International webinar Waag: Technology as a means of preservation

Online, four heritage experts along with moderator Nicole McNeilly conducted an international webinar focused on how technology can be utilised to preserve heritage crafts. During the presentation, the audience learned more about the three Mingei pilot projects, on glassblowing, silk weaving, and mastic growing, which will create tools for heritage craft presentation and guide future research.

The Mingei project platform and different technologies like 3D reconstructions, used to preserve and represent heritage craft, were also demonstrated. Following the presentation was a panel on various topics like the inclusion of AI in craft preservation, how the Mingei project can serve to pass on informal heritage craft knowledge to a broad audience, and how this knowledge of the past can serve to inform our future.

rewatch the webinar

Local session Waag: Fashion as a thread between past and present

At Waag, creative Director Dick van Dijk provided an overview of the Mingei project and introduced the attendees to keynote speaker and renowned fashion designer Antoine Peters’ work, saying that it ‘looks into the past and provides new context’ for the future. During the keynote, Peters discussed several of his projects including his collaboration with the Zeeuws Museum. For the museum, he reimagined a traditional nineteenth-century garment from Zeeland, the yak, as a modern garment: the Jaktrui. In creating the Jaktrui, Peters ‘wanted to communicate something from the past to the now and translate it in my own way’. The zero-waste folding technique was then used for economic reasons, but now is very relevant from a sustainability perspective.

Following his presentation was a workshop on the craft of repairing clothing. This workshop was designed based on the Reflow project aiming to share knowledge on how to rethink, repair, and revalue your wardrobe. During this workshop, attendees were encouraged to rethink items of their own clothing focusing on both aesthetic and technique in clothing repair.

• Rewatch the workshop
• Watch the instruction
• View the photos of the workshop (photo credit: Jimena Gauna)
• An impression of the local sessions from the European partners will be published on the Mingei website.
   

How heritage can shape the future

So how does the Mingei project serve to connect the past, present, and future? Inspired by the Mingei movement in Japan, which originally served as a response to Western mechanisation in the mid 1920s, the Mingei project today focuses on the digitalisation and accessibility of heritage craft, both tangible and intangible.

Through use of modern technologies like interactive Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, Mingei seeks to tell stories not only about the craft objects themselves, but about the rituals, practice, and knowledge that accompany these objects. The application of modern technology to heritage craft can then serve to build a bridge between the past and present.

In regard to the connection between past and present, Antoine Peters notes that ‘a design or a translation now always has this reference captured in it. So you have these little bridges – in storytelling or in the visual part’. When Peters was researching the yak, he found that no documentation existed detailing its construction proces – namely, how to take one piece of fabric and fold it to create the jak. Instead, he learned the folding technique from 91-year-old craftswoman Mrs. Vos.

This mirrors a challenge that was discovered during the Mingei project: during a glassblowing pilot in Paris, there was no documentation that outlined the movements and rituals of past glassblowers. Similar to the work Peters did to understand the historical process of crafting the yak, those working on the glass pilot had to find alternate methods to learn craft heritage techniques and movements and were able to reverse-engineer steps required for glassblowing. Both Peters and the glass pilot help to further an understanding of the past while contributing valuable knowledge to the future.

Through work like the Mingei project and Peters’ collaboration with the Zeeuws Museum, modern concepts and technologies can be applied to the past in a way that creates bridges between the past and present. When talking about heritage, Peters noted that the past and present cannot be separated; that ‘it’s all connected’. Examining these connections allows us to see the thread that connects the present day with the past and tells us stories that can be leveraged to imagine the future.

Exhibition CNAM Paris

CNAM organised an exhibiton where the worlds of academics and professional activity come together. It is the only higher education establishment dedicated to life-long professional training. A dedicated space at the cathedral which is part of the museum invites you to experience the craft of glassblowing and use actual glassblowing tools.

Local webinar FORTH – Greece

FORTH organised two webinars for Mingei Day (videos are in Greek).

Mingei Day Geneva – Reenacting 3D craft people

But Mingei Day is not over yet. On 9 and 10 July MIRAlab is organising a local session for Mingei Day in Geneva during The Night of Science. The partners main goal is to assure the perennity of certain gestures and attitudes when former people were doing crafts. Through digital simulation, we can preserve the intangible heritage.

Miralab intend to present videos of the “making of” of the digital craft people who are reproducing the gestures of our 3 activities: Glass, Mastic and Silk. As well as the setup of the three pilots.

Programme

19:15 – 19:30 hrs: Walk in
19:30 – 19:45 hrs: Introduction by Dick van Dijk (Creative Director at Waag)
19:45 – 20:15 hrs: Interview/presentation Antoine Peters
20:15 – 21:45 hrs: Workshop Reflow: Don’t let your textiles go to waste

Mingei Day

During the Mingei Day on March 10 we will provide insight into the research and applications of the Mingei project in an accessible manner. In the Mingei project, Waag works with European partners and craftsmen on ways to document traditional craft techniques. How can we use technology to preserve these crafts for the future? We do this, for example, by storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and motion capture. This way, the knowledge about the actions of traditional and industrial crafts can be preserved. During Mingei Day, passionate craftsmen show you what their craft is, and Waag shows you how you could document them.

