The FARO app is now available to download in Google Play and App Store!
Developed by MIRCo researchers under the FARO-CIVIS program, this app allows its users to gather information on cultural heritage, both material and immaterial, and on the space that surrounds us in a collaborative way. Not only does it allow to store useful information for later analyses, but also allows every post to be located on a collaborative map, in order to open research and participation to the open public. It is available for free for Android and iOS devices, both in Google Play and in App Store respectively.
All included categories and its design have been developed taking into account the principles of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro, 2005), which promotes an understanding of cultural patrimony focused on its value for society and the right to actively participate in its identification, interpretation, protection and transmission. Under such framework, the patrimony is not only understood as an object to be preserved by experts, but as a social resource whose management and meaning are also built through community engagement. Thus, the mission of this app is to be used as a tool that contributes to the protection of cultural patrimony.
Testing the app: the project visit to Rome
The app was still under development during the last three months of last year, when the team used a first provisional version on the activities scheduled in Madrid last October. After gathering all the feedback received from the team and improving its features, we could test it in the next phase of the project, which took place in Rome in February 19th and 20th.
During those days, we could see first-hand the work made by our colleagues from Rome University-La Sapienza. The team presented the activities they organized with local students, where they problematized the concept of difficult or controversial patrimony; which is that shaped by stories of violence or repression, such as fascism and colonialism. Their proposals were aimed at exploring what to do with these pieces, in order to re-signify them and to see how to treat them in present time.
This exhibit helped us by providing a general framework to begin our study of cultural patrimony, since we could test how the social engagement (of students, in this case) could come up with interesting and enriching proposals of intervention.
The FARO app in use: a visit to the Tor Pignattara neighborhood
With such experiences and lessons in mind, we could put the app to test during a guided tour, prepared by the Rome team, through the Tor Pignattara neighborhood, in collaboration with the open air museum EcoMuseo Casilino. This part of the city, southeast of the city center, has a particular configuration: its building and development were performed with a strong engagement from its people, where, in many cases, the people itself make the public space its own and collectively decide its use.
The app incorporates adaptations to improve its use during the walking tour and the visit to different spaces. First, we could see that it has been a historically multicultural neighborhood—even more than now–, and that the significant presence of migrants still contribute to a diverse, vibrant space. The remainders of this diversity story still live in the landscape, and we could gather them in our app. It is here where the last aqueduct built by Romans still stands, bult under the rule of Emperor Alexander Severus, of North-African descent (coming from Libya). Likewise, in the catacombs nearby, many symbols and influences from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East can be seen, introduced by the first Christian communities. Today, this historic dimension of exchanges and mobilities still resonate with the neighborhood’s daily life, also seen in the cultural diversity present in its shops and public spaces.
Second, it can be seen how the citizens themselves have actively engaged in the creation and management of gathering spaces, of great significance for the community. We would like to highlight two examples: a multi-confessional chapel, built and kept by the neighbors themselves; and the Giordano Sangalli park, whose use, maintenance and denomination honoring a local partisan is a direct result of the people’s collective engagement.
Third, the cautious registration of information during the visit suggests the presence of intercultural dialogue dynamics between the local population and the migrant one. By registering and classifying images thanks to the app, we could see how many of the initiatives aimed at generating spaces of exchange or cultural shared references seem to be encouraged, mainly, by the local population, carrying out active attempts to integrate and to build a shared sense of belonging and collaboration in Tor Pignattara. As a portrait of such, we share some imaged taken in the Urban Art Museum on Migrations (MAUMi), where different artists painted graffiti in the street incorporating cultural references to the neighborhood and of the different groups living there.
We also had the chance to see some of the symbolic tensions cutting through the urban space. We could see graffiti in different spots, showing the different identity crashes in the city’s daily life. An example is the one showed below, aimed at the AS Roma football club, shedding light on how the public space is also used as a bearer to show rivalries in sport, as well as collective stances. This kind of inscriptions are part of the linguistic landscape of the neighborhood and shows how walls and other elements of the urban space become places where conflicts, affiliation and local identities are displayed.
The app and the project: advancements and future steps
Together, the visit allowed us to see how patrimony and local spaces are built through an interaction between memory, public engagement and cultural diversity. The use of the app allowed for the identification and documentation of such dynamics in a located way, registering both community initiatives—such as the multi-confessional chapel or the Giordano Sangalli park—and cultural expressions that show the dialogue between different communities, like the one displayed on the murals of the Urban Art Museum on Migrations (MAUMi). This way, the visit showed that Tor Pignattara not only is a diverse urban space, but also a place where neighbors and cultural groups actively participate in the building of shared references and in the configuration of a living, constantly changing patrimony.
Thanks to the visit and the use of the app, we could test for its usefulness to catch a glimpse of the role played by different communities in cultural diversity. Thanks to its functionalities, which allow for the gathering and sharing of the patrimony, and to the activities organized by the host team we could discover in depth the patrimony of a city, Rome, in constant evolution and development. We are confident this app is an enriching, participative tool to allow for the development of future research and to promote citizen science projects like this one, which will reach its final phase in April this year.
This app is an step further in MIRCo’s compromise with citizen science.
Help us share it!
Do not forget to download it for free in Google Play and App Store!
