Finding Beauty in the World of Europeana – The Europeana Creative Design Pilot

Imagine you are a designer interested in re-using the cultural heritage of Europe. You are inspired by patterns, stimulated by ancient artwork and generally fascinated by the multitude of material that is accessible in images found on Europeana. But how do you find what you are actually looking for, especially if it is image based? And once you find that perfect pattern or shape for your creative endeavour, how do you know if you are allowed to re-use it without breaking any copyright laws?

One of Europeana Creative’s goals has been to develop a new advanced search mechanism that helps users search content according to colours, shapes and patterns in images of cultural heritage objects. Starting from the designer’s point of view, the main aim was to create a simple, intuitive interface. The findings of previous EU-Projects have shown that it is not easy to find content that is both relevant and licensed under Creative Commons license or marked as Public Domain. For this reason, the Culture Cam tool was also developed to meet these requirements and as a result make it possible for users to walk with open eyes through the world of cultural heritage objects:  a quick search provides inspiration and then you can let your imagination run wild!

What is this CultureCam?          

The prototype developed within the Design theme is called Culture Cam and is based on a twofold concept consisting of an online search tool and an interactive installation exhibition.

Culture Cam is a webcam-based similarity search tool offering designers, artists and all creative people the possibility of exploring cultural heritage images on Europeana in a fun, playful and intuitive way. Try it, it’s really fun!

Design Pilot: Culture Cam (CC BY-SA Europeana Creative)

And how does it work?

Take a photo of any object with your webcam, and Culture Cam will provide you with a set of images that are similar or related in colour, shape and pattern. You may very likely retrieve unexpected search results leading to further exploration of Europeana content. This tool makes it easier for everybody to find suitable, re-usable content within the sometimes overwhelming offering of Europeana. All items in Culture Cam are under public domain, or there is no known copyright. It is not just any old word search tool, but a special way to intuitively and playfully explore and access the Europeana platform. One can say that Culture Cam is the beginning of re-use.

The heart of culture cam is the image similarity tool, specially developed by the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT). It uses hand-picked and pre-selected content to make sure the results provided are fit for re-use. For those who are interested in the technical side, the source code (algorithm) is available under open source, accessible through Github.

What about feedback?

At the Mozilla Festival the online tool was firstly presented to the public. The great thing about Culture Cam is that people of all ages can be introduced to it easily because of its intuitive design. Children enjoy it as well as adults. It is useful for professional designers and people generally attracted by shapes and colours. Have a look at twitter and use the hashtag #culturecam to learn about the experience of the online community.

Mobile Version of Culture Cam (CC BY-SA Europeana Creative)

Who are the creative heads behind?

Culture Cam has been developed within the Europeana Creative project by the Danish design company Spild af Tid in collaboration with Aalto University Media Lab and AIT. The interactive installation is being designed by SAT. This part of the pilot is dedicated to  highlighting the value of this tool outside of the digital context. If you want to find out more about this part of the Europeana Creative Design Prototype, stay tuned, there is another blogpost to come. The installation will be presented at the SMK Friday at the end of May. While waiting for news you can have a look at redesignyourculturalheritage.eu, a CultureCam related blog.

Have fun playing!