Do you also want our crafts and clothing not to get lost? Come to Mingei Day on 10 March. Register if you want to be physically present in Waag’s Makers Guild (limited places available) and don’t forget your broken piece of clothing! You can also join the event from home. The link for the online live stream will be shared in the run-up to the event if you sign up.

Antoine Peters

The keynote of the evening is the worldwide famous fashion designer Antoine Peters. He has worked at Viktor & Rolf and worked with iconic brands such as Marcel Wanders, Moooi, United Nude, Quinze & Milan, Effio, Eastpak, Gsus Sindustries, EYE and Kidscase. Just like in Mingei, Antoine’s working method is characterised by his interest in traditional crafts.

In his work, Peters is concerned with the stories, historical development and conservation of these types of crafts. For example, he conducted intensive research into a nineteenth century yak for the Zeeuws Museum. He learned the craft of folding such a jacket, a technique that is more than two hundred years old, from a 92-year-old woman from Middelburg. She was one of the last wearers of the Walcheren regional dress. The uncomfortable fit of the yak gave the fashion designer the idea to use the traditional technique to make a sweater from soft recycled jersey.

Workshop

The necessity of preserving crafts, and the pleasure that these crafts can offer, are made clear in the workshop ‘Don’t let your textiles go to waste’. Did you know that in Amsterdam millions of kilos of textile end up in the wrong bin and are burned? And that people have an average of 170 pieces of clothing in their closet, 50 of which have not been used in the past year?

These workshops are designed to transfer knowledge on how to reuse, repair, reduce, rethink, recycle and revalue your wardrobe. During the workshops, developed within the Reflow project, you will learn how to repair holes in your clothing by rethinking the craft of clothing repair, and re-evaluating old garments.

Online streamers can already collect the following supplies:

An item of clothing you want to repair (socks, jumpers)
Wooden Embroidery Hoop
Wooden Darning Mushroom
Mixed colours of 100% Cotton Threads
Mixed colours of 100% wool Yarn
Chalk Pencil
A set of mixed needles and metal pins Darning needles
ruler and scissors

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The essence of an expertly executed craft is too nebulous to define. This is the reason why Mingei uses a variety of methods to record and present traditional crafts to the public. However, the difference between an expert and a novice is not their ability to adhere to strict guidelines and instructions, but rather how well they can decide when to break the conventional rules and create something unique. Even more interestingly, those decisions are made subconsciously. The expert can decide what motion will be the most efficient and perform it precisely, seemingly without any preparation. Since the motion of the body is the most important tool of performing a craft, Mingei uses motion capture to document all the subtle details of an expertly execution.

Motion capture

Motion capture (MoCap) is the recording of the joint angles of the human body during a task. In our previous article, we explained our first steps in digitizing the crafters’ movements. Unlike standard video, the only thing that is recorded with MoCap is the human skeleton and its associated motions. Even though general information about the environment and the appearance of the person is lost, this method gives the motion of each joint in detail for all three dimensions. This is why it has been widely adopted for movies and video games as well as medicine for many years. However, until now, its use for preservation of crafts is relatively limited.

The workshop as recording environment

Very early in the MoCap sessions of Mingei, a few differences became apparent when recording for cultural heritage. The first and most significant difference was the environment. In most MoCap sessions in either entertainment or medicine, the recording environment is heavily controlled. The sessions are most of the times indoors, in a room specifically used for MoCap, and whatever tool is required, is usually a stage prop. In contrast, within the Mingei project, all the recordings had to be done in the actual workshop or field while the expert interacted with the equipment as they normally would. As a result, the MoCap was done to be as unobstructive as possible to allow the expert the freedom to perform.

At the glass-blowing pilot for example, the recording did not stop from the moment the expert picked up the molten glass until he was finished. On the other hand, silk-weaving required the expert to use different equipment during the whole process and therefore the MoCap was segmented based on that. Mastic cultivation tasks are performed throughout the year, with weeks passing between them. Therefore, the most distinct tasks were selected and recorded consecutively.

Eye for detail

Another difference regarding MoCap for cultural heritage crafts is that the expert’s gestures are almost exclusively unique. Even when they perform the same task, they will almost always change their motions to account for small variations in the material they are working on. What is more interesting, is that small changes in motion are important because they highlight the expertise (i.e. a novice won’t do them). This is in stark contrast with motions of an industrial worker that operates machinery, or an actor who will perform the same motions many times, or even a patient who will try to keep their movement consistent. The point here is that in cultural heritage crafts, small variations in motion encapsulate proficiency, while in other cases, they are mostly random.

In conclusion, the experience with Mingei showed that the MoCap recordings have some unique requirements. The environment and the end-product will have a lot more impact on the recording protocol than in other cases. In a different context, it is more important to identify a pattern from accumulated data of multiple individuals with a varying level of expertise. In crafts however, each motion of the expert is “valued” more even if it appears only a few times.

Written by Dimitrios Menychtas (Armines)
Top image by FORTH, other images by Armines

The history of craft goes back almost to the history of man: sharpening stone, carving wood, weaving fabric were amongst the first things human beings had to master to make their way up to our days. Most of the objects that we use in our life today are still the results of highly-skilled craftsmanship. Even those objects that are made with the help of sophisticated machines, would not be possible without the masterful skills of people who designed the machines and their usage in the process.

