“Humanitics – Cultural Skills for Digital Humanists”

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The lemma “digit” is assuming a compulsive use in contemporary society. Nowadays, in modern communication, almost as an interlayer, people tend to use the digital word compulsively with all its constructs and derivatives without perceiving the whole semantic-conceptual meaning. This use and abuse are present in all sectors (work, production, education), not less in the cultural one.

In recent years, the cultural sector, in particular, has boasted of consistent and correct use of digital. However, what emerges is just the opposite. The digital maintains an instrumental and secondary value, because it doesn’t exist an adequate literacy on the argument.

For this reason, it is important to create awareness in people, using correctly the terms connected with the cultural heritage that is turning digital.

More and more often, Culture requires particularly professionals with digital skills, definable “digital curators”. The Department of Research and Innovation in Humanities of the University of Bari Aldo Moro[1] tries to address the issue in the training of young digital humanists. For this reason, the Department, in collaboration with ADISU Puglia[2] and D.A.BI.MUS. s.r.l.[3] a spinoff of the University of Bari has launched a Summer School “Humanitics – Cultural Skills for Digital Humanists”, which aims to reflect on the importance of training humanists with digital skills.

The 54 h course ended with a varied participation of students, demonstrating that many people are becoming tangibly sensitive to the topic. Indeed, the goal of this project has aimed to define different peculiar topics addressed by teachers in an often laboratory way.

Trainers have considered the needs and trends of the moment in terms of training, ranging in wide-ranging topics when have defined the topics, specifically:

  • The archaeologist Elisa Bonacini: Digital storytelling for the promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage;
  • The video maker Lorenzo Scaraggi: Audiovisual narrations for the enhancement of the territory and cultural heritage;
  • The Professor Nicola Barbuti of the University of Bari Aldo Moro: The new digital humanists in the cultural metaverse. Scenarios and perspectives;
  • The Dr Mauro De Bari: “Expanding” cultural heritage. Digital solutions for innovative interactions;
  • The Advisor to Minister Franceschini Ottavia Ricci: Design thinking for sustainable design in widespread heritage;
  • The founding member of “Stati Generali dell’Innovazione” Paolo Russo: Digital monument: theory and practice;
  • The Professor of the “Lum School of Management” Francesco Pietro Paolicelli: Open data for access to cultural heritage;
  • The Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts Paolo Azzella: Design for the enhancement of the territory;
  • The game designer Arduino Viola: Evolution of the metaverse: gamification and audience engagement in cultural digital interaction.

[1] https://www.uniba.it/it/ricerca/dipartimenti/dirium, (last consulted: 5/11/2022);

[2] https://www.adisupuglia.it, (last consulted: 5/11/2022);

[3] https://www.dabimus.com, (last consulted: 5/11/2022);