Title: DE-BIAS - Detecting and cur(at)ing harmful language in cultural heritage collections

DURATION: 2023–2024

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The DE-BIAS project aims to promote a more inclusive and respectful approach to the description of digital collections and the telling of stories and histories of minoritised communities. Over the course of two years, the project will develop an AI-powered tool to automatically detect problematic terms in cultural heritage metadata and provide information about their problematic background. It will use vocabularies that combine offensive language with contextual information and suggestions for appropriate terms.

These vocabularies will focus on three themes: migration and colonial history; gender and sexual identity; and ethnicity and ethnoreligious identity. They will be developed in collaboration with the affected marginalised communities by giving them the space and agency to change the way that cultural artefacts have previously been described due to outdated colonial, patriarchal and hegemonic structures.

Read more about the DE-BIAS project on the project page, and and follow our hashtag #DeBias on social media to stay updated with our activities.

The project is co-funded under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) of the European Union.

MCA ROLE: MCA is coordinating the capacity building activities aiming toward stakeholders from cultural organisations to policy makers. MCA will contribute as well to communication and dissemination activities toward its communities and beyond .

PARTNERS: 

DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (coordinator) - Germany

Europeana Foundation - The Netherlands

Datoptron - Greece

European Fashion Heritage Association - Italy

Thinkcode - Cyprus

Michael Culture Association - Belgium

Centro Europeo per l’Organizzazione e il Management Culturale - Italy

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium

Stichting Archives Portal Europe Foundation - The Netherlands

Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - France

Stichting Nederlands Instituut Voor Beeld En Geluid - The Netherlands