Tourism, Arts & Heritage

Contribution to Human Maintenance as Tool For Sustainable Health

Background of the study/literature review

Human Maintenance as a tool for sustainable health is an emerging field that explores innovative approaches to enhance human well-being and prevent health issues [1]. This abstract examines the role of exoskeletons, the concept of sustainable health, and the impact of physical and mental load on musculoskeletal disorders. By integrating exoskeleton technology, health prevention strategies, and a sustainable health concept, it is possible to mitigate the negative consequences of physical and mental stressors, ultimately leading to improved overall health and well-being.

In the pursuit of sustainable health, preventive and predictive maintenance strategies have proven to be invaluable tools [2]. Traditionally applied to mechanical systems and equipment, these maintenance approaches are now finding application in the realm of human maintenance. By proactively addressing health issues before they arise, these strategies can revolutionize the way we approach individual well-being and contribute to sustainable health.

Planned and preventive maintenance involves taking measures to prevent the occurrence of health problems [3]. This approach emphasizes regular check-ups, health screenings, and lifestyle interventions to detect early signs of illness and implement necessary preventive measures. By adopting preventive maintenance practices, individuals can identify potential health risks, modify behaviours, and make informed decisions to promote long-term well-being. Preventive maintenance can help mitigate the development of chronic diseases, manage risk factors, and reduce healthcare costs associated with reactive treatments.

Predictive maintenance, on the other hand, takes advantage of advanced technologies and data analysis to forecast potential health issues. By utilizing wearable devices, biosensors, and artificial intelligence algorithms, predictive maintenance can monitor physiological parameters, detect abnormalities, and provide personalized health recommendations. This proactive approach enables individuals to take timely actions, seek medical attention when necessary, and make necessary lifestyle modifications to prevent the progression of health conditions.

Musculoskeletal disorders are a common health concern, affecting millions of people worldwide. The integration of exoskeleton technology, health prevention strategies, and sustainable health concepts offers a multifaceted approach to address these disorders.

Exoskeletons can provide real-time feedback on body mechanics and posture, promoting ergonomic practices and reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries [4, 5]. Additionally, by minimizing physical and psychological loads, exoskeletons can prevent the progression of existing musculoskeletal disorders and aid in the rehabilitation process.

Aim of the study including original & novelty

Exoskeletons have gained considerable attention in recent years as a promising tool to assist individuals in various physical tasks. These wearable devices, passive or active (robotic), provide external support to the body, reducing physical load and preventing injuries.

By augmenting human capabilities, exoskeletons not only enhance performance but also reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders caused by repetitive motions, prolonged standing and excessive strain. They distribute the physical load evenly across the body, minimizing the impact on specific joints or muscles, thereby improving long-term health outcomes [4].

Health prevention is a crucial aspect of sustainable health. By proactively addressing potential health risks and promoting healthy behaviours, individuals can reduce the likelihood of developing chronic conditions [5]. Integrating exoskeleton technology into health prevention strategies offers unique opportunities for sustainable health maintenance.

Exoskeletons can be employed in various occupational settings, such as heavy lifting tasks in industries or repetitive movements in healthcare professions. By incorporating exoskeletons into these work environments, the physical load on workers can be significantly reduced, leading to decreased injury rates and improved overall health.

Moreover, sustainable health encompasses not only physical well-being but also psychological well-being [6]. Psychological load, such as stress and mental strain, can have a profound impact on an individual’s health. High levels of stress are associated with various negative health outcomes, including musculoskeletal disorders [7]. Exoskeleton technology can play a significant role in mitigating the psychological load by reducing the physical demands of tasks, allowing individuals to focus on their cognitive and emotional well-being [4]. By alleviating physical strain, exoskeletons contribute to a healthier work environment and help prevent the development of stress-related disorders.

Human maintenance as a tool for sustainable health is a vital area of research and development. Instead of waiting for symptoms to manifest or relying solely on reactive treatments, individuals can take control of their health by actively engaging in preventive measures. This approach promotes sustainable health by emphasizing early intervention, individual responsibility, and proactive decision-making. The implementation of preventive and predictive maintenance can lead to significant cost savings and resource optimization within healthcare systems. By focusing on prevention, the burden on healthcare facilities can be reduced, and resources can be allocated more efficiently. This contributes to sustainable healthcare practices by ensuring that limited resources are utilized for those in need and promoting equitable access to healthcare services.

Methodology (the methods used in your research including data collection and data analysis)

The methodology can vary depending on the specific context and objectives. However, here are some key methodologies that can be applied:

It is important to note that the specific methodology employed will depend on factors such as the target population, available resources, technological advancements, and the desired outcomes.

Result/findings and argumentation

The sustainable health concept emphasizes the interdependence of human health and the environment. It recognizes the importance of maintaining a healthy population to ensure the sustainable development of societies. Exoskeletons can provide support and assistive forces to mitigate the risk of developing MSDs. By redistributing the forces exerted on the

body, exoskeletons help individuals maintain a proper posture and mitigate the risk of over exertion, thus promoting long-term musculoskeletal health. By reducing the physical load on the body, exoskeletons promote musculoskeletal health and prevent chronic conditions that can lead to disability. Exoskeletons, with their potential to reduce work-related injuries and improve productivity, align with the principles of sustainable health. By preserving human resources, preventing disability, and enhancing well-being, exoskeletons contribute to a sustainable and resilient society. Smart exoskeletons with embedded sensors monitoring vital functions will be used.

In addition to addressing physical load, exoskeletons also play a significant role in mitigating psychological load. The psychological aspects of work, including stress, anxiety, and mental fatigue, can have detrimental effects on individual well-being. Exoskeletons can assist in reducing the mental and emotional strain associated with physically demanding tasks by providing a sense of physical support and enhancing the user’s confidence. This, in turn, contributes to the overall psychological well-being of individuals, leading to sustainable health outcomes.

By implementing health prevention measures and considering the environmental impact of healthcare practices, societies can foster sustainable health and ensure the long-term well-being of individuals and communities. Continued research, innovation, and collaboration among various stakeholders are essential to realizing the full potential of exoskeletons and establishing sustainable health practices in the future.

In the quest for sustainable health, it is imperative to explore innovative approaches that not only address the current health challenges but also provide long-term solutions.

Conclusion, managerial implications and limitations

Health prevention plays a crucial role in sustainable health. It encompasses proactive measures aimed at reducing the incidence of diseases, injuries, and other health-related issues. By implementing preventive strategies such as regular exercise, ergonomic training, and health screenings, individuals can minimize the risk factors associated with physical and psychological loads. Exoskeletons can be integrated into health prevention programs to promote safe and sustainable working environments.

The potential impact of exoskeletons on sustainable health is vast. In industries such as manufacturing, construction, and healthcare, where physical demands are high, the adoption of exoskeleton technology can lead to a significant reduction in workplace injuries and associated healthcare costs. By promoting healthier work practices, exoskeletons also enhance productivity and overall job satisfaction, contributing to sustainable economic growth.

To realize the full potential of exoskeletons as a tool for sustainable health, several factors must be considered. These include accessibility, affordability, and user-friendliness of exoskeleton technologies. Additionally, extensive research and development efforts are needed to refine and customize exoskeletons for specific applications, considering individual variations in body morphology, task requirements, and user preferences.

The application of preventive and predictive maintenance in human maintenance has to transform the way we approach individual well-being and sustainable health. By shifting the focus from reactive treatments to proactive measures, individuals can take charge of their health and prevent the onset or progression of health issues. Moreover, these strategies can lead to cost savings and resource optimization within healthcare systems, fostering sustainability in the provision of healthcare services in achieving sustainable health for all.

Creating discourses, integrating ideas:
The Antonine Chancery as the first large-scale European communication network

Background of the study

In an increasingly connected world, the way discourses and ideas have circulated Europe throughout the centuries is more topical than ever. Studies on medieval and early modern communication networks have a long scholarly tradition; with direct ties to the world of religion and the concept of Christendom, the Apostolic Chancery has been the subject of many analyses over the last decades (Meyer, 2016) (Märtl, 2021). The same happened with the emergence of modern states and the establishment of their own networks on a smaller scale (albeit sometimes more challenging to implement, especially after the birth of colonialism) (Erikson, 2014), which eventually fused leading up to a globalized world. Classicists, however, have paid little attention to these types of developments, despite finding in the Roman Empire the indisputable precursor of later models and institutions.

