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.

In the last four years, Waag and nine European partners and craftsmen have experimented in Mingei project by documenting and digitalising crafts, storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and motion capture.

During this webinar on Mingei Day we would like to share and discuss the results and knowledge we gained. In four online panel discussions, experts from all over Europe will discuss and share their views on how to preserve crafts and how we can keep improving this in the future. During the webinar, participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions online.

Join the conversation! The link to the meeting will be provided to you by email. This event will be recorded.

Programme

16.00 hrs – Welcome Mingei Day – host Nicole McNeilly (Impact Evaluation Advisor Waag)
16.05 hrs – Introduction to Mingei Project (Xenophon Zabulis – Project Coordinator Mingei)
16.15 hrs – Expert panel discussion will cover the following questions:

1. What is the urgency of preserving and documenting crafts?
2. What is the impact for the craft and heritage community, education and future generations?
3. What tech advances are helping us make steps in the preservation and documentation of crafts?
4. How could the Mingei platform be useful for future users to make the impact sustainable?

17.35 hrs – Q&A from participants and recap lessons learned
17.45 hrs – Closing

Panelists

• Xenophon Zabulis – Research Director FORTH, project coordinator Mingei
• Carlo Meghini – Research Director at CNR-ISTI and developer Mingei platform
• Arnaud Dubois – Research Associate at CNAM, social anthropologist Mingei
• Eirini Kaldeli – Researcher and AI expert involved in the Crafted Europeana project
• Marinos Ioannides – UNESCO chair Digital Cultural Heritage at Cyprus University of Technology

Have a look at this episode of Euronews (Europe’s leading international news channel) dedicated to one of the many innovative ideas of Mingei that engage today’s youth with past traditions.  

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 822336.

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

​

DigiTraining is specifically targeted to benefit small or midsize museums, as well as other tangible or intangible cultural heritage organisations, which include structures and facilities accessible to the general public.

Mingei Online Platform 

Mingei Online Platform (MOP) is an online authoring platform developed in the Mingei H2020 IA, maintained and used in additional projects by FORTH, The Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas in Greece. The Mingei Online Platform facilitates the representation of the socio-historic context through narratives.

The purpose is to:

• Document, represent, and preserve intangible dimensions along with objects and sites
• Contextualise presentation of tangible heritage
• Systematise and facilitate the presentation of socio-historical context
• Explore and promote world heritage, stimulate interest through educational and fascinating content.

Nowadays, not only the treasures of culture but also the stories, the values, and the collective memories of European citizens can be preserved and enhanced through digitalisation. This platform is a useful tool for preserving both tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, as users are able to add  information in such an easy way, by registering both texts (historical events, dates) and multimedia material, such as images, videos, 360^ο videos, 3d reconstructions, which are interconnected, creating relevant stories and narratives. In addition, the digitalisation of Cultural Heritage in combination with the creation of stories by using Mingei Online Platform (MOP) will stimulate visitors’ interest in tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, making museums and cultural organisations more attractive.

Pilot

After its pilot evaluation, the Mingei Online Platform was utilised by more than 80 cultural Heritage Institutes in the DigiTraining Creative Europe project, to create representations for and on their own. This activity provided immensely valuable feedback in the optimisation of its User Interface. The Mingei Online Platform (MOP) implements a protocol for the advanced digitisation of Institutes Cultural Heritage and socio-historical context, through narratives and process schemas. 

Structure of capacity building programme

The programme is structured in 3 different levels; the General Programme will provide many organisations with a combined training on digital and audiovisual technology, as well as on digital-related management. The Specific Programme will provide up to 6 organisations with mentoring through a specific training programme resulting in a strongly increased capacity in digital skills as well as in strategy and management tools to deal with them. Finally, through the Qualified Programme a maximum of 3 selected organisations will benefit at no cost from the production of a virtual or augmented reality audiovisual project specifically adapted to their mission and narrative, together with the strategic and managerial advice to best integrate it in their activities.

Combining digital technology research, execution and training

DigiTraining’s consortium is composed by an experienced team from five different countries with complementary skills and competencies to respond to the urgent need for providing specific support to the cultural and creative heritage sector. This team merges tested expertise in digital technology research, execution and training; in direct support on management and innovation for start-ups and midsize organisations; in media, communication and audience development in the cultural sector; and in audio-visual & virtual reality production for the arts and cultural heritage.

