ARCHiVe is the acronym for Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Venice. Located on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, ARCHiVe is the centre for digital preservation and valorisation born in Venice in 2018 from the collaboration between Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Factum Foundation and the Digital Humanities Laboratory of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, with the support of the Helen Hamlyn Trust.
In October 2018, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Factum Foundation and the Digital Humanities Laboratory of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (DHLAB-EPFL) launched ARCHiVe, Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Venice, an initiative dedicated to the use, study and transmission of cultural heritage through digital technologies.
The 1000 square metre headquarters, located on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, includes a workshop and educational space dedicated to research for technology in the digital preservation of cultural heritage and archives. ARCHiVe is primarily funded and supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust.
Each of the institutions fuelling this initiative brings a unique skill set to the recording and analysing of cultural heritage. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini is a leading centre of academic research complete with extraordinary archives and collections, providing an incredible infrastructure for ARCHiVe. Factum Foundation’s digital technologies specialists bring experience, creativity and innovation in the training and transfer of technologies as well as in the development of data-capturing systems. Whereas, EPFL’s Digital Humanities Lab is perfectly equipped to analyse and extract meaning from the data collected thanks to the intelligent computer vision software it developed in previous years.
The three partners share the belief that digital conservation is leading to a deeper understanding of works of art and cultural heritage. Hence, it is an epoch-shaping opportunity bound to have a big impact on both research and education. Within this vision, research independence is a key value for guaranteeing the unconditioned progress of science and scholarship and the availability of the results of free and unrestricted research for the benefit of society.
The main activities are structured in digitisation, training projects and publications. One of ARCHiVe’s main goals is to set itself as a replicable model for the development of innovative digital technologies to record works of art, architecture, documents, books, and audio materials, with a great impact on research, education, and preservation.