Speech by Ms. Despina Katapotis, Assistant Professor of Cultural Theory and Digital Culture at the University of the Aegean, on the topic of "Highlighting monuments and social media".

On Thursday, January 10, 2019, from 18:00 - 21:00, in room 102, of the Central Building of the University of Piraeus (Karaoli & Dimitriou 80, Piraeus), we invite you to the lecture of Ms. Despina Katapotis, Assistant Professor of Theory of Culture and of Digital Culture of the University of the Aegean, on the topic "Highlighting monuments and social media", in the context of the course "Sustainable Cultural Development for Digital Cities" of the Direction "Digital Culture" of the MSc "Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT and Advanced Digital Technologies" , of the Department of Informatics of the University of Piraeus.

In this lecture it will be presented, for decades the dominant model of highlighting archaeological sites, monuments and/or places of historical importance set as its main goal the planning of itineraries and tours in the natural area. In recent years, there has been an increasing tendency to integrate new technologies into design programs. With the use of new technologies, the enrichment of the route in the physical space with multimedia information is achieved and/or the formation of communication environments in the online space, which do not require (or do not seek) the user's contact with the physical space. But what happens when social media or social media platforms are used in cultural planning programs? How exactly do the structural features of communication in social networks (continuous and multi-faceted connectivity, orality, asynchronous interaction, multifocal information) affect our contact with cultural environments?

Despina Katapoti graduated from the Department of History and Archeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1995. She completed her MA in Archeology & Prehistory at the Department of Archeology of the University of Sheffield in 1997 and her PhD at the same university in 2005 She is Assistant Professor of Cultural Theory and Digital Culture at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean. Her research interests and teaching focus on critical theory, the study of memory, and the history and philosophy of the science of archaeology. In recent years, he has been investigating the relationship between digital technologies, social media and the wider field of cultural heritage, with the ultimate goal of critically evaluating the impact and contribution of "digitality" in the management and highlighting of the past. In 2013, he co-edited with Dr. Maria Relakis the collective volume An Archeology of Land Ownership (London: Routledge), while he has published a series of scientific articles regarding the relationship between archeology and social media, the formation of memory networks and communities in cyberspace as well as design of hybrid models of cultural heritage management.

07 Jan 2019