Preserving crafts, even those that are no longer in use today, is paramount to preserve our history and the many wonderful techniques that we have invented to tame matter and make the world a pleasant and comfortable place to live in. Preserving and representing crafts is the mission of Mingei. One of the major challenges that the Mingei project is facing, is to use computer-based technologies to represent an exquisitely, intrinsically human activity. How do we digitize something that is so intangible and dynamic?

Representing crafts using state-of-the-art technology

To achieve this ambitious goal, we use a three-step approach at Mingei: we collect, we connect and we open up. In each step, we put Information Technology at the service of the step’s goals, employing a wide range of techniques to maximize the quality of the result.

We collect

Humans are the primary sources of the knowledge about craft that Mingei collects. We talk with craftsmen and craftswomen to hear their stories. What needs to be done in the craft they master, and when, and where, and how? People knowledgeable about the crafts are our primary source of knowledge. We run co-creation sessions with them, in which we all interact to obtain from them all they know about the craft they master. And we record what the people we work with say, using digital audio-visual tools and techniques to obtain the most from our interaction with them. But we also track their movements, placing sensors on key parts of their bodies. This way we are able to document the most minute details of their actions during crafting, both verbally and physically.

The secondary sources of knowledge that we look at are books, articles, images, movies, web sites and so on, that report knowledge relevant to Mingei. Our humanist scholars, including anthropologists, historians and sociologists, all with an expertise in craft, study and research to learn what are the most relevant of those sources. They then explore them, to extract the relevant stories and notions which they then encode in digital form. All this knowledge, gathered from primary and secondary sources in digital form is imported into the Mingei knowledge base, which is the digital repository where the project stores the knowledge that it needs to preserve crafts.

During the knowledge collection phase, the pilots first provided pre-existing digital content, such as photographic documentation of museum exhibits, video documentaries and curated literature. Next, we created new digitisations by photographic documentation of each pilot sites, including the museums, machines, pre-existing photographs, catalogues, workshops, etc. All kinds of objects, such as weaving looms, garments, mastic trees, mastic villages, tools, traditional clothing, and glass instruments were digitized with 3D reconstruction technology. With use of motion capture technology, we recorded the meticulous and skilled movements of crafts practitioners. This collection of knowledge on the three pilot crafts of Mingei is supplemented with the knowledge from open repositories and online resources.

The video above is an example of 3D reconstruction. Here we see a handheld machine that is used for the cultivation of mastic on Chios. The image at the top of this article shows another 3D reconstruction, featuring a woman during the process of cleaning mastic on Chios.

We connect

The knowledge collected in the first step is formed by many elements of diverse nature, each addressing some particular aspect of some particular craft. Precious as it is, this knowledge does form yet a set of stories that can be used to document crafts: the elements it consists of need to be connected into coherent wholes that convey meaningful messages to the Mingei user audience. Performing this connection is the objective of the second step. This step uses semantic information as a medium and narratives as the tool to connect the knowledge elements. That is, we use stories as coherent wholes that convey the knowledge about crafts, and in particular stories shaped as semantic networks, to make them as readable and as easy to understand as possible using today’s information technology.  Examples are stories about the Jacquard’s loom, the Krefeld textile industry, the history of Bontemps’ life, the construction of Crystal Palace, the narrative of Isidore of Chios, the story of mastic chewing gum, and many more.

Every story created by Mingei is a rich network, consisting of two basic elements: the schema of the craft, and a set of executions of the schema. The schema is a description of the activities needed to make that craft, and of the order in which these activities must be done, that is, which activities need to be done before, or after, or in parallel to which activity. Like a blueprint or a manual of a craft.

An execution of the schema represents an actual performance of the craft, as a set of real actions carried out by some craft master in a certain place and at a certain time, in the order prescribed by the schema. Both schema and executions are represented as semantic networks, that is set of RDF (Resource Description Framework) triples. Some of these triples link activities and events to the knowledge elements that document them. These networks are then lent to the third step of the Mingei approach.

We open up

The RDF triples produced in the second step encode knowledge in a way that is known only to the people which created them. To communicate this knowledge to the different types of users Mingei addresses, a non-negligible effort is required. This effort is done in the third step of the Mingei approach. Here again, we resort to co-creation: we run sessions with museum experts to design apps that will allow users to discover, access, understand and enjoy the knowledge about crafts we have mustered. This is the way Mingei opens knowledge about crafts to the outside world. At the moment, we are co-designing immersive digital experiences, such as an app that enables the virtual creation of patterns and textiles, a digital city exploration of Krefeld, a mastic cultivation training app, and a digital glass experience.

At the same time, we make sure our semantic networks will be safely preserved for long-term access in the future by applying digital preservation techniques to them. In essence, we add further knowledge to our network and we archive them in special archives, so that they will be accessible and usable for a long time after the Mingei project is over.

This video shows an example of the digital experiences that Mingei is currently developing. The game is set up in the past, in the physical landscape of Chios created through satellite depth maps and exploits the aerial 3D scans of Chios villages created by Mingei.

