New NWO proposal

By Harry van Vliet on 31 August 2010

In collaboration with University Utrecht the Crossmedialab developed a proposal for a NWO subsidy, the proposal is titled ‘A Digital Infrastructure for the contextualization of Cultural Events (DICE)’. The immediate aim of the DICE proposal is to connect four major data collections, part of which were NWO-funded, in the domain of theatre and cinema culture collected by museums and archives. Each of these four collections holds different data on the production, circulation, presentation and reception of film screenings and theatre performances. Since this information has not as of yet been systematically collected and connected, our current knowledge of theatre and cinema culture is particularly fragmented, compartmentalized, incoherent and full of holes, and does not allow for a more systematic and comparative approach of Dutch stage and screen entertainments.

DICE has three major (scientific) benefits. In the first place the project will make several large collections of data readily accessible as an integretad whole. In the second place, enrichment of the basic data and their interlinking will enable researchers to break through the fragmentation and compartmentalization of information. In the third place, attention for the meaning of information in different collections means that advancements can be made in the development of a common language and the transparency of the basic material (semantic interoperability). The latter will be achieved by developing an ontology for the central concept of the ‘performance’. 

The results of the DICE proposal will enable the scientific community to conduct research into the structure of cultural life, especially the cultural offer, the cultural participation and the cultural policy. With a meaningful linkage of relevant data collections of film and theatre culture several interesting analyses come to mind: geographic analyses, comparison in time and comparisons between film showings and theatre performances are some of the possibilities.

The digital infrastructure that will be created in DICE will be provided in a format that can be archived for long-term preservation. We intend to use OWL/RDFS and RDF as our main archiving format. We will present the integrated dataset as a knowledge base in the form of RDF triples that reference the ontology for relations and classes. The triples are a translation of the various databases brought into the project.

The results of the DICE proposal will put the Netherlands in a unique position vis à vis the international research world since digital data about film exhibition and distribution, and theatrical performances in the past are not available in other countries either. We believe that the DICE project has the possibility to be at the forefront of such a movement, and can set an example in other fields. If comparable International projects are set up, comparative research in the field of performance history will also finally be within reach.

Partners in the project are: University Utrecht, Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Amsterdam, University of Applied Science Utrecht, Theatre Institute Netherlands, and Rotterdam Municipial Archives. For more information contact Harry van Vliet.

tagged with: contextualization, digital communication, cultural heritage

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