Bari: an innovative model for valorising cultural heritage presented.

It was presented in the council room of Palazzo di Città, in the presence of the municipal councilor for Cultures and Tourism, the iBari project, created by a consortium of companies composed of the leader THESIS Srl., from the spin off of the University of Bari Aldo Moro DABI.MUS. Ltd. and by Quorum Italia Srl, with the scientific support of the Department of Humanistic Research and Innovation of UNIBA, in response to the need for innovative models of cultural and tourist valorisation of the cultural heritage of the city of Bari, expressed by the Municipality of Bari in the context of the tender regional Innolabs to be valid on ERDF funds.

Illustrating the project was Prof. Nicola Barbuti, legal representative of DABI.MUS. Ltd, who explained that the objective of the initiative is to enhance the cultural heritage of the city not only from an emotional point of view, but also from an informative, educational and cognitive point of view.

To this end, an innovative model of digital creativity has been developed capable of returning monuments and places that are culturally symbolic of the city to the community's experience, regenerated in their original architecture in a digital dimension.

As particularly significant evidence of recent history, two monuments not conventionally valued in their dimension of cultural heritage were taken into consideration: the Petruzzelli Theater, built in the very early years of the 900th century and for over a century one of the most prestigious theaters in the world, regenerated into a suggestive and exciting immersive reality down to the smallest architectural details as it appeared at the time of its inauguration in the early years of the XNUMXth century;

the former fish market in Piazza del Ferrarese, built on the edge of the old city in the late second half of the 800th century, regenerated in the three main phases of its life cycle in an innovative mixed reality that can be used on site and on the move via an app downloadable on mobile devices.

The two experiences were created with great accuracy using original historical sources: floor plans, photographs, postcards, books, documents, engravings, posters and other finds, which were digitized in the companies' laboratories to create the interactive solutions.

Petruzzelli it was reconstructed in immersive virtual reality that can be used via an eye-tracking viewer and offers the user an interaction that generates an impact of considerable emotional appeal, as the architectural and artistic merits of the monument, destroyed by the fire of 1991, can be fully appreciated , such as the frescoes of the dome, the curtains of the opening and intermission curtains, the wooden and gold leaf ornaments that furnished the boxes, in a play of lights and colors perfectly reconstructed to convey the intense emotional sensations experienced by spectators over a hundred years does when entering the theater for the first time.

In the environments it is possible to integrate additional layers with which the user can interact.

This solution, which will be available to the public in the coming weeks, requires an access point equipped with hardware.

The app developed for the former Fish Market, available on digital stores, offers users the possibility of interacting with the property in the three main and different building phases that profoundly modified it between the end of the 800th century and the early years of the 900th century, reconstructed in a digital dimension that can be lived on site near the building and populated by characteristic characters integrated with the particle system technique, some of which are animated using audio-video solutions that contain narratives in the Bari vernacular.

“We are faced with two experiences that do not simply have a tourist value, but also an “educational” one – explained Nicola Barbuti –, as the reconstructed monuments are in fact accesses through which tourists and citizens have the opportunity to come into contact and learn about the identities that define the history of our city, even in the otherwise intangible cultural aspects. Both installations are incremental and can therefore be further populated with content also through the participatory contribution of users and upon request of third parties. We thank the Municipality of Bari for giving us this opportunity and contributing to the realization of the project. We are convinced that the digital regeneration models created can become the primary nuclei of ecosystems in which to activate new approaches to accessing knowledge, which are scalable across different types of contexts and assets. Looking ahead, this approach could represent a promising start of innovative strategies for the valorisation and knowledge of local and regional cultural heritage, capable of offering users access and interactions that were previously unthinkable".