Fonti 4.0

Digitisation of magnetic tape © Noemi La Pera
Digitisation of magnetic tape © Noemi La Pera
Magnetic tape digitisation set-up © Noemi La Pera

2021 – 2022

Fonti 4.0 project was set up to respond to the specific needs of the Creative Industries, proposing to create innovative tools for analysis, automatic transcription, use and valorisation of historical sound documents.

© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini

the project

Fondazione Giorgio Cini preserves in its archives the original audio tapes of the voices of the most important Italian and foreign intellectuals of the past, who for over 70 years have frequented the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore for lectures, conferences, seminars, inaugurations and celebrations. Fonti 4.0 aims to speed up the process of digitising oral sources preserved on magnetic tapes, making the content of the documents accessible.

For an initial validation of the technologies used by the Fonti 4.0 project, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini provided the digitisation of four important reels of a conference held in its rooms in 1959 entitled “Cinema e Civiltà”. Among others, speeches by Roberto Rossellini and René Clair can be heard.

objectives

The main objectives of the project are the automatic correction of digitisation errors, the semantic analysis of content transcription, the development of innovative tools for the use and valorisation of digitised sound documents, and the dissemination of the results of the research project, with the aim of transferring technologies and skills to the region.

results

The project concluded with the Living Labs, seven free theoretical and practical workshops open to all, subject to registration, held online by experts in the field.

It was also possible to digitise and publish the original audio of the lecture given by Vittorio Cini at the international conference “The Problem of Venice“, held in San Giorgio on 4 October 1962: one of the rare opportunities to hear the voice of our founder.

The project, funded by the European Social Fund, was selected as worthy of mention and was publicly presented on May 11, 2022, at the IUAV University of Venice, in the context of INVESTOR FAIR (Innovation and Research for a More Competitive Veneto).