Description
The project aims to promote urban Jewish cultural heritage in Lithuania by not only conducting historical and cultural research, collecting and creating tangible material such as drawings, photos and videos, but also by creating a user friendly mobile application based on the aforementioned material. The mobile application will contain best practices of its kind, use smart technologies, and be easy to manage and navigate. It will provide information of the locality which is near the user of the app, and all related cultural heritage information associated with area, including personalities, community history, artifacts, etc. The presentation of the information will be both smart and interactive, echoing the availability of present day technologies and the needs of the audience. The project will increase the visibility and access to the Jewish cultural heritage in several towns of Lithuania and showcase a unique approach of combining scholar methods, creative workshops, and modern technologies into an end result. On top of that, it will provide a long lasting tool for the examination of this heritage. Both, the locals and foreign visitors will have a possibility to use the app as it will work in several different languages. The Norwegian partner will conduct three workshops that will empower participants of the project to create better quality videos and other media products that will be used in the application.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to promote urban Jewish cultural heritage in Lithuania by not only conducting a historical and cultural research, collecting and creating tangible material such as drawings, photos, videos, but also by erecting a user friendly mobile application based on aforementioned material. The project was based on the needs to actualize the Jewish culture in Lithuania that was so visible for the long centuries, and has many remains and influence on today’s life. Even though of the significance, the society is not offered enough of solutions to understand, see and evaluate the Jewish culture despite ever increasing scholar researches on the topic. A proposed mobile application contains best practises of its kind, uses smart technologies, is easy to manage and navigate. Application was developed on iOS and Android mobile platforms. Through the project app was created for 3 different size towns: large one (Vilnius), middle sized (Ukmergė, Kėdainiai, Joniškis), and small (Valkininkai, Žagarė and Degsnės). It provides information of the locality which is based near the user of the app, and all related cultural heritage information associated with area, including personalities, community history, artefacts, etc. One of the main features of it is automatic recognition of an area and certain heritage. Target users of this mobile application would be locals, who would have a chance to access and familiarize with vast Jewish cultural heritage in selected towns in the streets and areas that would not normally associate with Jewish cultural and history. Specific attention was given to the youth (who are the largest group of mobile technology users), adopting the material to an easy and interesting way of understanding Jewish culture and history in Lithuania. Thus mobile application could be used also as an innovative teaching material in such areas as school trips. Another target group will be foreign tourists, including Jewish people, as application was translated into several main languages: English, Russian, Polish and Hebrew. Mobile application that was created through this project is free to use for all users. Project and its results undoubtedly increased the visibility and access to the Jewish cultural heritage in chosen urban areas with the prospect of enlarging the extent of the mobile application into other towns as well, thus providing local societies, tourists, scholars, students an innovative tool for getting to know, understanding and localising it.
Summary of bilateral results
Jazzmontør AS provided methodological help, as it has vast experience in the field (worked with organizations that had similar ideas of using mobile application for the recognition and presentation of certain cultural heritage), but also was involved in the creative process. Partner conducted three workshops that empowered participants of the project to create better quality videos and other media products that are used in the application.