Creative User Empowerment

The project Creative User Empowerment (CUE) was carried out in cooperation between Badisches Landesmuseum (BLM) Karlsruhe and Allard Pierson (AP) Amsterdam from 2021 to 2023. The aim of the Creative User Empowerment project was to take up machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches in the development of the xCurator assistance system in order to offer users new access to the digital collections and exciting opportunities to curate their own museum content through personalised recommendations. The project addressed the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence (AI) with the main question being: How do we want to use AI and how can the technology benefit people?

Project Goals

Experimenting & shaping AI together: In various participatory design processes, we explored together with the public which added values artificial intelligence has to offer in relation to museum collections and which should be utilised. Hackathons, workshops, focus groups and creative AI pilots accompanied the project.

Development: Looking for solutions on how to shape the digital museum of the future, we developed the AI-supported curation tool xCurator: It is open source and open for re-use and further developemt.

Making cultural heritage accessible: The publication of digital collections and the enhancement and enrichment of data through artificial intelligence methods was one of the main outcomes of the project.

Sharing & learning: The field of artificial intelligence cannot be understood alone. We created dialogue between experts, scientists, museum professionals and the general public.

Funded by:

https://www.kulturstaatsministerin.de