Timeline

In order to maximize its performance, Mingei is running the three steps in parallel, with the beginning of the steps scaled in time, so that each step is able to receive its input from the previous one. At present, Mingei has completed the first two steps on all three pilots, and has begun the third one. The first finalized digital experience will be launched soon, so stay tuned to hear the news!

Written by Carlo Meghini (CNR)

Limerick Lace is an active community of local lace makers, the Limerick Museum and Archives and local educational institutions in Ireland. The community is an intriguing example of how traditional crafts are kept alive and relevant. Waag’s Dick van Dijk  spoke to Gabriela Avram, lace making enthusiast and lecturer in Digital Media and Interaction Design in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems of the university of Limerick. What can we learn from the Limerick Lace project?

Lace making

Limerick lace is a hybrid lace made on a machine made net base. It is a ‘mixed lace’ rather than a ‘true lace’, which would be entirely hand made. Though Ireland has around 7 or 8 types of lace, Limerick lace is the most famous of all Irish laces. It has been worn by thousands of women, including Queen Victoria, American First Lady Edith Roosevelt and Countess Markievicz.

Limerick lace comes in two forms:
• tambour lace, that is made by stretching a net over a frame like a tambourine and drawing threads through it with a hook;
• needlerun lace, which is made by using a needle to embroider on a net background.

As the holes of the net (called gaskets) on which you create the pattern are very small, making lace is not only about carefully looking, but it relies on muscle mind and practice as well. There are 47 distinct stitches in Limerick Lace. The first steps of lace making are explained here.

Made in Limerick

The recent revival of lace making started in 2014 when Limerick was cultural capital of Ireland and several ‘Made in Limerick’ projects were funded by the Irish government, Limerick Lace being one of them. Its main objectives were to design and create an exhibition of Limerick Lace for the Limerick Museum, and to produce a book on the history of Limerick Lace.

The Limerick Museum and Archives host a valuable collection of local lace, partly ecclesiastic, partly domestic (dollies, aprons, christening robes). But before 2014, there were only two cabinets in the museum displaying lace.

One of the locals who got involved in the Limerick Lace project is Gabriela Avram. She joined the project out of personal interest in civic engagement and the potential link with modern technologies, such as augmenting lace with digital technology and creating digital tools to support lace makers.

Gabriela Avram was commissioned to build an interactive installation for the 2014 exhibition, Amazing Lace. Together with interaction design master student Suzanna Melinn and the local community they co-designed the installation Enlaced, consisting of an artificial leather laser cut front dress on a mannequin, augmented with lace pieces contributed by various local community members mounted on the sleeves, including NFC tags allowing the visitors to identify each maker.

Additionally, the exhibition presented instructions for visitors on how to make lace and try lace making out themselves. Later on, a Limerick Lace starter kit was constructed and made available through Etsy. It is hard for novices to get access to the materials needed, so the kit is an important step in making the craft more accessible.

Friends of Lace

In the years that followed, the activities to revive the lace community continued. The Limerick Lace project encouraged locals to bring out their own lace pieces to show and discuss, in a series of events titled Bring Out Your Lace. In the local Fablab, several local artists and makers started experimenting with lace making through other means than textiles, such as paper, 3D printers and laser cutters.

In 2016, Limerick Museum and Archives, in collaboration with the Limerick School of Art and Design organised a festival titled Hybrid: the identity of liminal lace, addressing the role of lace and its social-economic history. The festival included several exhibitions and lace-making workshops, as well as a conference.

The Florence Vere O’Brien lace drawing competition, initiated in 2015, invited art students to come up with new designs for Limerick lace, and the submissions went beyond any expectations, encouraging a potential move away from the dominant, traditional motives of flowers towards streetscapes and everyday objects.

A local group of lace enthusiasts formed in 2017 and became known as the Friends of Lace. They became more structurally involved to help to conserve and preserve artefacts, for example by repacking the lace in storage at the Museum following strict conservation rules, catalogue lace items, create teaching resources and support novel interpretations and uses of Limerick lace.
The revival made them visible as an active community group, which led to other groups following their example. In July 2019, Limerick lace was added to the National Inventory of Intangible Heritage.

Embracing new possibilities

Gabriela sees her role as attempting to bridge a gap between a valued traditional craft, and the opportunities offered by modern digital technologies for its preservation, documentation, further development and outreach.

One of Gabriela’s findings in liaising with art students is that new audiences lack dexterity, they don’t know how to use the needle – as they are mostly used to keyboard and mouse. In learning the craft trying things out is necessary, including the nuisance of undoing what you have already created, and starting over.

By now, the community’s activities also target tourism, through information leaflets in hotels, workshops for tourists, which especially receive high interest from American tourists. Apart from their own website and social media channels, the Friends of Lace are working towards an all Irish laces website, dreaming of a Limerick lace study centre (modelled after the one in Sydney) and potentially a free online lace images repository, created and edited by volunteers around the world.

Gabriela Avram is Lecturer in Digital Media and Interaction Design in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems of the University of Limerick, Ireland, and a senior member of the Interaction Design Centre. Her current research focuses on sustainable urban development, collaborative economy and the role of technology in supporting civic engagement of local communities.