Aim of the study

The main hypothesis of this study is that the Roman emperors and their chanceries, from the beginning of the 2nd century until the breakdown of political stability in the first third of the 3rd century, were a major force for the integration of the various peoples who had been included within the empire. Because of their provincial roots and seeking to make their own power firmer and more stable, the emperors wanted to make themselves present in the territory of the Empire. They were building a kind of consensus with the local and regional oligarchies that could be extended to the rest of the social classes and that would guarantee the stability of the Empire in a century when military problems on the frontiers were gradually worsening. Over time and with the continuous action of integration, this consensus built up a new imperial community identified by its political character, a legacy of the civic origin of Rome, but also religious, as a community of gods and men. This process finds in the Constitutio Antoniniana the final milestone in the process of integration, for with it the emperor proclaims, creates in a way, the community of gods and of rights and duties that the Empire had become.

Well, we believe that the study of the abundant texts written by the emperors themselves (or by secretaries who spoke for them) will provide us with an insight into the discourse that the emperors were weaving about themselves, their subjects, the relationship that existed between them and the location of all of them in a world governed by the gods. Far from the image of a passive emperor, waiting for problems to be posed to him from the cities of the provinces in order to solve them in a process of request and response that was recreated from the beginning with each action, as Millar (1977) had defined it, the emperors of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, through their letters, rescripts and speeches, appear as a driving force of integration. They appear as active agents, willing to develop their own projects of a local or general nature, which seem to have been born out of a uniquely deep and sometimes independent knowledge of the needs of the regions and cities of their empire. As put forward by Edmondson (2015) and Cortés (2017), this enabled them to become promoters of measures to transform the political and economic landscape, which would undoubtedly have been born of their own ideas about the meaning of prosperity and happiness for their subjects, as well as the unity and integration of the Empire.

Thus, the aim of our project is to portray the Imperial Chancery of Antonine times as what it was: theinstrument of the first large-scale European communication network, one that allowed and fostered the rise of a common culture (Graeco-Roman; Mediterranean; European; Western). There are two main objectives:

• The analysis of the Antonine Chancery in its most practical dimension: the sending of documents, their transport, the storage and the complex bureaucratic apparatus behind the whole network, divided by officia run by secretaries of equestrian rank (e.g., ab epistulis, a libellis, a rationibus).
• The study of the documents’ content and their contribution to the creation of the aforementioned common culture and political identity.

Methodology

As with any research of a historical nature, the methodological focus is on the careful study of the sources. Only by establishing a full corpus of the preserved documents from the Antonine Chancery can we delve into the mechanisms and ideas expressed in them with a holistic approach.

Data collection, thus, consists on the compilation of said documentation, which was originally writtenin perishable material but is now preserved through the copies that some of the recipients engraved on hard surfaces (namely bronze, limestone and marble). These copies or antigrapha are mainly attested on the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, as it was the Greek poleis that had themeans and tradition of conserving such imperial resolutions. Some of them appear on general corpora (e.g., Inscriptiones Graecae, Corpus Instriptionum Graecarum, Tituli Asiae Minoris), whereas others remain unedited to this day. We have already conducted a thorough, in situ study of the inscriptions in Greece and modern Bulgaria, making tangible progress in the creation of a unitary and updated catalogue on the Roman Imperial Chancery. Subsequently, the resulting texts have been translated from their original language and analysed on the basis of what light they can shed on each of the following aspects:

• The technical details and inner workings of the chancery.
• The concepts of justice and humanity and their usefulness in governmental action.
• The image the emperor conveys of himself in his writings: accessibility, mutual respect, appreciation of the richness of the empire’s traditions, temperance, etc.
• The emperor as judge, provider of benefits, restorer of rights, guarantor of traditions.
• The emperor as the ultimate source of law and justice; the emperor as a living law through his own words.
• The representation of subjects in imperial writings: merits adduced to obtain benefits, acceptance of imperial decisions or reluctance to accept them.
• The religious components in the political communications of the emperors: the gods in imperial letters and speeches. The concordia deorum, the acceptance and protection of the local gods in the common framework of the Empire, the emperor before the gods, the emperor among the gods, the emperor as a delegate of the gods.
• The empire as a cultural community: the organisation of an ecumenical framework for the holding of the Greek contests as an instrument for the constitution of the new community. The emperors as the driving force of the process and the guarantors of its preservation and development.

It is not a matter of making analyses of administrative structures that have already been done and are useful, but of analysing how the emperor himself is presented as directing what we have called the “integrated management” of the Empire. This means that the emperors, mainly through their letters, give news of how they were able to unite the different parts of Roman power in unitary management processes. Emperor, governors of provinces, military commanders, cities, temples, associations of various kinds, imperial procurators, imperial agents of various ranks, etc. all appear united in management processes that integrate them into a single political-administrative reality. This representation, this discourse, creates not only the image but also the reality, as far as possible, of an efficient empire, capable of solving its problems. This image of institutional solidity was an essential part of the Empire’s discourse that was transmitted through its extensive communication network.

From the emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD), considered the promoter of the great reforms involving the Empire’s bureaucratic apparatus (and therefore founder of the Antonine Chancery), more than 60letters have survived through antigrapha, which is more those we can attest for all the previous emperors combined. His successor Antoninus Pius perfected the system and sports similar numbers, with a total of 58 attestations. Our study, thus, gravitates around the work of these two sovereigns, whose reigns constitute one of the most stable, peaceful eras of all Roman history.

Findings and conclusion

As a work in progress, our complete set of aims remains to be fulfilled, though in the current state ofour investigation it can be safely stated that the Antonine Chancery set up a bidirectional channel (from emperor to provinces, and from provinces to emperor) of idea transfer that was of unprecedented scale in the European oikoumene.

Aside from what this means for administrative history and communication studies, we believe ourdocumentation can also be of great use to legal scholars, as a big percentage of the petitions put forward by the citizens to the Roman central power via Imperial Chancery (libelli) had a legal nature. As already mentioned, the emperor’s response was not only an act of communication, but an act of lawmaking as well, his resolutions being considered constitutiones that established jurisprudence.

In our opinion, awareness about the existence of such a network way before the catalyst of Christianity or modern communications is essential for the understanding of the forging of European identity, as well as the relations between the Greek East and the Latin West (a division that is very much alive today, only with the names of Eastern and Western Europe).

Effects of medium-sized opera festival on hotel sector in Finland, a differences-in-differences approach

Background of the study

The outbreak of COVID-19 disease caused substantial damage to the whole world. The number of deaths increased and that led to vast cancellations of different events, including opera festivals allover the world. The Savonlinna opera festival which a longer history than hundred years had to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021. The festival takes place in July and usually the length of the festival is about one month.

The Savonlinna opera festival takes place every summer except when the COVID-19 pandemic led toa cancellation. While room rates differ across hotels and booking time, the events should on average have an increasing effect on hotel rates and revenues. The conventional measures in hotel management are revenue per available room (RevPAR), average daily rate (AvPri) = (room revenue)/(rooms sold) and occupancy percentage (CU%) = (rooms sold)/(rooms available) or simply demand/supply.

The festival has considerable effects on the Savonlinna region economy, both the restaurant business and hotel business flourish. Due to pandemia, two succeeding opera festivals were cancelled.

Savonlinna is so called summer city meaning that many Finns visit the city during the summertime from their summer cottages or during the opera festival. The city is livelier in summertime. The hotelcapacity doubles during the summer but the hotel room supply of good quality is far less than the number of seats in the opera festival venue. Hotel management can increase both average room price and capacity utilisation and therefore also revenue per available room (RevPAR) which is conventional measure in hotel business.

Hospitality management considers any event as demand generator. Hotels use both historical data and event calendar as well as airline data to make smart decisions concerning room rates. Any event, a large sports event or a large cultural event increases demand and hotel managers increase prices for the event period. Events and festivals are key elements for tourism and hospitality industry in many destinations (Getz & Page, 2014). Events can attract visitors who may not otherwise visit the area (Getz, 2010)

The positive effects of any local event and hotel revenue have been verified in several studies just to mention some, for example hotel occupancy percentage has been frequently used to measure events’ effects, usually positive economic benefits (Collins et al., 2022). Since hotel capacity is fixed in the short run and no new rooms are available, any large event increases hotel occupancy percentage andrevenue per available room (RevPAR). Cultural event visitors have higher incomes, highly educated and older (Mchone & Rungeling, 1999).

If new event is announced early enough, the hotel sector is able increase capacity, which is the case in Salamanca. The hotel sector in Salamanca, Spain got plenty of modernization of hotel facilities and new building partially due to Salamanca having chosen as a European Capital of Culture in 2002 (Herrero et al., 2006). Some events, like music festival seem have positive impact on cheaper category hotels measured by occupancy percentage while an endurance car racing event held at the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, USA had more positive impact on higher category hotels (Collins et al., 2022).

With Finnish data Tohmo (2005) showed that a rather tiny, local music festival had a larger positiveimpact on local tax revenues than the subsidy given by the municipality. There was no need to build any new facilities for the festival.

