Technological innovation and its enhancement of cultural heritage

Abstract

The technological revolution which has completely transformed social relations and which has enabled communication and sharing of multimedia formats is also rapidly transforming the field of art and cultural heritage management. This contribution focuses on the innovative use of interactive digital technologies in digital humanities practices. In the last recent years, we experienced different approaches exploiting advanced technological innovation in the field of cultural heritage promotion and conservation. In 2015, for the exhibition “1525-2015. Pavia, the Battle, the Future. Nothing was the same again”, we applied multimodal interaction modalities. Visitors could look at and examine seven ancient tapestries through 3D reconstructions, virtual simulations, eye interaction and gesture navigation. Moreover, a transposition of the tapestries into tactile images enabled exploration by partially sighted and blind people. Motivated by this successful exhibition, in 2018, a more ambitious project, the 3D reconstruction of Pavia in the Renaissance, was undertaken. Advanced techniques and innovative applications have led to a resource useful for the promotion of the history of the city and its architectural richness through videos offering virtual tours of the city. Later, in 2019, a “Digital Anastylosis of Frescoes challeNgE (DAFNE)” has been proposed, to provide virtual solutions that ultimately add to the fresco restorer's toolkit, with digital re-composition of ‘puzzles’ formed by the artwork fragments, often mixed with spurious elements.