Digital Storytelling for the Conservation of Cultural Memory: The Case of the Darsena of Ravenna

Open-air museums are a type of museum that emerged in the nineteenth century in response to the more traditional idea of the museum. Since their first examples, open-air museums have established themselves as contexts in which the material and immaterial heritage related to cultural memory, closely linked to the communities of reference, is enhanced. The European UIA (Urban Innovative Action) project DARE was set up to promote new digital and citizen-based governance methodologies to stimulate urban-regeneration actions in the context of the Darsena Canal (urban docks) of Ravenna. The DARE-UIA project constituted an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between museum forms related to urban industrial contexts and new digital methods to enhance cultural memory and immaterial heritage. In this framework, this study presents the creation of an open-air museum of the Darsena as a tool to enhance the material and immaterial cultural heritage and the memory of the district. The methodology used includes the creation of digital storytelling tools, based on GIS and 3D technologies for the enhancement of a diffused museum route. The objective is to create a sustainable approach that can be replicated in similar contexts.