UvA invests 2 million euros in research into Amsterdam’s cultural industries
What makes a city into a cultural success? And how is this success related to economic growth? Although these questions are highly relevant to a city such as Amsterdam, they have never been investigated in detail. The University of Amsterdam will invest 2.140.000 Euros during the next five years in research into the Dutch capital’s cultural industries from 1600 to the present.
The UvA has a long tradition of research regarding cultural heritage. The project “Creative Amsterdam: An E-Humanities Perspective” (CREATE) will link this expertise to innovative approaches from the digital humanities such as network analysis, data visualisation, and 3D reconstruction. Many collections in Amsterdam have recently been digitized. This makes possible the integration of different historical data ranging from text, painting, and music to film and new media. Working closely with information scientists, the project develops new search tools in order to recognize patterns. The combined analysis will reveal how the communication, cooperation, and competition between cultural entrepreneurs contribute to the rise of a creative city.
Amsterdam, which pairs four centuries of creative industries to a relatively limited population, is an ideal case for studying cultural complexity. The project therefore aims at becoming world-leading in the study of creative cities.
CREATE builds on recent collaboration between the UvA and private business partners such as the Centre for Digital Humanities and Digital Heritage Lab. It will result in, amongst others, a new Chair in Historical Data Collections. With this project the university expands its infrastructure for a new generation of digitally equipped humanities scholars.