InTaVia

Access to cultural and historical data in cultural heritage databases has improved remarkably due to a wide range of digitization initiatives across Europe. Tangible cultural objects, on the one hand, from museums, archives, and libraries, have become accessible online and aggregated across countries by platforms such as Europeana. On the other hand, intangible assets – such as language-based accounts of artists’ lives – have been organized and shared as biographical databases on a national level. Although these developments provide a sound foundation for the improved reception, use, and promotion of European cultural heritage, various limitations prevent the full utility of the existing data.

The InTaVia project aims to overcome some of these barriers through a deliberate combination of research and development objectives. First, tangible and intangible assets of European heritage will be drawn together to enable their mutual contextualization. Second, new means of data creation, curation, and transnational integration will be created. Third, a visual analytics environment will be created to help cultural heritage experts better access, analyze, and visually communicate cultural collections and related biographical and contextual knowledge to the interested public. Thus, InTaVia will develop an information portal for the integration, visual analysis, and communication of tangible and intangible cultural assets.

The InTaVia project aims to address major research challenges and bridge the semantic gap between large object databases, biography databases, and users. The project will conduct research and development across multiple domains: from digital humanities, natural language processing, and semantic web technologies to visual analytics, human-computer interaction, and historiographical research.