Archive
Courses Winter semester 2023/24
12018 – Nicola Lercari: Heritage to Bytes. Fundamentals of Digital Cultural Heritage Studies
Tuesday, 10-12, Main building, room E006
In this course, students will examine essential concepts in Cultural Heritage Studies, such as heritage preservation and digital heritage, by analyzing the 'Digital Turn' in this field and its history. The course covers how digital methods can be used to capture, analyze, manage, curate, and disseminate cultural heritage data and related knowledge to solve critical issues affecting the world's cultural heritage. For instance, how is the concept of heritage changing in the Digital Age? How can digital techniques aid in conserving tangible and intangible cultural resources or ensure their sustainability in a changing climate or in a geopolitical scenario characterized by increasing anthropic threats? Students will also explore issues related to the cost, accessibility, representation, and sustainability of digital heritage technologies through classroom learning and readings.
12028 – Nicola Lercari: Museums and Virtual Museums (with museum visits)
Tuesday, 14-17, Katharina-von-Bora-Straße 10, Griechensaal
Culture and heritage establish strong and long-lasting connections between people, their societies, and the world. Museums are permanent institution in the service of society and its development, which create and maintain these material and immaterial connections for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. Today, museums are also places of controversies surrounding exhibitions and collections. But also of innovation linked to the development of new technology for collection digitization, knowledge representation, and dissemination. In this course, students will examine main museum concepts and functions and their historical evolution to understand the shifting role and purposes of these institutions over the centuries. Drawing from numerous examples from various museums worldwide, students will use their critical knowledge to discuss contemporary museum studies topics and probe into the various aspects that define and conceptualize the usage of technology in museums. Finally, students will engage with how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected museums globally and how technology has been used by museums to face this unprecedented challenge.
12031 – Bruno Sartini: Linked open data. Methods and Standards for Digital Cultural Heritage Preservation
Monday, 10-12, Main building, room C016
In this seminar, students will become familiar with preserving cultural heritage artefacts through digitalization, focussing on the use of linked open data. Through discussions and case studies, students will critically examine important aspects of digital preservation, such as authenticity, accuracy, accessibility, data provenance, chain of custody, data sovereignty, ISO standards, and best practices. In addition, students will analyse how linked open data can enhance access to cultural heritage resources, including art, architecture, manuscripts, heritage sites, and artefacts, and how this technology can benefit research, cultural memory, and dissemination.
The course will also provide opportunities for students to delve into the technical aspects of digital preservation, including metadata standards, data modelling, and data conversion techniques. By the end of the course, students will gain a deep understanding of the complexities involved in preserving cultural heritage in the digital age and will develop the skills to address these challenges through the use of linked open data.
12027 – Nicola Lercari: Digital Imaging for Cultural Heritage and Archaeology
Thursday, 14-17 Uhr, CIP-Pool Akademiestraße 7 (backyard)
Heritage professionals and archaeologists have long utilized digital imaging techniques to document, analyze, and digitize artifacts, historic buildings, and archaeological sites. In this course, students will develop competencies in digital imaging applications in cultural heritage and archaeology through field and computer lab activities, which will introduce basic principles and toolsets. Exercises will encompass an entire workflow from image acquisition, processing of derived products (i.e., digital drawings, 3D models, and digital elevation models), and data visualization for analysis and dissemination purposes. Covered techniques may include digital photography, drone photography, digital photogrammetry (Image-based Modeling, or IBM), Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), and multi-spectral imaging among others. Students will produce a final project (assessed) and will present their work to the class at the Institute for Digital Cultural Heritage XR Lab. An excursion will complement the laboratory activities and expose students to a real case study.
12030 – Bruno Sartini: Advancing to the Digital Frontier. An Introduction to Developing and Managing Digital Collections
Thursday, 9-12, CIP-Pool Akademiestraße 7 (backyard)
This exercise course will focus on the digital representation of cultural heritage linked data. Students will develop proficiency on the Omeka S tool, which enables encoding and displaying semantic metadata of cultural heritage items on the Web. Students will also get familiar with entity reconciliation and entity linking techniques via the OpenRefine tool. Through hands-on exercises and projects, students will gain practical experience in creating and managing digital collections of cultural heritage artefacts. They will also become proficient in and developing strategies for discovering and utilising digital cultural heritage data for research and educational purposes. By the end of the course, students will have a solid understanding of the principles of knowledge representation in the cultural heritage domain and be equipped with the technical skills to apply this knowledge to real-world scenarios.
