ARXIVE Joins Digital Heritage Summit Roundtable on Digitising Cultural Heritage, Persistent Virtual Worlds and AI
ARXIVE participated in the Roundtable: “Why we Digitise Cultural Heritage, its Use & ReUse; Persistent Virtual Worlds and AI”, a high-level discussion bringing together European experts working at the intersection of cultural heritage, advanced digitisation, artificial intelligence, extended reality and digital infrastructures.
The roundtable examined why digitisation has become essential for cultural heritage today. In a context shaped by digital access, climate and conflict-related risks, cross-border collaboration, and the growing need for interoperable heritage data, digitisation is no longer only a technical process. It is a strategic foundation for conservation, research, education, public engagement and long-term cultural memory.
For ARXIVE, the discussion is particularly relevant. The project is developing advanced methods and tools to support the documentation, analysis and dissemination of cultural heritage objects within the wider European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage ecosystem. By connecting high-quality data, semantic structures, 3D documentation and AI-supported workflows, ARXIVE contributes to a more open, interoperable and knowledge-rich future for European heritage.
From Digital Twins to Memory Twins
A central theme of the round table was be the evolution of Digital Twins towards Memory Twins.
Digital Twins have already become a major priority for cultural heritage institutions, especially following the 2021 European Commission Recommendation encouraging the digitisation of cultural heritage assets. High-quality 3D documentation can support conservation, monitoring, restoration, research and public access. However, geometry alone is not enough.
The next challenge is meaning.
Memory Twins go beyond visual or spatial reproduction. They aim to connect 3D assets with context, interpretation, intangible heritage, historical relationships, metadata, provenance, narratives and community knowledge. This shift is crucial if digital heritage is to become more than a static record. It must become a living knowledge environment that can be explored, questioned, enriched and reused.
This is where ARXIVE’s work on ontologies, semantic modelling and AI becomes especially important. Through approaches connected to standards such as CIDOC CRM, cultural heritage data can become more structured, interoperable and meaningful. Instead of isolated digital objects, institutions can build connected knowledge systems that support discovery, comparison, interpretation and reuse across borders and disciplines.
Why Quality in 3D Cultural Heritage Matters
The round table also addressed a critical issue for the sector: the quality of 3D cultural heritage content.
As more institutions produce digital replicas, the value of these assets depends on how they are created, described, stored and made available. High-quality 3D content requires robust acquisition protocols, clear standards, reliable metadata, ethical documentation practices and long-term preservation strategies. Without these foundations, digital assets risk becoming fragmented, difficult to reuse or disconnected from their cultural meaning.
This challenge is particularly urgent as cultural heritage data is increasingly reused in research, education, tourism, gaming, immersive storytelling, virtual museums and persistent virtual worlds. Poorly documented or low-quality assets can weaken trust, reduce scientific value and create ethical risks around authenticity and representation.
By contrast, well-documented and semantically enriched 3D assets can support new forms of cultural participation. They can help researchers analyse heritage objects at scale, enable educators to create immersive learning environments, allow museums to reach wider audiences and support communities in preserving and sharing their own heritage.
AI and XR as Drivers of Living Heritage Ecosystems
Artificial Intelligence and Extended Reality are transforming the way cultural heritage is documented, interpreted and experienced.
AI can support large-scale analysis, pattern recognition, semantic enrichment, automated classification and knowledge discovery. When applied responsibly, it can help cultural heritage professionals connect fragmented data, identify relationships, support research workflows and generate new insights from complex collections.
XR, including augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, changes how people encounter heritage. Instead of viewing digital assets passively, users can enter immersive environments, interact with cultural objects, explore reconstructed contexts and experience heritage through spatial, narrative and sensory engagement.
Together, AI and XR are helping cultural heritage move from static digitisation towards dynamic, participatory and intelligent digital ecosystems. This transformation raises important questions around authenticity, transparency, ethics, skills, infrastructure and access. It also creates new opportunities for European collaboration, especially through initiatives such as the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage, the Apply-AI Strategy and the European Partnership for Virtual Worlds.
ARXIVE’s Contribution: Ontologies, CIDOC CRM and AI
ARXIVE was represented in the roundtable by Xenophon Zabulis from ICS-FORTH, contributing to the discussion on ontologies, CIDOC CRM and AI.
This contribution reflects one of the key challenges facing the sector: how to make cultural heritage data understandable not only to humans, but also to machines. Semantic models and ontologies allow data to be structured in ways that preserve relationships, context and meaning. This is essential for interoperability, AI-supported analysis and long-term reuse.
For cultural heritage institutions, such approaches can help bridge the gap between archives, fieldwork, 3D scans, metadata, research documentation and public-facing digital experiences. They also support the development of richer digital objects that can be integrated into shared European infrastructures.
ARXIVE’s participation underlines the importance of connecting technological innovation with cultural heritage expertise. AI and XR can only create lasting value when they are grounded in reliable data, ethical practices, domain knowledge and open standards.
A Shared European Vision for Digital Cultural Heritage
The roundtable was moderated by Tony Cassar, Head of Unit for Technology & Experience Development at Heritage Malta, and Marinos Ioannides, UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage.
Contributors included leading voices from the European Commission, EU-funded projects and cultural heritage innovation initiatives, including Anne Bajart, Xavier Rodier, Aggelos Gkiokas, Mikel Borras, Xenophon Zabulis, Nadia Thalmann, Antonella Fresa, with Rob Davies serving as rapporteur.
Together, the speakers explored how Europe can build a more cohesive strategy for cultural data and digital heritage assets. Key topics will include standards, acquisition protocols, interoperability, ethics, long-term preservation, accessibility, reuse of 3D assets, persistent virtual worlds and the responsible adoption of AI.
For ARXIVE, this conversation is closely aligned with its mission to support interoperable, semantically rich and reusable cultural heritage knowledge. As cultural heritage institutions continue to digitise collections, sites and objects, the next step is to ensure that digital assets remain meaningful, trustworthy, accessible and connected.
Towards Intelligent, Accessible and Reusable Cultural Heritage
Digitisation is not an end in itself. It is a means to preserve memory, support research, strengthen resilience and create new ways for people to engage with cultural heritage.
The future of digital cultural heritage will depend on the ability to combine high-quality documentation, open standards, AI-supported interpretation, immersive XR experiences and sustainable European infrastructures. This roundtable offers an important opportunity to discuss that future and to define how cultural heritage data can be used and reused responsibly across sectors.
Learn more about ARXIVE: https://arxive-eccch.eu/