This year “The Week of Digital Cultures ‘Antonio Ruberti’” [1] will run from 3 – 9 May marking its 6th edition. It will be featuring a series of initiatives celebrating EUROPE DAY on 9 May.
Europe Day
Europe Day celebrates peace and unity in Europe. This year it is particularly outstanding for it commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, which was delivered by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 in Paris. It enshrined his vision of a new kind of political cooperation in Europe, which would have made war between the European nations “not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible”.
In his Declaration, Schuman proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, whose members would pool coal and steel production. The treaty which established this first supranational European institution was signed just under a year later in 1951 marking the first step on the path to today’s European Union.[2]
Every year Europe Day is celebrated at the European institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg, which open their doors to the public at the beginning of May. Local EU offices in Europe and the world organize a wide variety of activities and events for all ages to mark this special day.
9 May 2020 was the 70th Anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, which was the starting point for today’s European Union. To pay tribute to this historical step, EU Institutions and bodies organized several online activities addressed to the many European citizens that have shown great solidarity in helping the Union tackle the Covid-19 emergency.
DiCultHer and Culture Italiae celebrate 9 May 2021.
Europe Day 2021 coincides with the end of “ ‘The Week of Digital Cultures ‘Antonio Ruberti’ ” which is marking its 6th consecutive year (3-9 May 2021). To celebrate it, DiCultHer and Culture Italiae organized a series of activities focusing on three main topics and namely the Faro Convention and the way it is contextualized in today’s digital age, “Beauty”, as a fundamental feature of Italy’s cultural, social, and productive identity, Digital SHTEAM spelling the value of diversity in the ecosystem of Digital Science, Humanities, Technology, Engineering, Arts And Mathematics.
As was the case with the events held in previous years, the 2021 edition of “ ‘The Week of Digital Cultures ‘Antonio Ruberti’ ” is once again a tool to promote and enhance the ability young people have to develop projects and keep the discussion going on the right for all to have access to knowledge to guarantee the ‘right of every citizen to acquire knowledge and develop a responsible use of digital technology to gain full ownership of cultural heritage’. It is also a way to engage in digital technology and innovative approaches to face up to knowledge, the protection, and enhancement of heritage sites with particular reference to one’s area that is to be analyzed and presented within the European context.
It is these goals that DiCultHer is committed to promoting since it believes that cultural heritage, a legacy on which the construction of identity, citizenship education, and the promotion of intercultural dialogue rest, has increasingly become a driver for development. It is a fact that also through digital technology, which is now fully integrated into it, cultural heritage is contributing to bringing about a new form of innovation in the sharing of knowledge. As a result, culture is at the very core of that “European Project” that also speaks of it being a “common good” as well as an essential instrument for social cohesion, which can modify the individual and collective perception of the absolute value of culture itself and of digital cultures, which are an integral part of it.
We find all this fully incorporated in the “Ventotene Digital Manifesto“ that was drawn up in March 2017 ahead of the European Year of Culture (2018). The Manifesto summarizes the challenges and actions that place Digital Culture at the center of that “European Project” that so many are asking for while recognizing that it is a “common good” and an essential instrument of social cohesion. Challenges and activities that involve Research, Higher Education and Education in Digital Humanities (DH) as well as in the new Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH).
This very approach was reaffirmed in the subsequent “Pietrelcina Charter on Digital Cultural Heritage Education” on the cultural value of the new computational entities generated in today’s Digital Era to recognize the identity of the new Digital Cultural Heritage as defined by the EU in Art. 2 of the Council Conclusions of 21 May 2014 on cultural heritage as a strategic resource for a sustainable Europe (2014 / C 183/08).
To promote the achievement of the above goals and actions, DiCultHer has launched a host of activities with a special focus on encouraging students to participate in the challenges of #HackCultura, the student Hackathon for “cultural ownership”. DiCultHer firmly believes that cultural heritage is a legacy on which the construction of identity, citizenship education, and the promotion of intercultural dialogue rest, and as such it’s a strategic resource that can contribute to bringing about a new form of innovation in the sharing of knowledge also through digital technology, which is now fully integrated into it. Moreover, it also modifies the individual and collective perception of knowledge vis-a-vis the absolute value of culture itself and of digital cultures, which are an integral part of it.
DiCultHer has taken these challenges upon itself considering it is an absolute priority to give Italy, and the world of education, in particular, its contribution to ensure that an informed engagement of young people and their teachers be recognized as a priority to make them the driving force in the processes of identity construction and active European citizenship and to make them fully aware of their role in these contexts – an essential element to achieve social, cultural and economic growth.