The spread of infectious disease in December 2019, COVID-19 is considered one the most challenged periods for hospitality industry. Lockdowns and mandatory quarantines were enforced in most countries that caused hospitality industry to collapse with an estimated 50 % decline in revenues (Giousmpasoglou et al., 2021).

Aim of the study

The research question is to study the effects of an opera festival on the hotel industry in a small city, Savonlinna, in Finland. The purpose of this study is to have a look at hotel business statistics using a differences-in-differences method when the festival was cancelled.

The data covers nine cities and 140 months from January 2011 to August 2022. The estimation results show that all measures above mentioned increased in relation to other sample cities in Finland even when the opera festival was cancelled.

Methodology

The difference-in-difference method (DID) is a conventional method to estimate the impact of culturlevents on room prices. The method specifies the effects on room prices (𝑝𝑝_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖}) during the event:

ln(𝑝𝑝_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖}) = 𝛽𝛽₀ + 𝛽𝛽₁𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 _{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖} + 𝛽𝛽₂𝑃𝑃𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖} + 𝛽𝛽₃𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 _{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖} ∙ 𝑃𝑃𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖} + 𝑋𝑋_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖}𝑍𝑍

+ 𝑢𝑢_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖} (1)

where ln (𝑝𝑝_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖}) is the logarithm of the room price for hotel j and on day t by guest i. Treatment is a dummy variable (0/1) taking the value of 1 when for bookings at hotel that are affected by the sporting event and otherwise 0 (control hotels). Period (0/1) equals 1 during the event and otherwise0. Variables in 𝑋𝑋_{𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖} capture the effect of co-variates e.g. ground landings at Helsinki – Vantaa airport measuring the effects of COVID-19. The identification of the differences – in – differences method is outlined in table 1 below.

	Pre- intervention	Post-intervention	Time difference
Treatment group	𝛽𝛽0 +𝛽𝛽1	𝛽𝛽0 + 𝛽𝛽1 + 𝛽𝛽2 + 𝛽𝛽3	𝛽𝛽2 + 𝛽𝛽3
Control group	𝛽𝛽0	𝛽𝛽0 +𝛽𝛽2	𝛽𝛽2
Group difference	𝛽𝛽1	𝛽𝛽1 +𝛽𝛽3	𝛽𝛽3

Participating a cultural event has a role on travellers’ demand for hotel rooms that is captured by thevariables treatment and treatment period in model (1) above. The other relevant variables in the model (Z) are population of the city (z1) measuring business and leisure demand and ground landings (z2) inHelsinki-Vantaa (H-V) airport that is the largest international airport in Finland. During the sampleperiod from January 2011 to August 2022, the Covid-19 restrictions had a substantial effect on groundlandings – normally one to two million passengers per month but during the heaviest restrictions, there were about 20.000 passengers per month in the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The ground landings variable thus measures both normal traveling demand and the effects of Covid-19. Since a large majority ofinternational passengers travel only to Helsinki region, the distance from Helsinki-Vantaa airport (z3) is one the co-variates used. Hence Z = (population of the city, ground landings per month in Helsinki-Vantaa airport, distance to Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

The monthly hotel data is from official statistics collected by Statistics Finland, as well as two control variables: Helsinki – Vantaa ground landings and population of the city. The distance to Helsinki – Vantaa airport is calculated by the author using distance maps.

The hotel performance variables, RevPAR, AvPri and CU are lower in Savonlinna than in other sample towns (t-test, equal variances not assumed, table 3).

	Savolinna, n = 140	Other towns, n = 1120	t-test
RevPAR, €	40.04 (20.68)	54.95 (18.37)	8.924***
AvPri, €	85.30 (18.97)	95.26 (13.15)	6.032***
CU, %	45.20 (11.71)	56.82 (13.98)	10.815***

Results

The results show that opera festival has had a substantial positive effect on RevPAR, ADR and CU%even when the opera festival was cancelled due to COVID-19 (July 2020 and July 2021). Since thehotel capacity in Savonlinna is rather small, opera festival goers book the hotel room well in advance to ensure the room and they did not withdraw the booking even when pandemia caused a cancellation of the festival.

The differences-in-differences method has not been used earlier to study the effects of festival cancellation in a medium-sized city hotel data in Finland. The results indicate that the hotel revenue statistics were improved even when the opera festival in Savonlinna was cancelled.

Since the festival venue capacity is 2264 seats and the summer-season hotel capacity is about 1200 rooms (off-season about 600 rooms), the scarcity of convenient hotel rooms is clear. Hotel managers take that into account and increase average prices, the hotel capacity is fully used.

The results are similar, if the treatment period is July 2020 (first cancellation) or July 2021 (second cancellation).

The capacity utilisation ratio (CU) usually is lower than in other sample cities (variable treatment in table 4) and that results in lower revenue per available room (RevPAR). The average price does not significantly differ from other sample city hotel room prices. The control variables are significant and reasonable except the effect of city population on RevPAR, the number of population increases average price but lowers capacity utilisation.

Foreign women artists in Spain between 1914 and 1936 and the artistic and social revolution of Spanish women

Background of the study and literature review

The present conference refers to our Doctoral Thesis which has been initiated during the academic year 2022/2023, being therefore in the process of development at present. This thesis is based, however, both on research previously carried out by the author, Rocío Rodríguez Roldán, and on artistic studies carried out mainly within the Spanish national sphere, being its starting hypothesis how the impact of the stays of foreign women artists as a consequence of the initiation of the World War First in Europe was more meaningful than it has been considered up until the current moment, influencing not only the Spanish artistic scene but also the social context, in which the aforementioned artists played a large role especially regarding to the consideration of the national women artists as professionals and not mere dilettanti in addition to the social revolution that led to the consecution of gender equality in Spain between the decades of 1920 and 1930.

The cited author’s research on the subject began in the research corresponding to her Bachelor’s Thesis-focusing on the Spanish artist Maruja Mallo (1902-1995)- and to her Master’s Thesis, a first approachto the general subject of the doctoral thesis, based on seven international women artists who settled in Spain between 1914 and 1936 and from whom we were able to provide new data. This research careerhas also continued through the collaboration with the Permanent

Observatory of Art and Gender¹ since 2020 and with the work as a contracted researcher in the R+D+i research Project Female agency in the Andalusian art scene (1440-1940)² -both affiliated with the University of Seville-, resulting in the participation in congresses and conferences -asspeaker, organizer and attendee- and in the publication of several research and scientific articles, specifically: “Maruja Mallo (1902-1995): Mujer y mujeres. Un universo creativo en femenino”³ in the scientific journal Eviterna, “Las Prisioneras. La mujer española bajo la mirada de MarieLaurencin” in Las mujeres en el sistema artístico, 1804-1939⁴ (2023), “Carmen de Burgos y México: Colombine en la prensa mexicana desde 1900 hasta 1920” in Arte, identidad y cultura visual del siglo XIX en México⁵ (2023), “Marie Laurencin en Málaga (1915-1916): Los primeros pasos de la producción española” in “Quizá alguno de vuestros nombres logre un lugar en la historia” Mujeresen la escena artística andaluza (1440-1940)⁶ -pending publication- and “La peligrosa facilidad: Maroussia Valero (1892-1955)”⁷, part of a compendium of scientific research soon to be published by the University of Seville.

The aforementioned research works on which the present doctoral thesis is also based upon are being developed mainly during the present, among them Bajo el eclipse. Pintoras en España, 1880-1939⁸(2019), Hacia poéticas de género. Mujeres artistas en España (1804-1939)⁹ (2022) and Las mujeres enel sistema artístico, 1804-1939¹⁰ (2023). Other related research focuses on the study of individualartists, as well as other cultural, social and historical aspects, highlighting Pintoras en España, 1859-1926: de María Luisa de la Riva a Maruja Mallo ¹¹(2014),La mujer y la pintura del XIX español. Cuatrocientas olvidadas y algunas más¹² (2009), Mujer, modernismo y vanguardia en España (1898-1931)¹³ (2002) and Las modernas de Madrid: las grandes intelectuales españolas de la vanguardia¹⁴ (2001).

Aim, originality and novelty of the study

The fact that research on this topic -focusing mainly on national and not foreign artists, as in our case- is starting to be developed at present is a sign of its originality, which, added to its importance, has led us to choose it as the subject of our doctoral research with the following objectives: to deeply understand the social and artistic change that took place in Spain as a result of the establishment of foreign women artists on the occasion of the outbreak of the First World War, a phenomenon that initiated the adoption of avant-garde artistic languages in the country and about which, so far, only the impact of male artists has been taken into account; to carry out studies focused on women artists, often unknown at national and international level, in order to value their productions and histories; and to contribute to artistic gender studies, providing essential keys for the correct understanding of women artists and their works in their specific contexts. The latter is also intended to provide art institutions with instruments for the correct understanding and valorization of art created by women, which in turn would contribute to the dissemination of heritage and would affect not only the inhabitants of the different countries, but also the cultural tourism, as has been shown with exhibitions recently held in Spain on women artists as Hacia poéticas de género. Mujeresartistas en España: 1804-1939¹⁵ (2022, IAACC Pablo Serrano, Zaragoza, and Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia) or Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931)¹⁶ (2021, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid).