Written by Dick van Dijk from Waag

References

As a way to represent and preserve Heritage Crafts in the context of Mingei, Virtual Humans are used to reenact and recreate the crafts in Virtual Environments. The Virtual Humans are created using either face scanning or third-party software. We explained this process in our previous article about the creation of virtual avatars.

Our next step is to utilize these Virtual Humans to reenact the crafts that have been digitised by other partners in Mingei. We have started with the pilot on loom weaving, conducted at Haus der Seidenkultur in Krefeld.

Conceptual decomposition

According to Mingei’s approach, we conduct a conceptual decomposition to get an overview of all elements that make up the craft of loom weaving. This includes both the machine used into its functional parts, and the motion that takes place during the craft execution into its basic steps. This decomposition of the craft in separate steps is made possible by the Mingei ontology and the process schemes of crafts, which is explained in detail in this article by CNR.

The machine and its parts utilized in each craft have been digitized with 3D reconstruction by FORTH, and the movement of the crafters has been captured by Armines. The results of these processes have been combined to create the virtual reenactment. We provide a generic approach and this segmentation can be applied to any craft.

For the case of loom weaving, and according to our approach, the weaving process is decomposed into 3 actions. The first step is shedding, when warp threads are separated to form a shed. The second step is picking. Weft is passed across the shed using the shuttle. The third and final step is beating. Weft is pushed against the fabric using the beater. Thus, the decomposed loom interface components are the shuttle, treadle and beater. The whole process can be visualized as in the diagram below.

From diagram to reenactment

In order to reenact the movements of the practitioners during craft execution, Motion Capture is used. This has been conducted by project partner Armines in Krefeld in March 2019. The Virtual Humans’ motion is driven by these Motion Capture (animation) files. However, we do not have Motion Capture for the movements of the machine parts or tools used; this is rather induced from the human motion.

The movement of the machine parts is thus the result of the motion of the human. First, we defined the body parts that utilize and move each machine part. Then we defined appropriate grip postures, orientations and attachment points. And finally, we created appropriate mathematical formulas that describe the movement of the machine part, according to the motion of the human. The result can be seen below. where a Virtual Human is operating the treadle of the loom machine.

This reenactment aims to contribute to the representation efforts of the craft, and help in its promotion and dissemination. For the time being, we have implemented this methodology successfully for the treadle (pedal) of the loom. Future work will include achieving this for the beater and shuttle.

Written by MIRALab Sarl

One of Mingei’s pilot studies involves mastic; a product from the mastic tree which exclusively grows in the south-west of Chios in Greece. The craft is highly localized, and the cultivation of mastic has historically shaped the local life. The 24 villages from where mastíha is harvested are known as Mastihochoria, or Mastic Villages – their name being an indication of the importance of mastic for the region. In order to explore and illustrate how the craft practice of mastic and its community have shaped the urban context, we created 3D reconstructions of the villages. How does the practice of crafts shape its surroundings and the local life?

The Island of Chios

The Island of Chios is situated opposite of the large natural bay of Smyrna, Asia Minor on the seaway from the exit of Dardanelles to the island of Rhodes or Alexandria. In 1571, the island passed from the Genoese under the rule of Ottoman domination. Both until 16th and the beginning of the 20th century, many visitors and navigators stayed on the island and passed down important texts and pictorial material over many generations. On the one hand, the rare product mastic, which can only be extracted from a common kind of a tree called “Skinos” on southern Chios. And on the other hand, the beauty and courtesy of women as well as their lavish costumes inspired foreign visitors to describe and represent the Island’s uniqueness.

At the beginning of the 15th century, Chios Island is mapped in “Liber Insularum Archipelagi” by Cr. Buondelmonti, which became a standard for the later maps of islands, such as those of B. Dalli Sonetti (1485) and B. Bordone (1547).

Nowadays, Chios is one of the largest islands in the Aegean Sea and is famous for the mild climate, the beautiful beaches and the variety of historical monuments. First and foremost, Chios has been well known throughout the world for the cultivation of mastic trees since ancient times. Mastic (μαστίχα) is a natural product collected from the bark of mastic trees, which exclusively flourish in the southern part of the island and due to this fact, the medieval settlements in that area are called “Mastichochoria”, as from mastic villages (χωριά).

The development of mastic villages

These settlements date back to the Byzantine Era and they are still Cultural Heritage monuments, although they have suffered disasters over the centuries. During the Genoese occupation (1346–1566), the mastic cultivation becomes progressively systematic and 22 mastic villages are founded in the southern part of the island aiming mainly at exploiting mastic, as a monopolistic product. Τhe geographical position of the villages was not visible from the sea and their layout reminds of a fortress, of which the aim was to protect the inhabitants from the frequent incursions in the Aegean Sea.

Latin architects, engineers and contractors oppressively had local farmers build the villages, according to the Italian architectural model of that era. In the center of each settlement, there was a tall rectangular tower, around of which there were houses very close to each other. The walls of the houses located circumferentially of the village formed an external wall with a cylindrical turret with crenellations on each corner to avoid invaders who tried to approach the center of the village by confusing them. This architectural draft gave masters the opportunity to close the gates in order for protection.

