Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IMPULSE (IMmersive digitisation: uPcycling cULtural heritage towards new reviving StratEgies)
Période du rapport: 2024-02-01 au 2025-04-30
The IMPULSE project (IMmersive digitisation: uPcycling cULtural heritage towards new reviving StratEgies) addresses key challenges in digitisation, accessibility, and reuse of cultural heritage across Europe. It aims to create inclusive and sustainable strategies using immersive technologies like XR, VR, and MUVE, focusing on educational, artistic, and creative applications. By integrating cross-disciplinary approaches, IMPULSE promotes immersive storytelling, engaging underrepresented communities and fostering co-created hybrid experiences. A Community of Practice, hackathons, and mentoring hubs support collaboration between academia, cultural institutions, artists, and the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI), forming a human-centred ecosystem for immersive digitisation.
The project adopts an iterative, user-driven design process, with successive prototyping cycles rooted in agile and design-based methods. Work Package 1 lays the empirical and methodological foundation for creating impactful and accessible narratives.
Key objectives include expanding access to digitised heritage through XR, enabling diverse audiences to engage with cultural assets. Technological solutions are developed to improve interoperability, allowing seamless reuse of content across education, art, and industry. IMPULSE also works on standardising digitisation and metadata to ensure compatibility with emerging immersive platforms.
Legal and organisational challenges are addressed through assessments and prototype-based collaboration models, offering solutions for rights, licensing, and ownership in immersive environments. The project fosters community-building through engagement activities like the IMPULSE Hackathon, Mentoring Hub, and Community of Practice. By promoting innovative heritage use in virtual contexts, IMPULSE contributes to the goals of the European Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda, showcasing how digital technologies can transform education, art, and creative industries.
The project adopts an iterative, user-driven design process, with successive prototyping cycles rooted in agile and design-based methods. Work Package 1 lays the empirical and methodological foundation for creating impactful and accessible narratives.
Key objectives include expanding access to digitised heritage through XR, enabling diverse audiences to engage with cultural assets. Technological solutions are developed to improve interoperability, allowing seamless reuse of content across education, art, and industry. IMPULSE also works on standardising digitisation and metadata to ensure compatibility with emerging immersive platforms.
Legal and organisational challenges are addressed through assessments and prototype-based collaboration models, offering solutions for rights, licensing, and ownership in immersive environments. The project fosters community-building through engagement activities like the IMPULSE Hackathon, Mentoring Hub, and Community of Practice. By promoting innovative heritage use in virtual contexts, IMPULSE contributes to the goals of the European Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda, showcasing how digital technologies can transform education, art, and creative industries.
WP1 – Extended Storytelling Towards Vivid User Experiences
WP1 developed new immersive storytelling models grounded in user needs and narrative diversity. A literature review and multi-method user study revealed how audiences interact with cultural heritage in virtual spaces. Co-creation workshops with artists and students explored speculative interpretation and artistic uses of heritage assets, offering early recommendations on improving accessibility, usability, and engagement.
WP2 – Infrastructures and Interoperability
WP2 focused on the technological foundations for reusing and presenting digital heritage in immersive environments. A comprehensive review of XR technologies and best practices informed the design of sustainable, decentralized infrastructures. A prototype platform was built and tested during co-creation sessions, enabling multi-user interaction with digitized content and laying the groundwork for integration with heritage aggregators.
WP3 – Standardisation of Digital Heritage Content
WP3 conducted a systematic review of digitisation standards, identifying gaps in data creation, preservation, and sharing. This work supports the integration of cultural content into immersive platforms through standardisation and improved metadata practices.
WP4 – Legal Safety
WP4 mapped the legal landscape surrounding digital heritage reuse, identifying key risks related to intellectual property, privacy, and provenance. This initial analysis established the groundwork for future legal recommendations and compliance tools to support prototype development.
WP5 – Dissemination, Communication, and Mentoring
WP5 fosters collaboration through targeted engagement and communication activities. The IMPULSE Community of Practice (IMCo) was launched on Discord. The first pre-hackathon workshop in Leuven (February 2025) initiated dialogue with academic users, ensuring feedback loops and stakeholder influence on technical development.
WP1 developed new immersive storytelling models grounded in user needs and narrative diversity. A literature review and multi-method user study revealed how audiences interact with cultural heritage in virtual spaces. Co-creation workshops with artists and students explored speculative interpretation and artistic uses of heritage assets, offering early recommendations on improving accessibility, usability, and engagement.
WP2 – Infrastructures and Interoperability
WP2 focused on the technological foundations for reusing and presenting digital heritage in immersive environments. A comprehensive review of XR technologies and best practices informed the design of sustainable, decentralized infrastructures. A prototype platform was built and tested during co-creation sessions, enabling multi-user interaction with digitized content and laying the groundwork for integration with heritage aggregators.
WP3 – Standardisation of Digital Heritage Content
WP3 conducted a systematic review of digitisation standards, identifying gaps in data creation, preservation, and sharing. This work supports the integration of cultural content into immersive platforms through standardisation and improved metadata practices.
WP4 – Legal Safety
WP4 mapped the legal landscape surrounding digital heritage reuse, identifying key risks related to intellectual property, privacy, and provenance. This initial analysis established the groundwork for future legal recommendations and compliance tools to support prototype development.
WP5 – Dissemination, Communication, and Mentoring
WP5 fosters collaboration through targeted engagement and communication activities. The IMPULSE Community of Practice (IMCo) was launched on Discord. The first pre-hackathon workshop in Leuven (February 2025) initiated dialogue with academic users, ensuring feedback loops and stakeholder influence on technical development.
User Interaction Insights
WP1’s multi-method study revealed how different user groups interact with immersive digital heritage. These insights guide the creation of user-centric storytelling models that enhance engagement and inclusivity.
Artistic Co-Creation and Prototypes
Co-creation workshops in WP1 led to artistic prototypes that offer speculative interpretations of heritage assets. These experiments expand how digital cultural content can be reimagined in immersive formats.
Technological Integration
WP2 marked a major step with the initial development of the IMPULSE platform, enabling users to interact with digital heritage objects in immersive, shared environments and test integration strategies.
Standardisation Advancements
WP3 advanced metadata and digitisation standards by identifying current gaps and laying the foundation for more interoperable and reusable cultural data on immersive platforms.
Legal Mapping
WP4 produced a foundational legal analysis outlining key risks—intellectual property, privacy, provenance—shaping future legal models to enable compliant reuse of cultural content in immersive settings.
WP1’s multi-method study revealed how different user groups interact with immersive digital heritage. These insights guide the creation of user-centric storytelling models that enhance engagement and inclusivity.
Artistic Co-Creation and Prototypes
Co-creation workshops in WP1 led to artistic prototypes that offer speculative interpretations of heritage assets. These experiments expand how digital cultural content can be reimagined in immersive formats.
Technological Integration
WP2 marked a major step with the initial development of the IMPULSE platform, enabling users to interact with digital heritage objects in immersive, shared environments and test integration strategies.
Standardisation Advancements
WP3 advanced metadata and digitisation standards by identifying current gaps and laying the foundation for more interoperable and reusable cultural data on immersive platforms.
Legal Mapping
WP4 produced a foundational legal analysis outlining key risks—intellectual property, privacy, provenance—shaping future legal models to enable compliant reuse of cultural content in immersive settings.