Methodology

In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, we have determined the use of a methodology based on three different parts: the consultation and review of general and specific bibliographic sources, related to the artistic, historical and social context, as well as to the artists themselves working primarily within libraries, archives, databases, repositories and others in this and the following part; the search and analysis of newspaper and documentary sources, where magazines, newspapers, art catalogs and personal documents of each artist play a fundamental role not only in the process of analyzing their productions and impact, but also in the inquiry into how the foreign women artists were seen and treated by the mass media; and the location and study of the plastic work developed by the artists, mainly during their stay in Spain, exanimating for that purpose private and public collections of art. This methodology is being developed mainly within the Spanish national scope, although, due to the international character of the artists studied, in the future it will be necessary to include different international countries, among which France, the United States and different parts of Latin America stand out.

Results and argumentation

Through the use of this methodology and taking into account the objectives set out above, this doctoral research aims to obtain the following main results: the objective evaluation of the stays of various foreign women artists in Spain during the period between 1914 and 1936, determining not only the influence of the country on the creators, but also the influence exerted by them on the Spanish social and cultural panorama; the clarification of time periods which, regardless of their length, have usually been ignored in the individual studies of the artists carried out both in Spain and abroad, thus ignoring a part of the production of these women artists which this research intends to recover; the analysis of the impact of the stays of foreign women artists in the Spanish female creators of the time, influenced not only by the styles introduced in Spain by foreign artists, but also by the new conception of women artists, whose consideration would evolve from being considered “amateurs” to professional artists; and the recovery and valorization of art created by women artists, having an impact on the cultural scope by contributing to a better understanding of it and to the facilitation of scientific results that leads to a more objective treatment of the production of female creators, which at the same time will have an influence on both the social and economic spheres. We do not rule out the possibility that other main and secondary results may emerge in the course of the research.

Conclusion, managerial implications and limitations

We will conclude by reiterating the necessity to carry out this research within the artistic, historical and social field, not only because of the lack of studies focused on the subject, but also because of the need to continue carrying out gender studies that vindicate the role of women throughout history, often unjustly forgotten. The future results of this doctoral thesis will undoubtedly have a positive impact at the national and international level, contributing to a better knowledge and appreciation by scientific and artistic institutions and, ultimately, society, although we cannot ignore the main limitations to carry out the research: the need for both a large economic capital that allows travel to different cities and countries in order to locate the documentation and artistic works necessary for the study, and international cooperation to facilitate the study of the various women artists collected by our research.

Model of integration of Fishing Tourism in the destination Tarifa (Spain). A sentiment analysis with face recognition and machine learning techniques

Introduction

Fishing Tourism is a modality of Rural tourism (Fleischer & Pizam, 1997) that has been developing for some years now with an outstanding interest in its promotion within the European Union due toits strong relationship with the objectives of Sustainable Tourism, both environmental and ecological. It can also be framed within recreational and adventure tourism as well as having a high cultural value.

The definition of the content of the tourist attraction and the objectives of sustainability (Bramwell & Lane, 1993) must define the tourist offer in such a way as to promote the preservation of the natural habitat and the promotion of local development together with the expression of the cultural values and traditions of the seafaring community in such a way that the visitor-tourist can enjoy their knowledge and experience. Fishing and aquaculture are human activities that have a significant role in the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the world’s oceans and their resources and are therefore integral to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) FAO (Hall, 2021).

Literature Review

The Fishing Tourism Activity

The development of the activity of fishing tourism is consequently linked to the terms used in the definition (Alias et al., 2014), although it is clear that this development is slow, despite the fact that it is a powerful instrument for promoting the local economy and providing added value to the fishing industry (Holmgren, 2012). The promotion of this activity is not homogeneous (Muñoz, 2018) although in Europe, in certain countries, a more incipient development can be observed in the movement of tourists and the development of agreements around these activities.(Vasconcelos et al., 2014), initially developed by the so-called MARIMED (Romarís, 2016), which promotes fishing tourism as a focus for the central development of a specific local nucleus, considering its innovative factor within a social, economic and cultural framework and configuring itself as a tool that contributes to the sustainability of the marine environment (Pérez Piernas & Espejo Marín, 2012). Other models conceive the suitability of a tourist destination already consolidated or in an advanced stage of development, in such a way that a specific fishing tourism activity is promoted and its development is parallel to that of the tourist destination where it is located (Cheong, 2003). This allows the main interest of the destination, as expressed by the tourist, such asthe sun and beach holiday, to be combined with the interests of the local coastal economy (Tsafoutis & Metaxas, 2021). Recreational here takes a leading role that drives the instinct of the activity (Ditton et al., 2002; Komppula & Gartner, 2013; Zwirn et al., 2005, 2005) so that the tourist fishing activity does not solely define the tourist interest of the destination (Laiho et al., 2005). Fishing Tourism thus combines two independent but complementary concepts: fishing on the one hand and tourism on the other. The balance of both variables and the different factors that indicate them (Grigoroudis & Siskos, 2002) can favour the solution to the development model of a specific Fishing Tourism activity (Lari et al., 2019).

Figure 1: Fisheries Tourism and Destination Development Model (Lari et al., 2019)

Face recognition sensitive

In this section we want to address a framework of developments on the methodology of facial expression analysis (Diamantini et al., 2021) supported in the video format that lead to results that can be used for user sentiment analysis studies (Saura et al., 2019). Human emotions can be classified into an archetype that includes six specific types, each of which corresponds to a specific type offacial expression that is not related to specific characteristics of the user’s gender, age, or ethnicity (Diamantini et al., 2021).

This classification of feelings is based on Ekman’s theory (Ekman, 1992), the most widespread in thestudy of emotion recognition analysis (Diamantini et al., 2021) classifying them into the following six: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.

An aspect of this methodology is to consider the facial modifications that cause the expression of feelings (Perikos et al., 2018)and the compilation of large databases to generalise these attitudes(Sun et al., 2004; Sun & Jin, 2018). Two variants of the applied methods exist: on the one hand, the intensity with which the facial expression changes during a time phase is analysed, which is calledHilbert-Huang Transform -HHT- (Soleymani et al., 2015), and on the other hand, what is analysed are the different sequence-by-sequence shots of a given video recording, which is called Hidden Markov Models -HMMs- (Mo et al., 2018).

Sentiment analysis combines data mining with Natural Language Processing (Jayalekshmi &Mathew, 2017) and when it comes to image-based analysis, the complication is offered by the technology used which involves image segmentation, image extraction and verification in relation to the analysed sentiments (Hjelmås & Low, 2001).

This information can be generated in two basic ways from the video and further data processing:

• Image processing through pixels, where the consistency of the different parts of the face figure is sought, known as the Viola-Jones algorithm.(Jayalekshmi & Mathew, 2017; Jensen, 2008; Wang, 2014)
• Image processing through detection of points within the face and action units as vectors linking different of these selected points and measuring the different distances related to the different registered expressions -vectors- and the correlations between them. (Baltrusaitis & Morency, 2018; Busso & Narayanan, 2007; Reisenzein & Horstmann, 2013).

It is this second strand of image-as-data processing that underpins the System Theory of Facial Action Coding.-FACS, Facial Action Coding System- (Diamantini et al., 2021).

Aim to study

This study uses a qualitative study based on an analysis of the user’s feelings and, specifically, on facial recognition of expressions to determine feelings, complemented by a study with machine learning techniques where the presence of different feelings and their intensity is observed within the study.

Methodology

For the purpose of this study focused on the analysis of user sentiment, expression recognition is employed through the observation of a video. Specifically, FACS coding is applied, which consists of the following phases (Baltrusaitis. T & Morency, 2018):

• Initial performance in three classes of sentiment analysis: negative-neutral and positive,
• Partitioning of the video into different parts, which allows for a better evaluation of thesentiments,
• Processing of frames in a way that targets identified by each of the sentiments to be analysed are fixed. This is a supervised analysis.
• Sentiment recognition; the expression reflected on the user’s face is associated with the reactions recorded in each of the analysed frames. The intensity of each parameter in the form of a sentiment is evaluated on a percentage scale by taking an average of all the components of the sample.

For this purpose, the Feeder software (https://getfeeder.com/) is used, which compiles the aforementioned methodological steps and whose algorithm translates each of the emotions felt by your audience (fear, anger, joy, sadness, contempt, disgust and surprise) into pure qualitative metrics aimed at understanding what is really happening in the viewing of the video.

