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New ways of bringing cultural archives into the digital age will be revealed at an unusual event at
Broadway Cinema in Nottingham this week.
The ‘Archives to Assets’ project has been running for a year and has given researchers a unique chance to work across disciplines and with a range of Arts organisations and to experiment in new ways to link audiences with collections and places using new technologies.
New cultural experiences
The all-day public event starts at 9.30am at the Broadway Cinema & Cafebar, on Broad Street in Nottingham and will feature presentations from academics and arts professionals who have taken part in the research.
Leading the project, Professor of Computer Science at The University of Nottingham, Steve Benford said:
“The role and definition of archives is changing as more new technologies are developed, and we need to explore new ways of creating, storing and accessing material. It’s important because the creative industries exploit archives to generate new cultural experiences for audiences.
“We are thrilled to have had the chance to work with the creative sector in the region to exchange knowledge through ideas workshops and ‘hands-on’ projects. The resulting portfolio of demonstrator projects has proved this has been an extremely worthwhile collaboration.”
‘Archives to Assets — new modes to engage audiences with archival content and heritage sites’ has resulted in a raft of fascinating new projects featuring the local history of the East Midlands.
Technology to bring history to life
Among them are:
• Lace Market Living History — to use new technology to collect, sort and share memories, artefacts and stories from Nottingham’s Lace Market area, now becoming a lively Creative Quarter, the city’s answer to London’s ‘Covent Garden’.
• Using Aestheticodes (pictorial QR codes) to enhance visitor interactions with Nottingham’s lace collections — how patterns in lace design can be used as a basis for generating a recognisable digital code that can store information about the heritage of the lace industry and be made accessible to visitors and collection users.
• National Video Game Archive: Cultures of Play — a new online archive of oral histories recording cultures of play within family units and promotion of the National Videogame Archive as a research resource.
• Cultural Landscape of a ‘non-place’ to use different media to disseminate history and encourage audiences to participate in research focussing on Leicester Forest East Services.
The Archives to Assets programme is one of twelve projects across the UK to be funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the banner of Creative Economy Knowledge Exchange (CEKE).
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Our academics can now be interviewed for broadcast via our new Globelynx fixed camera facility at the University. For further information please contact a member of the Communications team on +44 (0)115 951 5798, email mediahub@nottingham.ac.uk or see the Globelynx website for how to register for this service.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottinghamhas 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also the most popular university among graduate employers, the world’s greenest university, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the World's Top 75 universities by the QS World University Rankings.
Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news…