Mingei Day

During the Mingei Day webinar on 10 March the the team of FORTH will give a demo of the Mingei Online Platform. Sign up for the webinar and join the discussion! For more contact about the Digitraining Project, please leave your contact details here.

The concept of the Exhibition

The basic idea of the exhibition consists of presenting in public 84 artistic cushions from the “Is & Zhu Stathoyiannis collection” and highlighting the thematic dialoque developed between the digital artistic drawing by Ioannis Stathoyiannis (fabric printed) and the artworks of the visual artists participating in the exhibition.

The place of the Exhibition

It´s also worth noticing that experts and public are called to face a new challenge, since Ioannis Stathoyiannis´s exhibition hosted in one by definition non-museum use space, the Olympic Hotel. This situation highlights one of the groundbreaking trends of Postmodernism, and in particular, that which mentions signs-spaces of the wider urban environment as possible places of presentation cultural material, thus creating conditions of collective historical memory.

The Exhibition and the Artist

Memories, feelings and testimonies compose the identity of the ‘Is & Zhu Stathoyiannis pillows. The digital artistic drawing of Ioannis Stathoyiannis (fabric printed) escapes the decorative spirit of applied arts, or even the spirit of social census or distancing. The digital drawing of Stathoyiannis, endowed with an experiential. Symbolic and conceptual dimension, takes art to the level of concepts, ideas and even emotions that leave their material imprint on the fabric, used as a kind of canvas and a field of artistic expression.
Based on his personal interest in fabrics and textiles, his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Design, Fine and Digital Arts) Universities of Central Lancashire & Wolver Hampton) guided by his memories and travel experiences in Europe, Asia, and America, thanks to his teaching experience in China (Raffles Education Corp. Singapore) and his depth knowledge of Chinese culture and mythology, Stathoyiannis “deals” in his artworks with concepts, such as Place, Presence, Being, Identity, Crisis by expressing his thoughts, and concerns for social issues such as racism, immigration,etc. In his digital drawing, nature plays a symbolic role. There are many references to the Cretan mythology symbols.

The Collaboration with the Artists

In the framework of Ioannis Stathoyiannis´s personal exhibition an open invitation was sent to artists desiring to participate, using the fabric as the basic material of their artworks. The artists were thus invited to a conceptual interaction and to a synergy of high emotional intensity with Stathoyiannis´s digital drawing. In this exhibition, the particularity of expression and the variety of genres have been sought, according to the common objective of composing and exhibiting an artistic universe in dialogue. Works of painting and sculpture, artistic installations and constructions, animated sketches, works that combine textiles, drawing printed on fabric, fashion design, art photography, and poems make up an artistic universe of 21 plus 8 artists in conversation, dividing to four different thematic units in the exhibition.

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Theodoros Evdemon (FORTH)

‘The RISE IMET conference gathered researchers, academics and practitioners working on emerging technologies applied in museums and cultural heritage. In the presentation, I discussed the approach for evaluation and impact assessment of digital heritage projects, which we introduced in the project Mingei, together with Merel van der Vaart, on behalf of Waag.

Evaluation of technology-mediated experiences of users qualifies as one of the most important challenges in digital heritage. Most often, evaluation approaches focus on the final product or outcome of a project. Within Mingei, Waag advocated for an approach that monitors and examines what is being learned during the project. The process of collaborative learning that takes place in working with different partners, is complex and merits to be monitored and documented as well. It is for this reason that within Mingei we introduced the concept of institutional and organisational learning.

‘Within Mingei, Waag advocated for an approach that monitors and examines what is being learned during the project.’

This means that Waag will examine, monitor and document the institutional and organisational learning that take place in the project, in addition to monitoring all utility, usability and user experience (UX) studies. We put forward an approach that draws inspiration by the Generic Learning Outcomes framework (as applied in museums and heritage sites) and the method of Team Based Inquiry. The Generic Learning Outcomes model advocates that learning can manifest itself as enjoyment, inspiration, and creativity. At the same time, Team-Based Inquiry cycles carried out by heritage and technology partners, allow to identify a pertinent question, and investigate how a program, project or activity can be readily improved.