The houses of Mastic Villages follow the same architecture. They are stone-built, consisting of ground and first floor and are covered by semicircular domes called “Germata”. On the ground floor were stables and a storage room for agricultural products. On the first floor were the other rooms, which spread around a central outdoor space, the “Poundi”, which served to illuminate and ventilate the floor. The roofs of all the houses were about the same height, making it easy for residents to escape from the top of them in case of threat.

Τhe best preserved Mastic Villages are those that did not suffer major damage in the disastrous earthquake of 1881: Pyrgi, Mesta, Olympoi and less Vessa, Kalamoti and Elata.

To illustrate craft practice and community needs shaped the urban context we used aerial images of the Pyrgi, Mesta, Olympoi and Elata villages to show the densely-constructed houses which formed continuous external walls and the location of maximum security: the central tower in the village where mastic was stored and guarded during day and night. The 3D reconstructions of these villages are shown to illustrate and understand these architectural structures. It ought to be noted, that in later years, the towers in Mesta and Elata were replaced by churches. The location of the central tower for our four villages and the wall perimeter is shown. Can you find them in the 3D reconstructions?

Pyrgi Village

Pyrgi is a rich village for its folklore, archaeological and linguistic importance. The village is surrounded by a medieval fence that is formed by the external walls of the houses. There were only two exits from the village, which used to be sealed with two iron gates. The roads are narrow and the two or three storey houses are tall. The name of the village comes from the tall tower around of which the rest settlement was built. The Byzantine temple of Holy Apostles, with the well-preserved frescoes inspired from the Old and the New Testament, is situated at the village square. The existence of this church proves that the village was not constructed by Genoese for the first time, but several nearby settlements merged with the existing village during the Genoese occupation.

In Pyrgi the façades of the buildings have been decorated in a different and unique way throughout Greece. More precisely, this technique is based on the black sand of the roughcast, which is painted with white color and then it is scratched diligently. In that way, a variety of black patterns can be created on a white background, such as triangles, circles, semicircles, or rhombus. This technique is called “Xysta” and many walls of houses and churches have been decorated in this manner, giving an outstanding impression to the village. At last Pyrgi is a village of folklore interest and the only one of several villages that maintains many customs and traditions till today.

Mesta Village

Mesta is the most typical sample of fortification and the most well-preserved of the rest mastic villages, in the south of Chios. The village was built in a pentagonal form, which is perhaps unique in Greece, during the Byzantine Era, while later Genoases improved its fortification. Each house is built next to the other, without gaps but only two entrances to the interior of the village. The alleys are narrow and most of them are covered with arches, on which some residences are built. The layout of the village reminds of a labyrinth, aiming at preventing pirates from easily approaching the center of it.

The oldest monument of Mesta is the church of Old Taxiarches. It is a single-aisled Basilica, built during the Byzantine period. In the interior of which there are traces of frescoes, although most have been destroyed. The largest church in the village is the newest church of Taxiarches, built in 1868 on the site of the old circular castle tower. Next to it, there is the central, traditional village square with taverns and cafes. Nowadays, Mesta is a major attraction for many tourists, both for its unique architecture and the natural beauty of the area. The main occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture.

Olympoi Village

Olympoi Village lies in a small, treeless valley far from the sea. It is a medieval village of the 14^th century and has been declared a listed monument. The village maintains the form of the medieval “castle-village” quite well, enclosed by the exterior walls of the houses, which joined together. Those residences had no doors or windows, so as to deter their owners from seeing the outside of the village. The stone-paved streets of the village are narrow and lead to the main square. The functional character of the houses supports the village’s defense against pirate raids. The church of St. Paraskevi with its wood-carved iconostasis and the Trapeza of Olympoi, a two-storey building with long hallways preserved in a good condition since the Middle Ages, are of noteworthy interest. Just outside the village, near the beach of St. Dinami with the homonymous church, there is a cavern with remarkable natural decoration of stalactites. It was first visited in 2000.

Elata Village

Elata Village is located in a semi-mountain area, on a rocky hill in the southern part of the village where three windmills were built and are preserved to date. The position of the village is away from the sea, although there is a clear view of the Aegean Sea. The position and the architecture of Elata illustrate the dread of the inhabitants due to the frequent raids of the pirates from the Middle Ages till the Turkish Occupation. The “village-castle” architecture of Elata is still preserved to a certain extent. Seven older Byzantine settlements united to build the castle of Elata, probably around 1300 AD. At that time, the inhabitants of the village were engaged in the farming of a wild bird called partridge, which is not the case nowadays. The name of the village is thought to come from the Greek phrase “elate, elate” (=come, come) which was shouted at the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements to enter the castle when they were informed about the arrival of pirate ships.

To sum up, Chios island is a destination that invites visitors to discover it. Apart from beautiful beaches with clear waters, Chios stands out for the medieval villages in the southern part of the island, which are famous throughout the world for the production of mastic. This natural product is cultivated entirely by hand and is nowadays used in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and cosmetics. Mastic villages also display exquisite architecture and unique decorative elements on the facades of the houses, offering visitors the opportunity to travel back in time.

