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By James Hemsley - January 2001
VASARI [1] was established in 1993 as a result of the EC's ESPRIT research and development VASARI Project, named in honour of the famous Italian father of Art History, Giorgio Vasari. VASARI's current role is to promote the application of Electronic Imaging within the Visual Arts. Their main work involces the organisation of EVA Events (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts) which are held throughout the world. James Hemsley, Managing Director of VASARI UK, reports on the EVA conferences held in 2000.
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The Electronic Imaging & Visual Arts EVA Conferences held in autumn 2000 were as follows:
Altogether, since the first EVA Conference at Imperial College, London in 1990, there have been nearly 50 EVAs across the European Union, Japan, Russia and the USA, including six EVAs in 2000, in Florence, Athens & Edinburgh as well as the three reported in this article.
EVA 2000 Gifu [2] took place in the heart of Japan, midway between Tokyo & Osaka in the beautiful Gifu prefecture and was the second EVA in Japan. It formed part of a trio of events – the other two being EURO-GIFU, aimed at building business relationships between the EU and Japan in the hi-tech field, and the VSSM [Virtual Systems & Multimedia] Conference – this included a major track on virtual heritage launching the Virtual Heritage Network by Professor Ojika of Gifu University.
Held at the Softopia Science Park, now one of Japan’s leading R&D centres, the three day EVA Conference was organised by the Gifu Prefectural Government and VASARI UK. The programme ranged from strategic papers to cultural tourism. Highlights included a session on regional developments in cultural multimedia systems showing that Japan is not as homogeneous as often thought. Indeed, regional cultural differences in Japan can be very significant as was made clear in this session, which also included presentations and discussion on the ‘Culture x Technology’ situation in Baden-Wurtemburg and Scotland.
In addition to papers from Japan and Europe, the EVA Conference also included speakers from Australia, China, Russia and USA providing participants with the opportunity to assess international progress and build international relationships – a key EVA objective. Of particular note were two papers [from Japan & Italy] on the new EU supported TRADEX Project exploring cultural e-commerce, which includes Japanese partners. Their kick-off meeting was held during the conference. A joint German-Japanese project on Castle VR reconstruction was presented by GfaI Berlin, showing remarkable results carried out together solely by e-mail co-operative working. A famous Japanese castle in Gifu was virtually reconstructed by the Berlin team and the Berlin Castle, unfortunately destroyed during WWII, being similarly recreated by the Gifu team, necessitating substantial cultural and historical information communication – the results were most impressive.
Of many interesting Japanese papers, the most commercially and behaviourally significant one was from DOCOMO NTT on ‘I-Mode’ [internet mobile telephone] which has had incredible success in Japan with 12 million subscribers [at the time of the conference] increasing at a rate of one million per month. Their new 3G mobile communications service will be introduced in May 2001. Another striking paper by a well known Japanese artist showed 3D representations of famous masterpieces from Europe and Japan, indicating how creative artists can build on the past, using new technologies.
A number of European speakers also took advantage of the joint event exhibition in an ‘EVA Corner’: Centrica from Florence, ABIS of Italy & UK with its worldwide museum portal [www.museumland.com] and Regency House of Brighton. SCRAN [Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network] was prominently displayed.
The third ‘EVA Gifu ’is being planned for October 2002. Early expressions of interest, offers of papers and exhibition participation are invited.
EVA 2000 Berlin [3] was held at the Museum of Decorative Arts in the Kulturforum in the centre of the city, close to the Potsdamerplatz, previously Europe’s busiest intersection where a massive rebuilding programme following the fall of the Wall is now being completed. Notably this seventh EVA Berlin, aimed primarily at the German language region, had to close registrations a week before the conference due to participation exceeding expectations. EVA 2000 Berlin coincided with the major ‘Seven Hills’ exhibition at the Martin Gropius House organised by the Berliner Festpiele, one of the sponsors. A major feature of the Conference was a special tour of this stimulating event.
Prior to the two day Conference a special ‘Tutorial Day’ was held including sessions on CD-ROM, DVD and Web case studies, 3D systems and metadata. The Conference was accompanied by an exhibition with over 30 stands ranging from new image compression tools [Luratech] to very high quality imaging [Leica].
The first Conference day included as usual in the previous six EVA-Berlin conferences a high proportion of advanced technology papers for example in new 3D methods. One of the highlights was a paper on the new systems being developed for the new Wallraf Museum in Cologne which will include special sets of seats and monitors in each of the main rooms to provide supporting multimedia information for visitors while they are enjoying and studying the original works of art in comfort – an innovation for art museums. It will be interesting to see how it is received by the visitors to the art museum.
Other case study reports on new developments in practice included papers from Austria and Switzerland as well as from across Germany. In addition there were several papers from Central and Eastern Europe [reflecting both Berlin’s geographical position and the special encouragement given to ‘new accession’ countries to participate] including a very impressive paper from Slovenia on developments and experiences with robot-based internet visits to museums.
The second Conference day was devoted mainly to European R&D initiatives including results from Fourth Framework projects such as ACOHIR on high quality 3D imaging and TOSCA on portable multimedia guides for cultural tourism. An overview of new Fifth Framework Projects and the latest Calls for New Applications was provided by Claude Poliart from Key Action Line 3 based in Luxembourg. [N.B. he also gave a similar presentation at EVA 2000 Gifu]. The final session included suggestions from participants on topics for the potential Sixth Framework Programme being considered for 2003 – 2006.
EVA 2000 Moscow [4] supported by a special EC grant was held for the third time in the large lecture hall of the Tretyakov Gallery, which contains a magnificent collection of Russian paintings. Lasting an entire week the conference attracted over 800 registrations with participants coming from Eastern Europe and USA as well as the European Union & Russia. Over 120 papers were given with the parallel sessions running for most of the week, one of which had simultaneous translation into English. It is therefore very difficult to provide a summary of such a large event in this summary article. However, some highlights were as follows:
An exhibition accompanied the Conference with over 30 stands and over 60 Cultural CD-ROMs being on show, as well as a new DVD from The Hermitage and additional technology developments, notably a wide screen developed in Russia, produced in Germany.
Altogether EVA 2000 Moscow confirmed the view that Russia is still a ‘cultural great power’; with visits to top Moscow and St Petersburg museums on the Saturday following the Conference enabling participants to enjoy Russian and international masterpieces.
The fourth EVA Moscow is planned for 3-7 December 2001. Early expressions of interest in participation are invited [5]. Further information on the three 2001 autumn EVA Conferences is provided on the VASARI UK Web site which has links to the local organisers [1].
We hope that it will be possible to provide selected papers on the Web. For printed proceedings see the individual conference contacts for details [see biography below].
In 2001, the first two EVA Conferences will be as follows:
These two conferences will in particular help in dissemination of EC project results, thanks to EU support from the new EVA Networking Project, EVAN, being launched a the beginning of 2001. Information on this initiative will be provided later.
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James Hemsley
Managing Director
VASARI UK
jamesrhemsley@cix.co.uk
<http://www.vasari.co.uk/>
James Hemsley was the Project Manager of the original EC research and development VASARI Project, founder of the EVA Conferences in 1990 and VASARI UK Ltd in 1993 and passionate supporter of co-operative European & International efforts in ‘Culture x Technology’. He studied Mathematics at the Universities of Oxford and London. He is now Project Director of the new EC supported EVA Networking EVAN Projects and will be taking up a part-time position with the National Museums of Scotland early in 2001.
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For citation purposes:
Hemsley, J. "A Chain of EVA Conferences", Cultivate Interactive, issue
3, 29 January 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/vasari/>
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