Our work was at the origin of various questions from the session participants around articulating, combining and presenting evidence from findings around learning. Learning which occurs both as a result of using Mingei project digital outcomes, as well as learning as a multidimensional and multi-experiential outcome from getting involved in a complex, multi-disciplinary digital heritage project. You can read the abstracts of other presentations and keynote speeches of the conference here.

What is next?

Mingei plans for reaching out to like-minded digital heritage and digital media, learning and education practitioners during the annual CECA (Committee for Cultural Education and Cultural Action) Conference. This event will be hybrid and take place in Belgium and online in October 2021. The conference theme is ‘Co-creation inside and outside the museum’.’

Written by Areti Damala, freelance academic heritage researcher for Waag.

How can the latest digital technologies help people to understand, protect and promote old and traditional crafts? To answer that question, Euronews dived into the Mingei project to learn about the innovative ideas that engage today’s youth with past traditions.

“Mingei is aiming to capture the motion and tool usage of heritage crafts practitioners, from living human treasures and archive documentaries, in order to preserve and illustrate skill and tool manipulation,” Euronews explains.[1] In the video, Xenophon Zabulis and Nikolaos Partarakis, computer scientists at FORTH in Greece, show how they create 3D scans of the tools that are used in traditional cheesemaking and weaving.

After digitization, the information will then be available through compelling presentations, using storytelling and educational applications, based on AR and MR and the Internet. In a second video, they showcase some interactive installations in a museum setting, that are engaging people with the crafts.

For example, they show an interactive comicbook that describes and shows people how glassmaking was done in France years ago. Another example is an old dial-up telephone that allows the museum visitors to hear the traditional songs that were sang during the mastic harvest at Chios.

“In order to maintain the traditional crafts, we must draw the interest of people in different ways. We have to modernize the stories,” Xenophon tells. Digital tools can help with that goal.

The videos are also available in French and German.

References

How do you know what impact the product you are developing will have? Your initial answer to this question might be: You don’t know and, unless you are clairvoyant, you can’t know. If you consider impact something that can only occur once a product is finished, you would be right to say this.

However, the Mingei team believes that a product, or to be more precise, the project delivering the product, can have significant impact during its development phase. We use the same definition of impact as Europeana uses in their Impact Playbook for Museums, Libraries, Archives and Galleries. Impact consists of “the changes that occur for stakeholders or in society as a result of activities (for which the organisation is accountable.” In this context, we focus on impact that might occur as a result of growing awareness amongst our target audiences, the impact of our scientific publications on the academic community, and the organisational learning that happens as a result of Mingei collaborations.

We decided to measure and work to optimise impact throughout the lifecycle of the project, rather than merely measuring the end result. While developing our tools, our understanding of their capabilities will shift and grow, making it possible to better understand the potential impact and to take action to optimise this potential as part of our development process. So, how are we doing this?

Work as a team

Rather than appointing one or two people in charge of monitoring impact, we decided to take a more proactive approach and work in several small teams to actively improve the impact our work may have on our key stakeholders. Our heritage partners are particularly important in this process, as they are most closely in contact with (some of) the potential future users of our tools.

To make sure we progress in pace with the project, keeping our research relevant for whatever phase we are in, we are using a method called Team Based Inquiry, or TBI. TBI was developed by the Nanoscience Informal Science Education Network and was initially used to continuously assess and improve (nano)science education projects. It makes use of a cyclical process, consisting of four steps: question, investigate, analyse and improve. This allows you to be topical and progress in your research, while also aiming for continuous improvements.

We will use the TBI cycle throughout the project, where our heritage partners will each be leading their own cyclical processes, with input and contributions from technical partners when needed. During the first phases of the Mingei project, we will focus on developing relationships with our key stakeholders, as well as better understanding their needs. Later on, the same approach will be used to focus on skills development. What skills do key players have, or need, that can help make the Mingei tools a success? By better understanding key stakeholders and their skills, we can together work towards improving the tools we will offer them.

Monitoring impact

Finally, we will also be monitoring the impact the Mingei project will have on our heritage partners. Not only because they will be important users of the Mingei tools in their own right, but also because by better understanding the impact the project has on them, we will be able to optimise our tools for use by other heritage professionals. Each heritage partner has finished their first TBI cycle, delving into a question they deemed relevant to their situation at that time. Although these first cycles were seen as a test run of sorts, the results were very promising.