Results and Findings

The sample of this qualitative study contains one hundred people from the geographical area of the Spanish territory and who speak Spanish. They were treated to a one-minute video presenting the theme of Fishing Tourism in the town of Tarifa (Spain). Specifically, the video (https://my.getfeeder.com/campaign/pescaturismotarifa) is structured in two very distinct sections which are then divided into different sub-sections:

Destination Presentation Tarifa (0-27 seconds)

1. Location (0-16 seconds)
2. Urban environment (16-20 seconds)
3. Kitesurfing activity (21-27 seconds)

Presentation of the activity Atun Rojo/ Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus) Fishing Tourism: (28-60 seconds)

1. Navigation and fishing (28-39 seconds.)
2. Processing of catches at the fish market (40-50 seconds.)
3. Tuna trolling, gastronomy and final (50-60 seconds.)

Figure 2: Ratio of engagement and impact of the target video. Source: Own elaboration.

A first division is observed between the part where the destination is shown and the part that shows the tourist attraction itself, in two basic general and basic dimensions, which are commitment and impact. It is observed that the first part of the location presents parts where the commitment of the viewer is declining in a way that identifies the same destination although not uniformly, there is a growth of this commitment when at the end of this part observes the presence of people practising the activity of kitesurfing, with which the tourist destination of Tarifa is identified. The second part of the video, with the concrete exhibition of the tourist attraction of fishing tourism, offers a higher level of engagement and attention, especially in the part where the navigation and the catching of tuna on the boat are shown. However, the commitment drops at a specific point where the animal is shown already dead and treated at the fish market and where the processing work for its commercialisation is observed.

The data is processed through Machine Learning and in concrete terms the Big ML software (https://bigml.com/) is used where the different dimensions of general and specific sentiment are represented by different coloured spheres:

For the comparative study of the different video sequences, Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is used (Hair et al., 2019) is a similar technique for identifying those attributes of variables that areidentified within a study. As a result of the sphere appearing in the top right- hand corner, the variable’s relevance in the study is clear.

Figure 3: Sentiment ratio at tourist destination Tarifa: 0 to 27 seconds Source: Own elaboration.

Figure 4: Ratio of feelings in activity Fisheries Tourism: 27 to 60 seconds Source: Own elaboration.

Figures 2 and 3 show the relationship between the variables analysed in the two general parts of the video study. Among all of them, we follow the behaviour of the red sphere that shows disapproval as a feeling. It can be seen that if in general the first part of the destination shows a certain disapproval, within neutral values, in the part that shows the activity, the disapproval of what the user visualises reaches a certain importance. Both user attention and validation as feelings are maintained at high values, which confirms the rest of the feelings analysed.

Figure 5: Sentiment Ratio in Localisation: 0 to 16 seconds Source: Own elaboration.

Figure 6: Sentiment Ratio in Urban Environment: 16 to 20 seconds Source: Own elaboration.

Figure 7 : Ratio of feelings in Kite Surfing Activity : 20 to 27 seconds Source: Own elaboration.

Figure 8: Sentiment ratio in Navigation and Fishing: 28 to 39 seconds.

Source: Own elaboration

Figure 9: Ratio of feelings in fish market: 40 to 50 seconds.

Source: Own elaboration.

Figure 10: Fish-banked and gastronomy sentiment ratio: 50 to 60 seconds.

Source: Own elaboration.

Following the analysis of the fragments of the video with more specific content, we observe case bycase the importance and relevance of each variable, although we maintain our intention to analyse only the variable of disapproval, which we can say is presented in neutral values except when the part of the streets of the city is shown and at the beginning of the part that shows the kite surfing activity: in both sequences there is no presence of people in the images shown.

Conclusions

The sentiment analysis opens up new possibilities for facilitating and complementing decision- making in the field of marketing and specifically in the definition of product and service offerings. In this case, it helps to define the positioning of a specific tourism task within the global offer of a specific destination, which can provide a glimpse of the favourable alignment of tasks to integrate the appropriate development model, specifically in the studied case of tourism fishing.

The perspective from the user is presumed to be a factor that complements the adoption of a tourism development model together with other factors that constitute the objectives of sustainability coupled with the attractiveness that the activity should contain.

In this case, it can be seen how the identification of the destination with the attributes identified by theuser helps a more unfamiliar activity to be integrated into the acceptance of the tourism offer and the attraction for the user to carry it out.

Role of the Intangible Cultural Heritage recognized by UNESCO as a Regenerative Tourism resource.

Case study: Nowruz, the Persian new year celebrations.

Background of the study/literature review

1. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH)

What could be understood as intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is defined by UNESCO itself in 2003 as “the actions, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills, as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces that are inherent to them and that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals consider to be parts of their cultural heritage” (UNESCO, Document on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003).

Therefore, understanding the intangible cultural heritage of different countries helps countries’ intercultural dialoguesand encourages them to have mutual respect for other ways of life. ICH familiarizes people with identity and continuity of life, and respect for cultural diversity, freedom, and independence triggers human creativity (Mirvahedi & Ghaediha, 2020).

2. Regenerative tourism

Tourism systems are considered inseparable from nature and are obliged to respect the principles and laws of the Earth. Regenerative tourism is a niche type that follows the “Regenerative Economy” idea. The concept works on the principle in which conditions are provided for the industry to be reborn, continuously renewed, and transcended into anew form without much human interposition (Hussain, 2021).

With this idea, we want to continue to damage less and tend to rebuild everything that has been destroyed before. Somehow following the main idea of sustainable tourism with more responsibility. Regenerative tourism has not yet been a phenomenon in Iran, but following sustainable tourism, many efforts have been made; from setting standards for accommodations to accepting tour groups of fewer people, and teaching visitors how to act in the region of the locals to respect their beliefs and traditions. In this way, as we move into the world of regenerative tourism, we could move towards alternative ways of responding to mass tourism that benefits both the demand (visitors) and the supply (locals).

3. ICH of Iran

Iran is one of the countries in the Asia Minor region, where rituals and traditions have accompanied its society for centuries and even millennia (Beheshti, 2020). Following Iran’s current policies, laws, and conditions, one of thepossible ways to develop the country’s tourism industry would be through cultural tourism. Hence, the possibility thatIran’s intangible heritage might offer, is to be explored further.

The possibility of becoming an attractive tourist resource for the national and international market would be one of the points to be considered to place it on the map of the inbound tourism sector, although this is probably still far from being achieved. In this way, the visitor would perhaps cease to be a mere passive tourist and become an active tourist, where the use of traditions would allow a link between the citizen of the destination and the visitor, approaching it most responsibly and respectfully as possible and not losing the identity essence of the area where this activity takes place.

Table 1: Intangible Resources declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO

Domain	Intangible cultural heritage	Registration year
Oral traditions and expressions	Naqqali, Iranian dramatic narrative	2011
Performing arts	Radif of Iranian music	2009
	Music of the Bakhshis from Khorasan	2010
	The art of crafting and playing Kamancheh	2017
	Traditional skills of making and playing Dotar	2019
	Art of miniature	2020
	National program to safeguard the traditional art of calligraphy in Iran	2021
	Creation and performance of the Oud	2022
Social practices, rituals, and festive events	Pahlevani and Zoorkhanei Rituals	2010
	Ta’ziye Ritual Dramatic Art	2010
	The Qalishuyan Mashhad e Ardehal Rituals	2012
	Nowruz	2016
	Chogan, a horse riding game	2017
	Pilgrimage to the Monastery of St. Thaddeus Apostle	2020
	Yaldā/Chella	2022
Traditional crafts	Traditional carpet weaving techniques in Kashan	2010
	Traditional carpet weaving techniques in Fars	2010
	Traditional Iranian Lenj shipbuilding and navigation skills in the Persian Gulf	2011
	The art of Turkmen style embroidery	2022
	Sericulture and traditional weaving silk production	2022
Knowledge and practices related to nature and the universe	Flatbread making and the culture of sharing: Lavash	2016

4. Nowruz, celebrations of the Persian new year

The meaning of “Nowruz” translated from Persian is “New Day” which marks the beginning of the new year in the calendar and coincides with the date of the astronomical vernal equinox which lies on 20 or 21 of March.

The New Year in Iran and neighboring countries and nationalities that celebrate it is a historical, ancient ceremony with a religious component to it. It is linked to the heart and soul of the people who celebrate it every year (Behzadi, 2016). Nowruz is a set of rituals that range from private ceremonies (what is performed at home) to more public ceremonies and group dances. The fact that people from 12 different countries share the culture to celebrate Nowruz doubles the importance of this ancient custom in the world (Behzadi Manesh, 2021). In this sense, this great event can be studied from different perspectives in terms of its origin, how it was celebrated, traditions, etc. according to UNESCO on the official page of Nowruz registered on the ICH list “These practices support cultural diversity and tolerance and contribute to building community solidarity and peace”.