The proposal
Having considered all this, DiCultHer and Cultura Italiae, together with INDIRE, ICCU, #LrxCulture, and Eunews media partner of ours decided to mark the beginning of what was to become the European Union by dedicating 9 May to an event entitled “THE DIGITAL CHALLENGE FOR CULTURE AND EUROPE“. The event is meant to highlight how important it is to promote in-depth knowledge and a responsible use of the Web along with that of IT technologies and digital communication tools and techniques to ensure an ethically effective approach to communication. At the same time, it pursues to foster in the young population a wide-spread awareness about the need to win back their participative ownership of cultural heritage starting anew by recognizing the value of digital culture, innovation, social inclusion, interculturality, sustainability, and fighting against any prejudice towards differences of all kinds – culture, age, origin, ability, skin color.
PROGRAM
Morning, 10: 00-12: 30 Dialogue with national and European institutions / organizations.
Opening of the day
Angelo Argento, President of the Culture Italiae Association
Carmine Marinucci, President of the International DiCultHer Association
Gilberto Corbellini, President of the Antonio Ruberti Foundation
Laura Moro, Director of the Central Institute for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture.
Interventions
Chair: Germano Paini, President of the DiCultHer Scientific Committee, UniTO
- Michele Rak, former EHL – European Panel for the European Heritage Label
- Flavia Piccoli Nardelli, VII Culture Commission, Chamber of Deputies
- Luisella Pavan-Woolf, Council of Europe, Director of the CoE Office in Italy
- Maurizio Di Stefano, president of Icomos Italia
- Roberta Alberotanza, former president of the culture committee of the Council of Europe, expert evaluator of Coe cultural itineraries: Role of European cultural itineraries,
- Pamela Giorgi, Senior Researcher National Institute of Documentation Innovation Educational Research (INDIRE)
- Francesco Taccetti, European Project Manager 4CH (Competence Center for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage)
- Bernard Hugonnier, AEDE France, Project for the development of a European culture (PEC)
- Alessandro Civati, CEO Lirax org. The #LRXCULTURE blockchain platform for Digital Skills & Re-Skilling
Afternoon Session 15:00-18:00 A review of cultural projects of European scope, including the activities underway, promoted by the Faro Convention and its contextualization in today’s digital era. Experts, scholars, and students of national, European and international schools and higher education bodies will come together to discuss digital cultures as cultural identities.
Chair: Letizia Bindi, University of Molise, President of the DiCultHer Faro Molise Association
- Viviana Di Capua, University of Naples, Federico II, Cultural Common
- Francesco Calabrò, University of Mediterranean Studies of Reggio Calabria, Calabria UNESCO World Heritage Regional Observatory.
- Laura Moscini, Interuniversity Observatory for Gender Studies (GIO): Gender and innovation mainstreaming
- Sonia Tucci, the Archeofest® project and the Faro Convention;
- Maria Maddalena Chimisso; Head of the National Network for Innovative Teaching Methods.
- Monica Gozzini Turelli, Comprehensive Institute Pisogne (Brescia): Children enter Europe: BILINGUAL PRIMARY SCHOOL PISOGNE
- Maria Teresa Natale, Central Institute of the Single Catalog, The aggregators of digital content of European interest.
- Forioso Donata, National Blood Center, Digital Culture for social and voluntary work;
- The European experiences of the Associations:
- DiCultHer Faro Sicily,
- DiCultHer Faro Molise,
- Trasimeno lighthouse.
How to follow the conference
To follow the online conference, you must register by leaving your e-mail address to receive information on how to connect to the live streaming. Registration is valid for both the morning session and the afternoon session.
Information on how to connect to the Webinar:
- are contained in the order confirmation sent by Eventbrite as a receipt of the registration made
- will be sent by email at 9:30 on Sunday 9 May to all registered persons.
(1). The decision to name the Weeks of Digital Cultures after Prof. Antonio Ruberti, who was an unparalleled champion of dialogue between different Scientific disciplines is meant to pay tribute to his commitment and vision he pursued all through the years he was Italian Minister of the University and Scientific Research and not only. Ever since 1991 he established and launched the Weeks of Scientific Culture, which today stands out as the first step towards a stronger action to spread awareness about scientific culture. Subsequently, as European Commissioner for Science, Research, Technological Development, and Education, Professor Ruberti continued to press ahead along this line and finalized several agreements with international institutions and European Programs, which naturally led to pooling the activities of the individual countries into a new event, i.e. The European Week of Scientific Culture.
DiCultHer believes that dedicating the Week of Digital Cultures to Antonio Ruberti is a logical outcome, which enhances continuity and serves as a fitting link between the cherished memory of a scholar who devoted his life to Science and to the spreading of scientific culture and the present-day interest towards the digital paradigm whose impact on our lives and the way we look at culture is constantly growing.