Today’s fracturing identities and boundaries, exacerbated by global climate and political crises, intensifying migrations of people and consequent hostile tensions across borders internationally and within Europe, means that historic cities are facing acute cohesion challenges of physical, sociopolitical and/or cultural division. In this presentation we will discuss about innovative research activities developed at the Cyprus Institute with the aim of engaging local stakeholders to the management of historical public space in the divided capital of Cyprus, Nicosia. Specifically, these activities were conducted with the objective to contribute to the socio-spatial cohesion of these ‘challenged by their history’ sites that bear difficult pasts and their integration in the contemporary fabric of the city. Our discussion will approach heritage as an asset of the contemporary city that becomes an active space of its everyday life, rather than a product of human activity that preserves a static image of the past. The methodology presented contributes to the development of a new paradigm for the sustainable management of ‘difficult’ heritage sites that integrates technological innovation and the digital humanities dimension in one process, while making city users and inhabitants the engine of this change through co-creation and participation.
Speaker: Dr. Georgios Artopoulos
Georgios is Associate Professor at STARC. He works on immersive and virtual environments, urban modeling and digital simulation for the study of built heritage and the creative exploration of historical narratives. Together with the team of Virtual Environments Lab, at the CyI, Georgios is developing ICT-enabled user-driven tools for social resilience and inclusion, with an application in historic cities. The social aspects of historic space and the cross-disciplinary nature of the pressing challenges facing our historic cities (e.g., climate, gentrification, decay, migration, etc.) are explored through the externally funded projects he is coordinating and contributing to (under H2020, ENI-CBC-MED, and Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation frameworks), his role as a Head of Virtual Competency Centre e-Infrastructure of the DARIAH ERIC, and as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of JPI Urban Europe, where he works on matters of sustainable and liveable cities and urban areas.
Time: 6pm Amman, 5pm Cyprus, 3pm London
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