Dario Calderone: Introduction to Geographical Information Systems for Heritage and Archaeology
Tuesday, 9-12, CIP-Pool Akademiestraße 7 (backyard)
GIS applications have long enabled topographic investigation and spatial analysis of archaeological contexts and cultural landscapes while providing new tools for integrating, managing, and visualizing spatial data and conservation data related to buildings and sites of cultural significance. In this exercise course, students will get familiar with basic cartographical and topographical concepts and develop skills in the GIS platform Quantum GIS. By developing lab assignments and a final portfolio, students will become proficient in digital documentation and spatial analysis techniques that will benefit their field research and thesis work. Computer lab exercises will encompass an entire GIS workflow, from becoming familiar with different types of spatial data models and structures (raster and vector), maps, projections, and coordinate systems to building a geodatabase, georeferencing, vectorizing, and exporting site maps, and performing queries and simple spatial analysis tasks.
Courses Summer Semester 2023
Bruno Sartini: Introduction to Programming for Humanists (Exercise course)
Tuesdays, 9:00 - 12:00 c.t., Akademiestr. 7 (internal courtyard) - CIP Pool 002; Start: 25.04.2023
This course will introduce humanists to the fundamentals of programming using Python as the primary language. Students will learn programming concepts such as data types, loops, conditionals, functions, with an emphasis on practical applications for humanities research. Throughout the course, students will also develop problem-solving skills and gain hands-on experience with Python through various assignments and a final project.
No prior knowledge in programming is necessary.
Courses Winter Semester 2022/2023
Nicola Lercari: Introduction to Cultural Heritage Studies
Tuesdays, 10:00 - 12:00 c.t., Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, M 110
In this introductory course, students will examine the concept of heritage as a multifaceted site of local and global discourses, and as a transnational asset, we all are responsible for in the present and future. Embracing interdisciplinary theories and knowledge from Archaeology, Critical Heritage Studies, Cultural Resource Management, Ethnology, and Heritage Preservation, students will probe into the various components that define and conceptualize heritage as a cultural and political concept.
Nicola Lercari: The Digital Turn: Theory, Method, and the Digital Humanities
Tuesdays, 14:00 - 16:00 c.t., Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10, Griechensaal
This seminar is intended to engage students with readings that introduce and define the contemporary discourse on the digital humanities (DH) and spark discussion on new modalities of humanistic knowledge production in the Digital Age. You will examine the history of the interdisciplinary field of the digital humanities and how the introduction of new questions has transcended the traditional text-based approach of humanities scholarship, generating new challenges.
Nicola Lercari: Laser Scanning & Mapping for Cultural Heritage and Archaeology
Block course on Wednesday, 26.10.2022, 10:00 - 12:00 c.t., & Friday/Saturday, 18./19.11.2022 and 27./28.01.2023, 10:00 - 16:00/18:00 c.t. in Akademiestr. 7, CIP Pool 2
In this course, you will develop competencies in laser scanning applications in cultural heritage and archaeology through field and computer lab activities, which will introduce basic principles and toolsets. Exercises encompass multiple workflows, including digitization or site planning, scanning, processing raw data (scans), creating derived products (i.e., digital drawings, 3D mesh models, and digital elevation models), and data visualization for analysis and dissemination purposes.
Courses Summer Semester 2022
Nicola Lercari: Digital Imaging for Cultural Heritage and Archaeology
12839
Thursays, 10:00 - 12:00 c.t., Akademiestr. 7 (internal courtyard) - CIP Pool 002
In this course, students will develop competencies in digital imaging applications in cultural heritage and archaeology through field and computer lab activities, which will introduce basic principle and toolsets. Exercises will encompass an entire workflow from image acquisition, processing of derived products (i.e., digital drawings, 3D models, and digital elevation models), and data visualization for analysis and dissemination purposes.
Nicola Lercari: Museums and Virtual Museums
12019
Tuesdays, 14:00 - 16:00 c.t., Griechensaal 204-206 in der Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10
In this course, students will examine main museum concepts and functions and their historical evolution to understand the shifting role and purposes of these institutions over the centuries. Drawing from numerous examples from various museums worldwide, students will use their critical knowledge to discuss contemporary museum studies topics and probe into the various aspects that define and conceptualize the usage of technology in museums.