EFHA International Symposium 2023: “Future Heritage” Nov. 27th – 28th, 2023

The semantic fields of the words ‘Heritage’ and ‘Future’ are often at the antipodes: one deals with the past and its resilience, at times its immobility, and the necessity to crystallise it into material and immaterial memories that fight time passing; the other entails projections and possibilities, something we might imagine and shape, and progress. The first evokes stillness, the other stands for constant movement. But what happens when we bring them together and reflect on how these two words – and the concepts, actions and objects they represent – can be connected in the different practices related to culture?

Organised in collaboration with Centraal Museum Utrecht, The EFHA2023 conference "Future Heritage" wants to look at new technologies and how these are being used to make fashion heritage future-proof.

Many virtual techniques and digital crafts are being developed in the cultural heritage sector, to transition from a hierarchical model – the traditional way of managing and interpreting collections – to more inclusive, enjoyable and shared experiences. But these techniques also raise institutional and ethical issues when applied to historical artefacts and stories. The encounter of new museological and curatorial stances with digital humanities is reshaping the fashion heritage sector and institutions that are different in size, typology of objects, agendas are coming to terms with the necessity to innovate not only to remain relevant, but also to expand their reach and tune their voice to the present and to the future.

Future Heritage will explore these dynamics, looking at both reflections on the criteria of acquisition and conceptualising of a futurable past and the imminent discourse on new technologies in heritage practices and activation.

DRAFT PROGRAMME:

MONDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2023

12,00 - 12,30 Registration

12,30 - 12,35 Welcome from the Host
Bart Rutten, Artistic Director, CMU

12,35 - 12,45 Introduction to the Symposium
Marco Rendina, EFHA / Ninke Bloemberg, CMU

Panel 1: Research, Collect, Connect: Imagining the Future of Fashion Heritage
Chaired by EFHA Scientific Committee

13,00 - 13,15 Gianfranco Ferré Center. Digital Innovation for Creative and Cultural Industries in Fashion
Paola Bertola and Federica Vacca, Politecnico di Milano

13,15 - 13,30 Restaging Fashion: A vizualization prototype for vestimentary sources
Sabine De Guenther, Fachhochschule Potsdam

13,30 - 13,45 Linking Arctic Material Culture Heritage with future technologies: A 3D simulation of a Fish skin parka from the Anchorage Museum
Elisa Palomino, Smithsonian NMNH, and Jonathan Katz, independent researcher and illustrator

13,45 - 14,00 Preserving fashion heritage, and make it accessible to everyone, everywhere they are
Martina Ponzoni e Daniele Scarante, d_archive

14,00 - 14,30 Q&A

14,30 - 15,00 Coffee break

15,00 - 15,15 Virtual Textiles: Sites for Communicating Sensory Experiences in Museums
Kate Irvin, RISD Museum, and Joy Ko, RISD Virtual Textiles Research Group

15,15 - 15,30 Unlocking Fashion Heritage: Displaying Digital Museum Collections
Debra Knoop, ModeMuze

15,30 - 16,00 Roundtable and final Q&A

16,00 - 16,10 Wrap-up of day 1. EFHA Scientific Committee

16,15 - 17,00 Exclusive preview of the new permanent display of the Centraal Museum

17,00 - 18,00 Drinks reception

TUESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2023

09,30 - 10,00 Registration & Welcome Coffee

10,00 - 10,05 Welcome and Introduction to the second day
Marco Rendina, EFHA

10,05 - 10,35 Keynote Speech
Roger Gerards, AMFI

Panel 2: Exhibit, Represent, Transform: New Experiences for New Spaces
Chaired by EFHA Scientific Committee

10,40 - 10,55 5DCulture: can fashion heritage be(come) immersive?
Marta Franceschini, EFHA

10,55 - 11,10 From Pattern to Polygon
Suzanne Mulder, Studio PMS and Centraal Museum

11,10 - 11,30 Coffee break

11,30 - 11,45 Let’s be wrong today: the importance of speculation for the future of fashion heritage
Isabelle D’Arcy, London College of Fashion

11,45 - 12,00 A Case Study of a Digital Exhibition on Fashion and Textiles in the Life and Work of the Artist Steven Campbell
Mairi MacKenzie, The Glasgow School of Art

12,00 - 12,15 Climbing the highest point on earth – How Swiss footwear contributed to the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 on Google Arts & Culture
Charlotte Stachel, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana

12,15 - 12,30 AR/VR in the Missoni archive
Luca Missoni, Missoni Archive

12,30 - 13,10 Roundtable and Q&A

13,10 - 13,20 Wrap-up of the conference
Karolien de Clippel, Chair of EFHA’s Scientific Committe