IMPULSE – Immersive digitisation: upcycling cultural heritage towards new reviving strategies
IMPULSE is a Horizon Europe project focused on enhancing the digitisation and engagement of cultural heritage through immersive technologies and inclusive, cross-sector collaboration. It explores how XR tools in Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE) can expand the range and accessibility of digital heritage content for students, artists, and cultural actors. Pilots, pre-hackathons, and workshops facilitate the creative reuse and reinterpretation of existing digitised collections.
The project also addresses the development of simplified, scalable digitisation procedures, supported by legal, organisational, and risk assessment frameworks. By connecting researchers, artists, cultural practitioners, CCSIs, and local institutions, IMPULSE fosters interdisciplinary exchange and capacity building.
A core research focus is the redefinition of cultural spaces, such as museums, classrooms, and galleries, into hybrid, multisensory environments and especially Multi User Virtual Environments, where users can co-create interactive experiences. Drawing on immersive theatre, interactive design, and game design, the project investigates how Cultural Heritage digital assets, can be reused and displayed in XR, exploring participatory, non-linear storytelling and reinterpretation of heritage.
Design ethics and user interface development are central to the project’s pilot initiatives, ensuring intuitive, inclusive, and context-sensitive interactions. The integration of 2D, 3D, and 4D digital assets is examined not only for preservation, but also for speculative and artistic reinterpretation. Critical themes include representation, accessibility, interoperability, standardisation and long-term preservation while also exploring the legal assessments and organisational frameworks.
Through a Community of Practice, storytelling workshops, a Hackathon, and an Acceleration & Mentoring Hub, IMPULSE supports innovation and collaborative practice across researchers, artists, cultural heritage practitioners, CCIs, entrepreneurs, local institutions/companies and other relevant stakeholders.
Heritage Malta, as a key partner, contributes to the design and testing of immersive educational and artistic interactions in XR, ensuring that intuitive digital interfaces and representations of 2D, 3D and 4D artefacts enhance, rather than obscure, cultural heritage narratives.
