Dr. Żaneta Żegleń is an Assistant Professor at the Jagiellonian University Museum and coordinator of the Horizon Europe project IMPULSE, which explores how European cultural heritage can be reinterpreted and prototyped in virtual worlds. Her work focuses on digital transformation in cultural and memory institutions, particularly in the areas of data management, collection systems, and the use of XR and artificial intelligence to support access, interpretation, and reuse of heritage resources. She is an expert for the National Contact Point (NCBR) in Clusters 2 and 4 and a member of the New European Media (NEM) network and the VR/AR Industrial Coalition.
Topic summary
Across Europe, large-scale digitisation initiatives have significantly expanded access to cultural heritage collections. Yet meaningful reuse of these materials requires more than technical access: it depends on new collaborative practices that connect archives, researchers and creative practitioners. Drawing on experiences from the European research project IMPULSE, this presentation explores how digitised heritage collections can become starting points for new interpretive and narrative practices. Through collaborative workshops and experimental immersive environments, the project investigates how archives can move beyond traditional gatekeeping roles and support more participatory approaches to discovering, interpreting and reusing cultural heritage. The presentation reflects on how such collaborative practices can generate new “impulses” for working with digital heritage in an increasingly AI-mediated cultural landscape.