Want to learn more about the mastic villages? Go visit The Chios Mastic Museum! The museum is situated in the wider area of Pyrgi Village and aims at presenting the history of mastic cultivation and the processing of its resin, which integrates into the cultural landscape of Chios. The permanent exhibition of the museum lies emphasis on the mastic as a unique natural product. The first module presents the traditional know-how of mastic cultivation. The second module focuses on how managing the cultivation and its produce shaped the agricultural landscape and the settlements of southern Chios and the Mastic Villages historically. The third module is dedicated to mastic resin’s cooperative exploitation and processing in modern times, which marks an important chapter in the productive history of Chios. The museum guidance is completed with an outdoor experience, since the public comes into contact with the mastic trees and the natural habitat, where they prosper.

Written by Argyro, Polykarpos and Xenophon from FORTH, photography and video by Thodoris Evdaimon (FORTH)

As part of the Mingei project, the Musée des Arts et Métiers is making a copy of a carafe dated in 1842, made by Georges Bontemps at his crystal factory of Choisy-le-Roi in France. This work is documented by an anthropologist of the Laboratory “Histoire des Techno-Sciences en Société” of CNAM. The recording of the glass master’s gestures using a sensor suit and different cameras is done by ARMINES Research Center in Paris and the Institute of Computer Science FORTH in Heraklion, Greece.

During the month of May, the Centre Européen de Recherches et de Formation aux Arts Verriers (CERFAV) already studied the re-enactement process of the carafe. In September and October, the teams worked together to reproduce the carafe and record the actions necessary to craft the 1842 Bontemps’ carafe.

The manufacturing of the carafe

The master glassmaker Jean-Pierre Mateus and Dominique Jamis, former head of the hot-glass workshop at CERFAV, experimented with several techniques to assimilate the old carafe manufacturing process. More than twenty carafes were made before reaching a model similar to the original one. The manufacturing steps were as follows:

1. Blowing of the body: first step of the manufacturing pr
   ocess, the glassblower picks the glass in the furnace and shape it by his breath, the gravity and his hands to create the desired body of the carafe.
2. Laying the ” leg and foot ” of the carafe: with the help of the assistant, this step involves sticking two new glass parts to the body of the carafe by returning it and deposing two very specific amount of glass to be able to shape it with tools.
3. Crafting the neck: with a pincer, the glassmaster stretches the upper part of the body to made it identical to the original model.
4. Laying the glass cord: the assistant comes to deposit a fine tub between the body and the neck and the glassmaster shapes it while the glass is still hot.
5. Cutting the beak of the carafe: with a chisel, the glassmaster opens the neck of the carafe to desired shape and forms a beak.
6. Laying the handle: the assistant brings hot glass and puts it on the beak of the carafe, then he stretches it to create a tube that the glassmaster attaches to the body with the desired shape.

Two tools had to be specially created during the re-enactment process. First, a clapper in wood consisting of two rectangular pieces of wood joined at one end by a leather hinge and an aperture in one of the pieces of wood to squeeze a blob of glass in order to form the foot. Second, an experimental tool in soft metal created by the glassmaster to be able to make the cord between the body and the neck as thin as it is in the original carafe.

Ethnographic observation

During this entire process, the anthropologist Arnaud Dubois has conducted an ethnography of this re-enactment consisting of an observation of the working activities, the documentation of these activities with photographs and films, and different formal and informal interviews of the two craftsmen. One of the methodologies used during this research interest has been to observe and document the “geography of the workshop” to understand the relation between the body, the tools, the matter and the space when the craft is performed. Using the general frameworks of the “operational sequence” as conceptualised by the French anthropologist André Leroi-Gourhan in 1965, this method helps the researcher to understand the complex interaction between the craft practitioners gestural and sensitive actions, the active role of matter and tools, and the ‘choreographic’ dimension of movement in the workshop as a fundamental characteristic of a craft practice. Because craft knowledge is mostly non-verbal, this methodology is very useful to define and document the technical gesture of a craft.

While the operational sequence has been understood by the anthropologist, members of ARMINES laboratory equipped the glassmakers with sensors to record their key gestures and monitor their breath. Then, five cameras, installed in the workshop by the engineers of FORTH, were used to document the interaction between the master glassmakers and complete the recording of their actions.

Multidisciplinary collaboration

The collaboration between craftsmen, research-engineers and a social scientist permits to understand, reproduce, describe and document the tangible and intangible know-how embedded in the heritage artefact of the CNAM’s collection. The multiple discussions and several experimentations between these people from different background and disciplines create a deep and new understanding of the carafe. An interesting thing of this collaboration has been also to help everyone to have a reflexive approach of his own work and methodology. The craftsman through his collaboration with the computer scientists rethought his technical gesture in a new way. The anthropologist who is working with the engineers thinks differently about the ethnographic methodology he could use to study technical gestures. And the research-engineers collaborating with an ethnographer need to be more precise and exhaustive in their digitisation.

In November, Arnaud Dubois will go to FORTH to work with the technological partners on the various materials collected. This collaboration between researchers in computer science and anthropology researchers aims to achieve a most accurate and realistic digital reproduction.