As Azkaei points out in 1974, one of the first books that collected the history of Nowruz through the dynasties of Iran, called “History and Reference of Nowruz”, also in “Nowruz: the celebration of the Rebirth of Creation” the author, Bulookbashi, analyzed for the first time the different origins of this celebration, its traditions, as well as the days before and after these celebrations until the thirteenth day (Bulookbashi, 2010). Similarly, Bashiri analyzed the origin of the current calendar used in Iran, which begins on the first day of spring and is celebrated as Nowruz. The calendar was one of the great inventions of Hakim Omar Khayyam during the Seljuk empire in Iran and is still in use today. In his work, “Nowruz Nameh”, Khayyam first discusses the formation of Nowruz and what customs were popular inNowruz during the time of different kings. He also described the gifts of Nowruz and what was common in the court of kings (Bashiri, 2016).

In 2019 a corrected version of “Nowruz Nameh” was published, based on the unique edition of the Berlin Public Library, on all dimensions of this celebration by Mojtaba Minavi called “Nowruz Nameh: A Treatise on the Origin, History, and Customs of the Nowruz celebration” (Minavi, 2019).

“As it contributes to cultural diversity and friendship among peoples and different communities, Nowruz fits closelywith UNESCO’s mandate” (UNESCO, International Day of Nowruz, 2023). UNESCO (2023) also claims that the UN general assembly welcomes every effort to raise awareness about Nowruz and its traditions, like annual events, etc.

Aim of the study

The main objective of the research is to analyze the possibilities of interrelation between the concepts of Regenerative Tourism” and “Intangible Cultural Heritage”, as well as to approach their possibilities in a concrete case, the Nowruz. These days, despite the political conditions of the country, the officials of this sector and the leader of Iran emphasize more on the development of Iran’s tourism by using the rich culture. We know that one of the main purposes of tourism is to be used as a diplomacy of peace between different cultures and nations (Haulot, 1983). New Year celebrations offer a great opportunity to experience a different culture and its unique traditions and rituals. While Nowruz may be known to some, its specific ceremonies remain unfamiliar to many.

Linking ICH with one of the most recent trends in the industry of tourism, regenerative tourism, may not only help keep Iran’s tourism updated but, might be a new way of safeguarding the precious Intangible Heritage for us and the future.

Methodology

The literature review is based on the most recent studies done on the issues of ICH, Regenerative Tourism, and the Nowruz festive event.

In this paper, we focus on a literature review and exploratory approach to the tourism potential of Nowruz through a small survey of residents.

As the investigation doesn’t have a rich research background on this case study, the exploratory approach will be followed. This methodology makes it possible to examine a subject that has been little studied, or about which there is little information, thus requiring a general search to consolidate the pillars of such a study (Aguirre & Alonso, 2011). For other authors like Beltrán Luzarraga, Velásquez Arriaga, & Claude (2021), exploratory research allows the researcher to delve deeper into a topic that is known, but of which there is not much scientific literature written andallows the researcher to carry out the most complete research regarding the context, identifying new problems, ideas, and key concepts.

Result

The predictable results might be the establishment of an adequate and novel theoretical framework and a first approach to both the object of study (the Nowruz) and its tourism potential (pilot survey).

The first approach will help the author to check the population and the authorities will regard the acceptance of regenerative tourism and possible ways to implement it in the country for visitors to enjoy Nowruz and Iranian traditions. The answer to the pilot survey will give a hint as, to whether they are open to the proposal and what the main benefits and the main obstacles to its implementation are. This preliminary study will help to establish the first items of analysis to carry forward in future thesis work.

Conclusion and limitations

Each year, Iran adds more intangible cultural heritage to the UNESCO list. This presents an opportunity to use them for tourism development while preserving their cultural significance.

As it is a less studied subject, we may face some limitations and difficulties in data collection for the case study, Nowruz. For example, collecting data from all places that celebrate Nowruz might take a lot of time and effort.

Sustainable tourism in inner areas. The case of Val di Vara (Liguria, Italy)

Background of the study/literature review

Just like many mountain areas of inner Europe, the Italian Alps and Apennines have gone through a process of land abandonment and rural depopulation that followed the industrialisation of the country from the post-war period with rural-urban migration and loss of traditional management practices in the countryside. This is particularly true of Val di Vara in the north-western Italian region of Liguria, which is the case study of this paper. Territorial, landscape and social processes of this valley of the Ligurian Apennines have been largely analysed in the last thirty years (Moreno & Raggio, 1990;Balzaretti et al., 2004; Cevasco, 2008; Hearn et al., 2014; Lagomarsini, 2017). There are multiple approaches and perspectives into the management and socio-economic recovery of Val di Vara as well as many other areas of inner Italy. In this sense, green and slow tourism policies might constitute a virtuous starting point for sustainable development of marginal territories, particularly for what concern “proximity tourism” (Mangano, 2020) starting from their rich landscape heritage and the opportunity of outdoor activities. Particularly from the post-covid period, there has been a rise in the number of people frequenting green areas of Liguria, both along the coast and in the inner areas to carry out outdoor activities and to look for sustainable alternatives to sea tourism (Mangano & Piana, 2023).

Val di Vara is one of the 72 pilot areas selected for Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne (SNAI), a project inaugurated in 2013 with the aim of strengthening basic services (health, education and mobility) of areas where such services lack (Agenzia per la Coesione Territoriale, n.d.) and that went through progressive depopulation and consequent abandonment of rural areas traditionally devoted to agricultural or pastoral exploitation and today subject to spontaneous rewilding processes. According to SNAI, despite being economically and socially depressed, such territories are rich in resources and opportunities of sustainable local development due to their high biodiversity, agricultural production variety, historical memory, cultural heritage and primary energy resources useful for their regeneration (De Rossi & Mascino, 2020).

In addition, SNAI is strictly linked to Strategia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (SNSvS) aimedat applying the Goals of the 2030 Agenda promoted by UN at local level. SNSvS includes five areas of intervention which correspond to the so called “5Ps” of sustainable development of 2030 Agenda (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership) in addition to a sixth element (the so-called vectors for sustainability). Each area of intervention includes Strategic Choices and Objectives for Italy linked to the 17 Goals of 2030 Agenda, integrated with the three dimensions of sustainability, environment, society and economy (Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica [MASE], 2018).

Aim of the study including originality & novelty

The study presents the very preliminary research of a PhD project started in February 2023 which focuses on Val di Vara and is aimed at creating territorial management opportunities and sustainable tourism by promoting landscape values, involving local communities and enhancing cultural and natural resources contributing to reduce rural depopulation. With particular reference to the framework of sustainable development policies for depressed areas at international and national levels presented above, the Val di Vara is particularly significant for two reasons: firstly, rural depopulation it went through from the 1950s and which is still ongoing; secondly, recent programmes and initiatives carried out to stop this trend and attract tourists, taking advantage of its favourable position. Despite being in the inland area, the valley is very close to the Eastern Riviera of Liguria (Portofino, Cinque Terre) and to Tuscany. Its location provides great potential of tourism development as an alternative to mass tourism destinations also thanks to its large offer of outdoor and recreational opportunities as well as cultural heritage (including traditional villages, the so called “Borghi”) and rich landscape values.

Tourism flows in the valley have been on the rise in the last decade: between 2010 and 2019 arrivals grew by 61,6% and presences by 65,3%, the foreign component being particularly significant(respectively +160% e al +141,6%) (Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne [SNAI], 2020).

In the long term the project entails the identification and analysis of potential and critical elements of current tourism management policies in terms of offer and use. In this sense, a significant starting point is the diverse range of environmental, landscape, cultural, historic- artistic and traditional food and wine offer. Amongst historical-artistic resources the archaeological site of Cave di Lagorara in the Municipality of Maissana is particularly

important. This is a cave for the extraction of red jasper, active between 3500 and 1800 b.C., discovered in 1987 and already subject to various enhancement projects by province of La Spezia and Città Metropolitana di Genova alongside with other archaeological sites of the area. In terms of food and wine particularly interesting opportunities are offered by Biodistretto Val di Vara – Valle dei Biologico and Slow Food Presidia such as Vara Valley Black Cock and traditional pasta called croxetti of Varese Ligure.

