministry of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior of the Andalusian Regional Government) with the co-funding of the European Union through the ENI CBC MED Programme (iHERITAGE project: UNESCO’s Mediterranean Platform for Cultural Heritage).
The course, designed by the Descubre Foundation, has been coordinated by the Andalusian Public Foundation El legado andalusí and Descubre Foundation with the collaboration of the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Granada. It was aimed at a varied audience, which included the educational community (undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers, secondary school students, etc.), art history professionals, tour guides, personnel from the fields of economics and business and, in short, any person interested in new technologies, tourism, art or mathematics.
UNESCO Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage on
The Routes of El legado andalusí
Ongoing actions conducted by El legado andalusí Andalusian Public Foundation within iHERITAGE project.
- Creation of the REIM (First Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mediterranean Countries)
Throughout the last year, the Foundation has been engaged in the creation of the REIM, in consonance with the “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” adopted by UNESCO on 17 October 2003 and in the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding and Valorisation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Mediterranean (CRESPIEM), which will be recognised as UNESCO category 2.
The REIM will consist of a transnational action that, in the form of a web platform, will provide access to and will promote the Intangible Cultural Heritage resources of the countries of the Project Partners, elements inventoried in local, regional and national registers. The main objective is to provide a homogeneous, integrated and unitary interpretation of the Mediterranean Intangible Heritage, not by providing a simple database, but by offering a collaborative tool for the integration of the Mediterranean Registers, an instrument of dissemination and transmission, always aimed at the promotion, protection and safeguarding of the intangible heritage treasures of each region.
- Holographic Projections
Among the venues of the exhibition there is a holographic room where, on four simultaneous holographic helixes, an evolution of the Generalife Monument (World Heritage Site) throughout history in 3 stages, is projected and also, for the first time, the 3D-reconstruction of a manuscript from the period of al-Andalus.
The holographic creations produced by other project partners will also be screened in this room, as it is currently being done with the holographic reconstruction of various Arab-Norman constructions in Palermo created by the University of Palermo (PP9 of iHERITAGE).
- Virtual Archaeological Reconstruction (VAR)
In the exhibition Gardens, Heritage and Dreams, the visitor will also have the opportunity of enjoying the detailed screening of the 3D-virtual reconstruction of the Almunia (farmstead) del Chapiz, located in the Albayzin neighbourhood, recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
- 360º Video Trailers
Also, in one of the exhibition rooms Gardens. Heritage and dreams we can admire the screening of five 360º-videos filmed in various locations of the gardens of the Generalife which, together with the Alhambra were recognised by UNESCO as World Heritage Site.
- Living Labs
They will be the framework for collaboration between public institutions, researchers, universities, academies and business innovation centres, SMEs and spin-offs to foster the development of innovative products and services. They will be intended for commercialisation, technology transfer and the training of professionals and researchers in entrepreneurial skills.
- Collaboration-Research Agreements
The Living Labs will establish the basis for the Research Agreements that are being materialized between iHERITAGE partners and institutions with the aim of developing innovative products on monuments and sites declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. To this purpose, El legado andalusí Foundation has drawn up a model research agreement that has set a starting point for the rest of the partnership.
- Promotion and dissemination:
Establishment of Local Focus Groups
Creación de un banner inmersivo y una página de aterrizaje (landing page), que se encuentran alojados en la web de la Fundación El legado andalusí. Creation of an Immersive Banner and a Landing Page that are hosted in El legado andalusí Foundation webpage to accommodate the contents of the activities developed by iHERITAGE.
Social Media Project iHERITAGE
Social Media El legado andalusí Andalusian Public Foundation:
Partners
• Andalusian Public Foundation El legado andalusí (Spain)
• Sicilian Region -Department of Tourism (Italy). Lead beneficiary.
• CCBM (Network of Castles and Medieval Towns, Italy)
• CEEBA (Confederation of Egyptian European Business Associations, Egypt)
• ASCAME (Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Spain)
• Jordan Society for Scientific Research, Entrepreneurship and Creativity (Jordan )
• General Department of Antiquities of Jordan
• University of Algarve (Portugal)
• UNIPA (Palermo University-Department of Architecture, Italy)
Countries: Spain, Lebanon, Portugal, Egypt, Italy and Jordan.
