Interfaces for Cultural Heritage

Cultural Dimensions of Interspaces

Around the world, contents of libraries and museums are being digitized. Cultural Heritage introduces a series of problems for interface design. It must for example integrate text with images of original objects, their reconstructions, copies, imitations, fakes, with video, film, sounds etc. Other challenges include how to:

• adjust the system to a range of different access choices
• keep a common interface while adjusting to different levels of education, adjust the system in keeping with different levels of education, adjust the system in keeping with different kinds of learner and types of learning, relating individual lessons to courses, texts, curricula and corpuses of learning
• shifting seamlessly between different levels of knowledge
• integrate different approaches to quality
• include measures of quantity
• offer systematic use of simple questions: who, what, where, when, how, why
• deal systematically with problems of space, time, cognitive models, and representations
• include a rostrum of tools

A prototype for a system for Universal Media Searching (SUMS © 1992-1997), which integrates these features will be demonstrated and discussed. SUMS is part of G8 pilot project 5 (Multimedia Access to World Cultural heritage) and of the MOSAIC project which is linked with the European Commission’s Trans European Networks (TEN) programme. This system assumes a distributed network of databases housed in respective museums and libraries. A shortcoming of such a system lies in relating different versions of authority files for names, places etc. For this reason, it is suggested that a long-term solution may well lie in a centralized database of meta-data which would serve as a digital reference room on a global level and become a key for a System for Universal Media Access (SUMMA) in a distributed network.

Underlying this approach is an ability to:

• move from two-dimensional lists to three-dimensional spaces from spatial to spacial
• utilize the concept of spatial metaphors as a vehicle for viewpoint generations and transportation and interface design
• relate long-term enduring knowledge with short term knowledge of the day
• correlate the search functionalities of classifications, thesauri and lists
• use agents to gather information while retaining an active role as a searcher for the user
• establishing new ways of visualising subjective viewpoints in objective data
• employ the methodologies of Computer Aided Design (CAD), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global positioning Systems (GPS) in visualizing conceptual relationsships, theme-scapes and Problem- Learning-Solution Spaces.

The three individuals leading the seminar offer a very diverse set of experiences. Kim Veltman is a scholar in the field of new media linked with the McLuhan Program, and President of SUMS Corp. His focus on perspective led from the history of science at the Warburg Institute to Leonardo da Vinci and the Perspective Unit in Toronto. Anthony J.N. Judge is Research Director of the Union of International Associations and has for many years been working on issues such as problems of cultural biases in databases, intercultural dialogue, multi-lingual classification and publication. Heiner Benking is co-founder of infoterm, Associate of the FAW in Ulm, consulted UNEP-HEM to establish a meta-database, including a multi-lingual, multi-media repository concepts, for the Harmonization of Environmental Data. In the past 25 years he has been engaged in subjects connected to data visualisation, with additional focus since the late 70ies on consulting, marketing, and market research. He has proposed a theme-scape or mind-scape, a ‘Cognitive Panorama - 3Space/Time’, a combination of spacial models, which will be introduced briefly. This Panorama can be understood as a global index or scaffolding for common frames of references, a layout or design to share orientations and views. It helps to map and index bodies known and unknown of knowledge.

We recommend:
Veltman: http://www.web.net/~akfe
http://www.web.net/~akfc/perspective/perspective.html
http://www.web.net/~akfc/sums/index.html
http://www.web.net/~akfc/contemporary/contemporary.html
http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/mcluhan/prog3.html
http://www.web.net/~akfc/space.html
http://www.web.net/~akfc/frontiers.html
http://www.give.at/monastry21.htm
http://www.couch.ca/veltman.html

Veltman/Benking: http://www.wi.uni-trier.de/etc/Isko97/ISKO97.htm
Central the themes of this tutorial with focus on KO Knowledge Organisation and Switching Systems http://www.give.at/give/gv97/symposium/feb14.htm
GLOBAL VILLAGE SYMPOSIUM - Friday, February 14, 1997 PANEL 3 and 4 Global Communicators Session and Hypermedia: New Approaches to World Cultural Heritage and Knowledge

Judge: http://www.uia.org
http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/liber.htm
http://www.uia.org/strategy/stratcon.htm
http://www.uia.org/transfor/01over.htm
http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/transdis.htm#top
http://www.uia.org/uiademo/vrml/vrmldemo.htm Using Virtual Reality for an Overview of World Problems experimental use of VRML techniques by the Union of International Associations, eg. Displays: vicious loops of world problems - Displays: international organizations,...

Benking, Judge: http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/spatialm.htm Design Considerations for Spacial Metaphors: reflections on the evolution of viewpoint generation and transportation systems, acm/ECHT 1994

Benking: http://newciv.org/cob/members/benking/benking/
http://newciv.org/cob/members/benking/metapara/ and http://heri.cicv.fr/council/
http://www.fh-koeln.de/fb-spr/su/tke96.htm -
http://lucy.lut.ac.uk/c_cog96_workshop.prog.html
http://www3.informatik.uni-erlangen.de:1200/Staff/graham/benking/CreativeMemberPresentation.html
http://lucy.lut.ac.uk/c_cog96_workshop.prog.html

Kim H. Veltman, Toronto, Anthony J.N. Judge, Brussels, Heiner Benking, Ulm

For further details contact Heiner Benking, Fax +49 731 501 929 FAX or benking@faw.uni-ulm.de