The area also offers opportunities for the creation and strengthening of links with the coast, particularly Cinque Terre National Park, which can be reached using a dense network of trails including Alta Via delle Cinque Terre which goes along the main ridge between the Cinque Terre area and Val di Vara. Since Cinque Terre is one of the Italian destinations mostly affected by mass tourism, a phenomenon which has already shown its negative effects at local level, the creation of connections tothe inland area might help reducing tourism pressure from the coast. The closeness to Cinque Terre and to the Montemarcello-Magra-Vara Regional Park is fundamental in order to create a network of natural offer attractions and “slow” tourism through the planning of special thematic and experiential itineraries where the contribution of local communities, which will be involved in the project, is crucial.

The involvement of the local population is considered essential in order to promote sustainable tourism and to make tourists aware of the fragility of communities and ecosystems that they will be part of during their stay. In this sense, a critical examination of initiatives of tourism promotion already carried out by local administrations will be essential as part of a new perspective of planning shared by local stakeholders which would result in new practices of environmental recovery according to the paradigm of social, cultural and tourist sustainability. The case of the municipality of Maissana (upper Val di Vara) is particularly interesting as it shows the very first attempts of enhancing a territorial patrimony of national and international relevance, the Cave di Lagorara, despite economical and managerial difficulties of this small village of inner Liguria. Starting from the late 1990s the caves have been made open to the public through the creation of a thematic footpath thanks to the use of European, national and regional funding. Within a decade, however, such impetus has subsided, and the projects have fallen apart so that today the area is no longer managed and looked after. Following the Covid- 19 pandemic the local administration, has renewed the will of making Lagorara part of a wider network of tourist offer and in 2022 a request for funding has been submitted in the framework of Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) in the section “Attrattività dei Borghi”, M1C3 Turismo e Cultura, integrated by Piano Nazionale Borghi. A local cooperative will be in charge of the management of the archaeological site also with the intention of creating a network with other archaeological and geological sites in the surroundings.

Methodology (the methods used in your research including data collection and data analysis)

The research is carried out through quali/quantitative methods of data collection and fieldwork. The qualitative data collection will take place with a participatory approach involving local communities and visitors through various methods. Semi-structured interviews will be very important as they will allow to obtain information otherwise unavailable or strictly personal and to examine specific socio-territorial practices. Other key qualitative methods will be the creation of focus groups and laboratories, which will provide information on the wishes of the communities involved and which will potentially be translated into concrete proposals and the construction of participatory mapping, through public participation GIS (PPGIS). An even larger group of people can be questioned using surveys. All these steps will be essential in order to plan a strategy of sustainable tourism development.

Quantitative analysis, on the other hand, started from statistical data on demographic trends and tourism, which showed a general depopulation alongside visitor flows in recent times. The links between the influx of tourists and the enhancement of cultural and food and wine elements of interest remain to be explored in depth. Finally, cartographic comparison between historical and current sources for the study of land use evolution and spatial changes will be provided (historical GIS), based on typical methods of historical geography, such as realistic deciphering of sources (Moreno, 1990).

The Sublimation of Looking: Aesthetics of Mysticism in the Cinema of Abbas Kiarostami

Abstract

Eyes should be washed, in another way we should see. 
A word in itself should be the wind, a word in itself should be the rain.
– The Footsteps of Water, Sohrab Sepehri

Eyes should be washed, in another way we should see. Words should be washed.How does the filmmaker manage to transcend the gaze? How do you manage to translate the mystical experience into the image? How to wash his eyes so that the words are the wind and the rain?

Modern man lives in complete disconnection from the nature that surrounds him, immersed in a fictional world of screens that blur the limits of reality. Moved by the liquid limits between reality and fiction, as well as by the disturbance that the presence of the film director applies to their surroundings, the filmmakers that we will study here have sought to dilute their figure in the film process, because as Bresson said, we create by “reducing”. Wanting to take the cinema to its minimum expression, they appeal to the “spectateur créatif” so that he intervenes with his imagination. This re-education of the gaze, as Alain Bergala called it, aspires for the viewer to get rid of the severed eye that prevents him from looking.

The epistemological problem unfolds in his works in even less conventional ways: The unknowable is the object of desire of mysticism, which makes use of the senses to stalk it, because although these arenot a direct way of reaching knowledge, at least they are. Let them experience it. In the same way, this cinema will appear as a means to approach reality, life, mystery.

To name the unnameable, the poet frequents paradoxical expressions and the confluence of opposites: revealing blindness constitutes the interstitial space of mediation between the mystical extinguishing of the senses and blind dazzling, the intersection between seeing and not seeing. It is said by means of the image what is without an image; the image refers to an absence of image, as the word refers to silence and light to night.

In poetry, the word is image; in cinema, the word is eminently image. If religion is statism, mysticism is movement; if poetry is image, cinema is moving image. Thus, the word is silent in a mystical cinema in which the signs are charged with meaning: intentionality in repetition, camera movement, silence and light.

One of the main resources used by these filmmakers to capture that mystical oxymoron, that BlackSun, is the fade in black or white, out of field that constitutes the interstitial space between seeing and not seeing, between this world and the other, a place of mediation that allows one to see, without looking, what is never visible. Thus, an empty field is achieved in which we observe, in the words of Jean-Luc Nancy, “the withdrawal of the divine at the bottom of a presence-absence” (Nancy, 2008, p. 33).

Background of the study/literature review

Regarding this emptying of the gaze in the cinema, Robert Bresson wrote: “in this language of images it is necessary to completely lose the notion of image, that images exclude the idea of image”. The end is suggestion, which is achieved more through concealment than through revelation; Only then will we keep the mystery. So, we return to the severed eye, to a look without a look, when detaching from the look.

In the present research work we intend to study in depth the thesis published by Paul Schrader in 1972 (The transcendental style in the cinema: Ozu, Bresson and Dreyer) where he outlined a cinematographic theory on the transcendental style in the cinema. It is intended to put this thesis in the context of other relevant cinematographic theories and to continue deepening it until reaching the construction of the aesthetic elements that would define the mystical cinema of Iranian authors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Dariush Mehrjui and Majid Majidi.

The thesis put forward by the American screenwriter and director must be read in the light of other great film theories, essential for understanding the medium, such as the seminal What is cinema? by A. Bazin, Notes on the Cinematograph by R. Bresson or Sculpting in Time by A. Tarkovski.

Other fundamental readings regarding the discourse of the Adab in Persian Literature, cornerstone to understand Kiarostami’s poetical sensitivity are some of the following titles: Hamid Dabashi, TheWorld of Persian Literary Humanism; Mana Kia’s articles, Adab as Ethics; Metaphor and Imagery in Persian Poetry, Schimmel and her A two-colored brocade; De Bruijn and his Persian Sufi Poetry; Ata Anzali and his Mysticism in Iran. The Safavid Roots of a Modern Concept.

Aim of the study

With respect to the main and specific objectives of the thesis, the idea would be to build an aesthetic of mysticism in Iranian cinema as a future methodological approach to analyse this peripheral cinema in whose roots the warp of mysticism is so present.

We believe that the development of the thesis initiated by Schrader framing it within Iranian mysticism can be greatly enriched so that it transcends the cultural framework of a West that is too closely linked to philosophy. The new readings offered by this aesthetic of mysticism will allow us to analyse various works in which there are communicating vessels.

Methodology

The previous readings that have immersed me in the subject and have gotten me interested in it have been diverse and some have been hinted at in the previous lines. In the list of bibliography that I write below, a significant and representative number of them are collected, essential in the formation of my thought and in the construction of a solid discourse.

To delve into this fascinating source, we have drawn from authors such as Alberto Elena, Gérard Genette, Pérez Bowie, Marco Dalla Gassa, Antoni Gonzalo Carbó, Paul Schrader, Jean-Luc Nancy, Mark Cousins, Bergson, Robert Bresson, André Bazin, Alain Bergala and so many others. We cannot forget the primary sources for literary mysticism, from Rumi or Omar Jayyam to Ibn ‘Arabi, San Juan de la Cruz or Santa Teresa, and scholars of the phenomenon such as Luce López-Baralt.

The theoretical and conceptual elements that support my proposal are linked to the readings of the works of these researchers and many others that no longer fit in abstract. What

I do keep in mind is the need for an interdisciplinary approach, for which the figure of referents that guide me is very important.

Result/Findings and argumentation

We propose to extend the original idea of Schrader, screenwriter of classics such as Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), who years later would include directors such as Sokurov and Kiarostami himself in that range called “transcendental”. The cinema has served as a point of union between the divine and the aesthetic, between mysticism and poetry. The case of these Iranian filmmakers (Mehrjui, Majidi and Kiarostami) is especially relevant and genuine as they have imbibed from the heritage of Persian mysticism through authors such as Rumi and Omar Khayyam, to cite two examples.

The aesthetics of the divine, in general, has tended to be studied in the classical arts to the detriment of the new means of expression. The theory defended here states that the universal, the feeling of spirituality and the thirst for transcendence, can be manifested well through the written word, the tension of the stone, or the moving image; thirst is universal in its vocation and plural in its manifestation.

