Dear Colleagues,
From cultural disasters, such as the fire damage at the Notre Dame de Paris in 2019 and the National Museum of Brazil in 2018, to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need to digitize cultural heritage is essential. Past efforts, mainly in the frameworks of specific projects, focused on digitizing items and, in some cases, monuments. However, the rich repositories created are not often used in a meaningful manner, and their content is not returned to the public in a way that supports the understanding of, interpretation of and reflection on cultural heritage. Over the last few years, there have been some systematic efforts to allow the exploitation of such repositories, by applying methods for data curation and digitization in order to support the effective access to, exploration of, presentation of and preservation of millions of digital heritage assets (i.e., AIR principles).
However, the challenge remains within the domain to conceptualize, design and put into practice new applications that realize the potential for the substantive and meaningful use (and reuse) of digital assets. Advanced technologies need to be coupled with new concepts and experience design paradigms that will promote user engagement with the past through critical reflection and perspective taking, following an inclusive and personalized approach. Current advances in technologies (e.g., linked data, virtual/augmented/extended reality, chatbots and digital storytelling), when combined with fundamental technological fields, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, create new opportunities to explore innovative technological solutions for the effective (re)use of digital cultural heritage assets. This Special Issue aims to spotlight cutting-edge research in technology-driven cultural heritage, as well as help in the alignment of these endeavors.
Dr. Akrivi Katifori
Dr. Angeliki Antoniou
Dr. Areti Damala
Dr. Paraskevi Raftopoulou
Guest Editors
Full special issue and submission information are available on the official special issue page.