Written by Merel van der Vaart from Waag

Chinese silk has a history of five thousand years. The unique techniques used, the vivid colours and its fascinating history have all contributed to the fact that silk occupies a very significant chapter in the history of Chinese – but also global – culture.

From 20 September until 20 October 2019, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) and the China National Silk Museum presented the exhibition “Tradition Meets Trend” at the Foundation’s Silk Museum in Soufli, Greece. The exhibition included modern clothes and accessories of silk from the collections of the China National Silk Museum.

The exhibition used silk apparel to recreate the charm of silk craftsmanship via four sections: embroidery, silk-screen printing, weaving, dyeing. Both tradition and modern design trends are applied to create objects – works of art that showcase the inexhaustible vitality of Chinese silk.

The exhibition highlighted the greatness of silk culture and functions as a bridge between the two civilisations, Chinese and Greek. An embroidered coat of red satin with flower and bird patterns, the qipao brocade, blue-dyed silk scarves and many other spectacular creations, offered visitors the opportunity to “travel” to distant China.

The exhibition, which was under the auspices of the Culture & Tourism Department of the province of Zhejiang and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Greece, came under the framework of the co-operation agreement signed between PIOP and the China National Silk Museum in October 2017. In the same context, providing for cultural exchanges between the two entities, PIOP will lend artefacts from its collections to be displayed at the China National Silk Museum in 2020.

Written by PIOP

From 9 to 13 September 2019, PIOP welcomed all partners to the Mingei Consortium Meeting onChios, Greece, where the Mingei pilot on mastic is deployed. With coordinated efforts, the valuable help of the Mastic Museum staff and PIOP’s excellent relations with the local community of Chios, we were able to organize a fruitful meeting.

Visit at the Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association

On Monday morning of 9 September 2019 , the consortium visited the Chios Gum Mastic Growers Association – which represents the entire community of Mastic cultivators on Chios – and had an interesting meeting with the president Mr G. Toumpos.  One of the main aims of the Association is  with respect of growers-associates labour and efforts, to stand by them as an assistant, by contributing to the upgrade of mastiha cultivation, to the improvement of its producing procedure and of course to the guarantee of the highest possible profits. The consortium received input on the needs of mastic growers, ranging from practical issues to strategical goals.

Visit at the Mediterra S.A.

In the afternoon, the consortium visited the Mediterra S.A. Company and had a meeting with Ms Marialena Kavoura. Mediterra was founded by Chios Mastiha Growers Association, with the main objective to develop, product, promote, and sale mastiha products worldwide. Mediterra is a company initiated by the Association and it has the role of a marketing tool for mastic products. Today, they are also building a research centre for pharmaceutical and medical uses of mastic.

The main concern of Mediterra today is to promote mastic in the markets of U.S.A. and Australia, among others, where mastic is not known. Mastic is nowadays considered a super food, thus the main marketing strategy for those new markets is the pharmaceutical and medical use of mastic. Major export countries include those where mastic is used in their daily routine, such as in Saudi Arabia.

Mastic cultivation and agritourism

On Tuesday morning of 10 September 2019, the consortium met with thematic tourism stakeholders and with Ms Boura, who is the owner of the tourist Agency named Mastic Culture, in order to provide the experiential presentation in the field, at the Mastic Museum.At the open air exhibition of the Mastic Museum, where pathways have been developed, as an itinerary through the mastic field, participants became acquainted with the special characteristics of mastic cultivation and the agricultural landscape of southern Chios.

Mastic cultivation steps, processes and practices were demonstrated to and performed by the participants, providing a first-hand experience of the labour, the dexterity and the required practical difficulties, as well as the consideration of efficient use.

Plenary meeting

On the first day of the official consortium meeting, Wednesday 11 September, all partners and guests from the advisory board (Ms Stavroula – Villy K. Fotopoulou and Mr David Fajolles) attended presentations of the progress of the project and discussed with the consortium. During the day, all participants viewed the motion capture process that was taking place at the mastiha trees of the museum.

