The Digital Invasion of Sicily #digitalinvasions

I participated to a couple of “Digital Invasion” events in Sicily this week. It is an outstanding and growing initiative. ‘Invasioni Digitali’ (Digital Invasions) are mobs of people who support museums and cultural heritage by ‘invading’ them and then documenting the experience on blogs and social media. The official website has a very interesting manifesto.  Here the parts I like most: “Each ‘invasion’ is meant to create new forms of conversation about arts and culture, and to transform the cultural heritage into something that is ‘open, welcoming and innovative.” ….. “We believe that the application of the new forms of communication and shared multimedia to the cultural heritage is a fundamental opportunity to boost the transformation of the cultural institutions into open platforms for the circulation, exchange and production of value” …… “We believe that art becomes knowledge when it’s shared.” This week, thanks to the event, I discovered a fascinating archaeological site, the so called Temple of St. Basilio. A greek hypogeal structure with 30 pillars. It seems it dates back to the first Greek colonization of Sicily and its use it’s not clear; a sanctuary, a fortress, a reservoir. There is not a definitive answer. The site was documented by  J. Houel (1785) in one of his famous drawing of his Sicilian travel.

It was the occasion to meet up with delightful people, special thanks to the event’s organizers.

Here some of my shots.