New technologies and art dissemination

Mankind through the centuries has produced an even increasing amount of content in different formats, with different techniques and technologies. Some portions of such content must survive and reach future generation as our legacy, major part of content, if kept alive, is addressed to natural obsolescence and will disappear. Formats, techniques and technologies differs very much both from culture to culture and from time to time. Oral tradition is still alive as major tool in order to preserve and communicate content in several different areas of the world . Performing arts and rituals are the backbone of many different culture as well as signs, symbols, ideograms and alphabets are common tools for writing and printing in major part of the world. Print was one of the last true revolutions in content management a true milestone. Nowadays we are facing a potential new revolution thanks to the “digital age”. Digital communication is the most recent ring in a long chain, starting from non verbal communication and gesture, over languages, signs and writing, through print, broadcasting and other media and formats. Following the same “fil rouge” knowledge and complex structured information transfer finds a powerful tool in interactive virtual reality. The extension of the concept of cultural heritage of various nature, including “intangible” heritage, the relationship between their conservation and the relative fruition issues new challenges for technology such as the combined utilisation of various resources online, the creation of supranational and multilingual dictionaries and thesauri, the creation and tuning of a new generation of communication objects and tools designed in order to better fit with different cultural models and content. The rapid obsolescence of technologies furthermore imposes the attention to data storage. However, the aspects, which most involve the online user, are both the interface and easy access to different subjects and contents. Last but not least we will consider opportunities and threats due to the implementation of the so called e-society and the increasing gap between on & off- line people. Introduction “Information and communication technology (ICT) is an engine of growth and change for the world economy. If this technology is to be harnessed to enhance democratic principles, it must contribute to the creation and enrichment of an educated, informed citizenry; it must incorporate the accumulated knowledge and creativity of the past; and it must anticipate and enhance creativity for the future. In this context, it is essential that ICT embrace a cultural agenda. Development effectiveness depends to a great extent on “solutions” that resonate with a community’s sense of identity—and culture creates that sense of identity. Culture encompasses human knowledge, values, beliefs, behavior, customs, language, ideas, codes, institutions, heritage, rituals, and creative expression —all of which constitute essential signposts for understanding who we are and what we do. If advances in health, commerce, education, and economic growth are to be implemented and sustained, understanding culture is critical.” In the general framework of the friendly exchange and cooperation between Beijing Association of Science and Technology and Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and the specific event that will be held in Beijing Museum of Natural History on June 16, 2006 “Lecture on Leonardo da Vinci and Virtual Museum” this paper will outline some of the key aspects on added value applications and services taking advantage of ICT and digital communication. Early in the nineties, as a follow up of a set of concrete experiences, I wrote some papers and articles entitled “Real Virtuality ...” to emphasize, in the scenario of ideas and potential future application, some concrete results and case study. Today in 2006, more than fifteen years after the exploitation of interactive virtual reality and ten years after the explosion of the Internet a wide range of technologies are on the shelf a number of application and services are available, what is missing? Which are the opportunities and the threats? Many relevant players both in the Museums and ICT communities invested time and resources creating pilot projects and applications ranging between 3D reconstructions, image based rendering and virtual museums. We are now in a position to consider if such investments are effectively useful and really increase and diffuse knowledge in the arts, sciences and history and if they satisfy users’ requirements. Do virtual museums really provide added value to end-users? Museums, content providers and users are ready and willing new technologies for cultural heritage? In the 21st century Information society era does the XIX century’s encyclopaedistic approach of museums still survive. Do ICT tools really help content holders and or end-users? Digital communication is the most recent ring in a long chain, starting from non verbal communication and gesture, over languages, signs and writing, to print, broadcasting and other media and formats. Do we use in a proper way digital communication? To what extent are we exploiting the potential offered by digital media? Multimedia is just a “bare sum” of different media or more? Virtual reality means just navigation in digital replicas of the “real” world? The idea, following Renée Descartes, is to start from tabula rasa (scratch) and to look at the past in order to find out some “signs, evidences” in order to reach a proper format for the new digital media. New technologies enabling new media and formats, such as interactive virtual reality or on-line multimedia, provide a good opportunity to find out new ways of communication and especially to bring to new life some “lost” formats. Some technologies are (re)enabling (new) communication formats. Today people have the opportunity to create digital objects, which are a new class of objects from the ontology point of view, and they can use “multimedia technologies” and “Internet”, both providing some powerful tools for communication, but which are not yet very well developed and used. Virtual & enhanced reality, as well, represents a powerful tool for the transfer of information and knowledge, because it allows to transfer knowledge from the usual symbolic way (i.e. reading books) to the opportunity to explore and “touch” nonmaterial things or concepts. By doing so, we will transfer our way to approach information and knowledge from symbolic to experimental, hands-on mechanism.