A guided tour of the exhibition space provided the opportunity to become acquainted with the history of mastic, the process of the mastic cultivation and the architecture of the settlements. Everyone became familiar with the history of the cooperatives, the Chios Mastiha Growers Association, the steps in the mastic production Line, its uses and the products.

Keynote talk by Villy Fotopoulou

Intangible Cultural Heritage, Local Knowledge and Sustainable Management of Cultural Assets and Environmental Recourses

During her talk, Ms Fotopoulou provided insights in Intangible Cultural Heritage, Local Knowledge, and Sustainable Management of Cultural Assets and Environmental Recourses. Ms Fotopoulou provided guidelines on the policies for the preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage as acquired from the collaboration of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, of the Ministry of Culture and Sports – Hellenic Republic with UNESCO, regarding the inscription of elements of Greek Cultural Heritage in the Representative List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Keynote talk and guided tour by Manolis Vournous

The architecture of the Mastiha villages

In the afternoon of the first day of the meeting, PIOP had planned two architectural guided tours in the Olympoi and Pyrgi villages, by Mr Manolis Vournous, architect and former mayor of Chios. Mr Vournous presented his talk in the context of two guided tours at these villages. Mr Vournous elaborated on the architecture of the Mastiha villages and the way it supported the cultivation of mastic during the last 10 centuries, as well as the protection of threats to the local communities due to piracy and weather conditions. The group ended up at the central square in Olympoi, where we had the opportunity to relax and enjoy the dinner provided by PIOP.

Co-creation activities

On Thursday  of 12 September, we started the day with an update on the technological progress of the project by the technical partners. After that, we continued with the co-creation sessions organized by WAAG, which focused on the creation of mastic stories oriented to the museum’s spaces, both indoor and outdoor. All participants were divided into three groups and created stories that linked the history of mastic, its social implications, the chewing gum production line and the external pathways of the natural landscape with the potential needs of different group visitors. The great participation, the fantasy and the ideas of all partners showcased the charm and the impact of this unique product on everyone.

Keynote talk by David Fajoles

Why does the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage matter?

On the final day of the plenary meeting, Friday 13 September, we had the chance to attend the speech of Mr Fajoles, on the importance of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. During his talk, Mr Fajoles provided insights on the organisation and operation of UNESCO Culture Conventions and in particular the 2003 convention on Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as the ways in which heritage is inscribed in the representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity or the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. Mr Fajoles presented in detail the function of Heritage Inventories, awareness-raising on international and national level, as well as the function and value of the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices of UNESCO.

The planning of the next steps and issues of the council put the epilogue to a productive but intense 3-day meeting. The next consortium meeting will take place in Paris, involving the glass pilot, upcoming December. Until then, the scent of mastic has remained strong in everyone.

Short bios of invited presenters

Stavroula – Villy K. Fotopoulou is a graduate of the Department of Archeology and History of the Athens School of Philosophy. She has been working in the Ministry Of Culture since 1996, where she was appointed as a graduate of the National School of Public Administration. She holds postgraduate degrees in Modern History (NCSR, 2008) and in Social Folklore (NCSR, 2011). She is the Director of Modern Cultural Heritage in the Ministry of Culture since 2014. She has represented the Ministry of Culture in International Organizations (UNESCO, EU), on matters of its competence.

David Fajolles is a Professor at Sciences Po – C-factor.tech Paris, in Cultural Policies and International Relations. He is a Former Secretary General of the French National Commission for UNESCO and has worked for the French Ministry of Culture as an advisor to the Minister and as a head of the department studies. He is the founder of Manufacturing of Curiosity, a European initiative for smart innovation in cultural and creative industries.

Manolis Vournous graduated in 1996 from the School of Architectural Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, and in 2000 with a scholarship from the Institute of State Scholarships he completed postgraduate studies in monument restoration at York University, graduating with distinction. His research interests relate to the architecture of Chios during the period of the Genoese and the Ottomans. With his publications and conferences he has dealt with issues, such as the vigils and fortifying architecture of Chios, the evolution of the post-Byzantine church in Chios and the creation and evolution of its settlements. From 1996 to 2003 he worked in Athens focusing mainly on studies and supervision of the restoration of buildings and the incorporation of new architecture into a historical setting. In 2014 he was elected Mayor of Chios.

Written by PIOP and FORTH