Reflecting on European History with the Help of Technology: The CrossCult Project

Abstract

History, and in particular European history, is not merely a collection of unconnected events, but rather a complex mesh of interrelated facts, events and concepts, taking place within a wider context of previous and contemporary situations. Unfortunately when addressing the wider public, like in schools, museums and cultural spaces, history is often presented in a simplistic, siloed and localistic manner that promotes memorizing rather than understanding, does not account for cross-border cultural aspects and prevents historical events from being viewed as a shared, global experience. The goal of the CrossCult H2020 project, comprising 11 partners from 7 European countries, is to spur a change in the way European citizens appraise, interpret and access history, by enabling new and highlighting existing cross-border connections among pieces of cultural heritage, other citizens' viewpoints and physical venues. Facilitated by technology and mobile applications, with a strong background in social sciences, the project focuses on developing pilot experiences that build narratives of cross-border connections and crosscutting topics, to help visitors gain insight into how the same facts may be interpreted differently from different social realities and by different individuals. In this paper we introduce the CrossCult project and its goals, provide an overview of its four project pilots and discuss the technologies it employs to connect cultural heritage venues, repositories and people's viewpoints.