Invitation to tender for Provision of Digital Preservation System

Tender description

Falmouth University are tendering for a Digital Preservation System to support research projects within the cultural heritage sector. Initially it will be used to support the GWITHA project. GWITHA seeks to establish an open centre for immersive approaches to archives and draw together the rich potential these resources have in supporting the capturing and sharing both the material and intangible cultural heritage of the far Southwest. The nature of site-specific/ landscape theatre has rendered much of its outcomes as resistant to documentation. Thus, GWITHA is a project designed to aid researchers / archivists in capturing, preserving, revivifying and facilitating access to performance practices that have hitherto been difficult or impossible to document in forms idiomatic to their integrity. The intention is to use volumetric capture and higher order ambisonic sound recording to create digital assets for extended reality (XR) technologies (Augmented and Virtual Reality), and to make digital assets more accessible by addressing the intersectional challenges of regional performance infrastructure (place), preference towards modes of access (neurodiversity); access to site-specific performance (mobility) and the cost of access (wealth), as well as broader issues of representation. System to be managed by Archives and Special Collections service for Falmouth University and the University of Exeter in Cornwall, part of FXPlus Library and Archives.