Written by CNAM

Within the Mingei project, state of the art technology is used to preserve and represent traditional crafts. By digitizing processes, we can preserve the expertise of artisans, and simplify the transmission of craft skills and knowledge from generation to generation by using new innovative technologies, such as virtual reality, which is a technology already under use for educating complex techniques and skills. This expertise could be for example the handling of tools, where certain gesture, force or posture is required to execute the craft effectively.

ARMINES oversees two aspects of the Mingei project related to digitization. Firstly, we execute the motion capture of experts related to the pilots of mastic harvesting (top image), silk weaving  and glass blowing (image below). Secondly, we work on the development of a system that can track a human body in real time, and then recognise the gestures that the person is executing with the aim to compare them with the expert’s gestures and provide some feedback.

What is digitization?

We call digitization any kind of method that creates an electronic archive of the crafts. Standard coloured video is the simplest and most popular method. We also apply other methods  include 3D videos using depth cameras and motion capture to record the joint angles of the human body. Using different methods, it is possible to record and preserve crafts in a way that they can be reproduced. This allows historical arts to be preserved in a more organic way than just using photography and descriptive texts.

The first step of the digitization process is to breakdown the craft movement to components. For the crafts expert, the whole process is a continuous action. However, in order to digitize the motions properly, we had to sit down with the expert and separate each motion to subtasks.

Challenges of motion capture

Of course, the whole endeavor has its own caveats. Logically, the recorded motions have to be from a highly skilled expert, since their motions become the “default” motions to be preserved. In general, the challenges of digitization are related to the environment and the task that is being recorded. For example, mastic harvest is done outside, and the expert has to come into contact with dirt, dust, and tools that may affect the recording equipment. For weaving, the expert has to use bulky equipment (especially the loom) that can obscure the motions making the recording incomplete. The challenge is to record the complete motion, and simultaneously ensure that the digitization process does not interfere with the way the experts perform. As such, there is always a trial period until the best setup to record is found. Once this step is overcome, the digitization is fairly simple.

Another challenge is the presentation of the recorded information. In general, the more technically “rich” a dataset is, the more problematic is to present the data to the general public. For example, the motion capture data are strictly speaking a series of numbers. This requires special consideration on how to make the preserved crafts accessible to everyone. However, within Mingei, crafts that have been important for local economies across EU will be preserved in a functional way. Currently, historical preservation is concerned with items, with no way to preserve the methods that created them. Mingei will preserve the actual motion patterns and strategies making the items an example of a finished product.

Our next step is to continue the recording of experts and improve our methodologies for posture estimation and gesture recognition.

Written by ARMINES

Digitisation of cultural heritage turns Europe’s cultural resources into an important pillar of the digital economy. The EU Work Plan for Culture also raises the issue of digitisation of cultural content and suggests that digital services can foster the expansion of trans-European tourism networks. Massive digitization of ancient documents and artefacts is becoming a reality; according to new research conducted by Axiell, museums’ audience engagement strategies are focusing on digitisation of the collection as well as on the use of social media and informative websites to deliver public value and educational opportunities.

Developing mobile apps

Museums are also leveraging on technologies such as smartphones and tablets, with 33% citing that visitors can use their own devices to access a complete guide of the museum and almost 40% increasing their investment to do the same.

Within the context of the Mingei project, imaginary is developing a collection of mobile apps to preserve those Intangible Heritage Crafts that are part of the history and economic life of the areas and communities in which they flourished. Visitors will be accompanied in distant worlds experiencing customs and traditions to make them meet ancient crafts: the art of silk weaving (Haus der Seidenkultur, in Krefeld), the mastic cultivation and processing (Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, Greece) and the reproduction of a carafe from 1842 (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers – CNAM, Paris).

A new reality

These mobile apps will enrich the museum experience and contribute to guarantee visitors’ engagement thanks to the usage of Augmented, Virtual Reality. Augmented reality is the process of using technology to superimpose images, text or sounds on top of what a person can already see. It uses a smartphone or tablet to alter the existing picture. Users stand in front of a scene and holds up their device. It will show them an altered version of reality. Since 2010, an increasing amount of AR applications in the Cultural Heritage domain is recorded [1] representing one of the most significant benefits from a supply perspective because an increasing number of tourists are nowadays looking out for unique and memorable on-trip experiences [2].

On the other hand, Virtual Reality offers total immersion in a different reality and replaces what the user sees with an alternate reality and requires specialist technology, such as headsets, controllers and sensors.

With these technologies, combined with a powerful storytelling based on the contents provided by museums, imaginary will create a remarkable blend of historical artefacts, characters, activities to offer dramatic, emotionally engaging stories that can be experienced while at a cultural site or remotely.

In conclusion, the digitization of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage means to safeguard our living heritage bridging our past and our future: an important community-building practice, it helps to ensure the longevity of invaluable customs and practices and it validates life experiences of older members of a community.

1. Jung, T., & Han, D. (2014). Augmented reality (AR) in urban heritage tourism—eReview of tourism research. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University.
2. Yovcheva, Z., Buhalis, D., & Gatzidis, C. (2013). Engineering augmented reality tourism experiences. In L. Cantoni & Z. Xiang (Eds.), Information and communication technologies in tourism 2015. Vienna: Springer International Publishing.

Written by Imaginary