This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 612789

STICHTING WAAG SOCIETY

Waag Society has one of the oldest and largest independent Media Labs in Europe and is linked, both locally, nationally and internationally, to a large network of people and organisations in the scientific, creative and artistic communities. Founded in 1994, Waag Society has its roots in the Digital City (1994): the first online Internet community in the Netherlands, which aimed to make the Internet available for the public. Waag Society follows the method of Creative Research, which is experimental, interdisciplinary research. End-users have a central position and a large influence on the final result; in close co-operation with end-users Waag develops technology that enables people to express themselves, connect, reflect and share. Next to this, the institute hosts events in its historic location De Waag, in the medieval centre of Amsterdam, and plays an important role in debates on technology and related issues like trust, privacy and intellectual property rights. Its projects have won numerous prizes for their visionary perception of the technological needs in society.

Waag Society has extensive experience with both cultural heritage projects and institutions. Recently, Waag Society developed the MuseumApp, in cooperation with Amsterdam Museum and 7scenes. The

Museum App is a GPS-based, location-aware heritage platform, in which museums can create their own multimedia city tours and location-based games: connecting history and current events to locations in the city in an interactive and fun way, allowing the users to be the curator of their own experience.

Web-site: www.waag.org

ROLE IN THE PROJECT

Waag Society’s role in the project focuses on “living heritage”. The first goal is to gain thorough understanding on the relationship between “living” or contemporary media in relation to what is formally considered cultural heritage. This results in a new bottom-up perspective on contemporary heritage and illustrations of contemporary non-museum objects, videos and stories that are relevant to bi-cultural young people and ethnological museums. Secondly, as a result of 3 co-creation sessions, Waag Society defines novel directions (good practices and scenario’s) for museums in relation to cohesion (WP4). Finally, Waag Society develops an online publication (toolkit) for a co-creation method for living heritage strategies. The toolkit provides museums with very practical (hands-on) ways of participation, dialogue and interaction with new audiences via digital channels.