This work aims to highlight some of the elements that these Iranian filmmakers display to talk about the ineffable, with a poetics that invites us to an education of the gaze that brings us closer to the world again. If poetry is an image, mysticism is a moving image; that is, cinema. What will be the means through which they try to express the mystical oxymoron that conjugates the unnameable? As we beginto suspect, silence will be key to the conquest of the ineffable. Where poetry speaks, cinema is silent. Before the evidence of the image, the word becomes silent.

The intertextuality between literary mysticism and the possibilities of its filmic rewriting is a central issue in the filmography of the studied Iranian filmmakers, in an attempt to glimpse how the word is transduced into an image.

The concept of intertextuality is a palimpsest that comes from the concept proposed by Gérard Genettein his 1982 book of the same name. This methodological approach, together with Pérez Bowie’s concept of film rewriting, allows us to reflect on and analyse this problematic transduction of mystical poetry into moving image, a matter of contradictory subtleties.

Conclusion

In this regard, Kiarostami will clarify: “Philosophers tend to warn us directly and prescribe things, and we naturally tend to resist that type of instruction from above; but our poets, the Iranian poets, have a much more delicate and indirect way of showing the ways of the world and telling us how to approach life.” What subtle and indirect paths will Majidi, Mehrjui and Kiarostami take us through to show us how to observe life? On some dusty road in the suburbs of Tehran we may find the answer.

Translation in music: the exportation of modern culture through the translation of music lyrics

Introduction

The language of music is often considered a universal form of communication, immune to cultural, time and language barriers. Its strong emotional connotation, together with its artistic value, allows the expression of meanings through a code that seems to belong to human nature itself. However, the union of melody and words, which has characterized music since the very first productions, has dominated the musical scene for the last 100 years and beyond. The “intramusical constructions” that result from this union are very complex semiotic products, where melody, words, rhythms and rhetorical figures coexist in equilibrium. Therefore, even though music is indeed a form of art which can be universally enjoyed and appreciated (Low, 2017), its very nature is connected to a linguistic and cultural background, that will often require a form of translation in order to overcome the barriers and reach an international audience.

Background of the study

This extended abstract aims to present the work in progress of a doctoral thesis concerning the translation of music lyrics. Music and translation, as previously mentioned, often intertwined both in the past and contemporary music scene for commercial and cultural reasons. This work focuses on the process of singable translation, a constrained interlinguistic shift conditioned by the criteria of rhythm, singability, naturalness, rhyme and sense (Low, 2017).

This theme was chosen because of its innovative nature: despite the number of musical works translated over time, there is still a very restricted scientific literature on the specific subject of singable translation. The theoretical-methodological framework is mostly based on recent studies, carried out by Johan Franzon (2008), with the Layers of Singability, and Peter Low (2017), with the Pentathlon Principle. The first goal of the investigation is to examine the existing theoretical background and expand it through the analysis and application of genre- specific music theory, bringing new perspectives to the already existing theories.

In this respect, the historical background will also be explored, since the process of translation has always been part of the history of music and influenced its evolution. From the very first music-related written document, a clay tablet dating back to 1500 b.C. (Nabnitu, U. 3011), to classical music and operas, we will trace a historical and socio-cultural path of this field of translation. In this sense, many studies focus on the translation of libretti, which represented an indispensable medium for audiences and performers who did not understand the language of the original work. Nevertheless, a deeper analysis will allow to identify a real pattern in the use of translation throughout the history of music, especially in the times and circumstances where written tradition was adopted (Casini, 2022; Carrozzo & Cimagalli, 1997; Surian, 1991).

Aim of the study

The main goal of the study will be the critical analysis of a corpus of singable translations in the Italian-Spanish combination. The corpus will serve as a resource to detect the translation strategies used in the specific linguistic combination. Through this analysis, we expect to find effective and reiterative patterns of translation linked to the Italian-Spanish interlinguistic shift.

The implications of this research would be mainly practical: the final goal is to provide a guide for carrying out singable translations, focusing on a linguistic combination that the current scientific literature has not considered yet, despite being so prolific in the western music industry. This work intends to emphasize the importance of introducing a scientific translation perspective in a process which, right now, is being carried out without the involvement of translation experts. The main target of the guide would be, therefor, music writers and editors who translate music lyrics. In this respect, the final part of the investigation will focus on them. The aim will be to investigate the perspective of whom carries out singable translations, and the preparation and experience they undergo to fulfil this role, in relation to the Italian-Spanish linguistic combination. In this part of the research, we expect to highlight issues of technical and practical nature that can be useful for the translation process, together with aspects that can be improved through a more theoretical approach.

Methodology

The first part of the research will be carried out through an accurate literature review, which will be complemented by an analysis of pop-genre music theory. In this respect, the historical perspective will be considered in order to outline the evolution of translation in music over the years, up to the last decade. At the end of this part of the work, we intend to emphasize the relationship between the Italian and Spanish music, which has generated an important production of singable translations from Italian into Spanish and represents the axis of the study. The opposing tendencies of the two music scenes in embracing foreign music and exporting their own music abroad will also be explored.

To build the corpus, we will select within a range of songs released in the last four decades (1980-2020), for reasons of modernity and data availability. In general, the selection will be

limited to the pop music genre, according to a criterion of success both in the country of origin and inthe country of exportation, as well as the peculiarity of the text and its translation. In this sense, it will be crucial to collect the main data through SIAE, FIMI, PROMUSICAE and SGAE, the institutions representing the major producers and distributors in the record industry for both countries. The access to their online databases will allow us to carry out a precise quantitative selection of the most popular songs published throughout the chosen period.

Once the selection is completed, the analysis of the translation will be carried out according to the theoretical guidelines established in the first part of the research. The work carried out so far on the theoretical basis has made it possible to outline an analysis methodology for the corpus, based on four phases:

• Analysis of the skopos and the sub-genre of belonging (if any);
• Analysis of the general structure (stanzas, refrain, hook, relevant elements);
• Analysis of the translation (identification of macro- and micro-strategies);
• Comparison of the detected strategies.

For the final part of the study, a qualitative analysis of song-translators’ interviews will be carried out. The prepared questions will emphasize the technical mechanisms of the job: who contacts the translator, what are the selection criteria, the contacts with the original author or the performer and their knowledge of the source and target languages.

Partial results and argumentations

The partial results of the research demonstrate, in the first place, the fundamental role of skopos (Vermeer, 1989) in the translation process. Although it is mainly mentioned in the first phase, which is the analysis of the song, the skopos really affects all the phases of the process and must be considered a determining factor throughout the translation.

This was particularly true when the translation analysis of the Golden Globe-winning song “Io si(Seen)” by Laura Pausini was carried out (Simmarano, 2022a). The several interlinguistic shifts the song underwent – including English, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese – showed how belonging to a film production strongly influenced each and every one of the translation choices even in the smallest details (Simmarano, 2022a).

The analysis carried out also involved an in-depth study of music theory, with an emphasis on pop music (Chase, 2006). Indeed, music theory is fundamental in the process of translating music lyrics, since many aspects of the construction of a song have to be taken into account to fulfill the criteria of naturalness and rhythm among the others. It was the case of the singable translations of “L’importanteè finire” by Mina Mazzini, where the lyrics’ structural bipartition and the crescendo of both music and lyrics affected in many cases the interlinguistic translation (Simmarano, 2022b).

Finally, the choice of a specific musical genre such as pop music has made it possible to fulfill the lack of a theoretical framework linking musical genres and sub-genres with the translation strategies that best fit them. The features which characterize the pop genre as well as its sub-genres are extremely important when determining what to prioritize or sacrifice in a singable translation, since any additional detail is useful in such a constrained interlinguistic shift. The Italian-Spanish singable translation of the It-Pop flagship song “Paracetamolo” by Calcutta was a particularly interesting object of study in this sense. Therefore, the joint analysis of the sub-genre and the song translation allowed us to identify strengths and weaknesses of the final product, leading us to observe how a specific scientific literature concerning the singable translation applied to specific sub-genres could systematically improve the process of international exportation of songs and even entire music genres (Simmarano, 2022c; Grande, 2021).

Conclusion

The research work carried out throughout the last two and a half years allowed to deeply explore the theoretical background of translation in music, bringing a new perspective on the field based on the pop genre and its specific music theory. The historical part of the research was fundamental to trace the long-lasting connection between music and translation, which resulted later in the use of singable translation as a mean for the international exportation of contemporary music. The analysis of the Italian-Spanish corpus, which already counts with some songs analyzed in published book chapters, intends to fill the existing gap of translation and music studies in this specific linguistic combination. Finally, the qualitative analysis aims to give a more practical perspective on the matter as a starting point for further studies.