I am seeking collaborators from the ENGAGE.UE network to join the research team for my project CALUMET (Smart Contracts and the Valorisation of Cultural Heritage). This is a transdisciplinary research project conducted between the University of Toulouse Capitole (IDETCOM and IRIT) and the Toulouse Museum of Natural History (ethnographic collection), bringing together legal scholars, anthropologists, computer scientists, and curators (9 members so far). The CALUMET project is currently funded in the amount of €10,000 by the French public programme TIRIS. Our objective is to explore and test concrete alternatives to current legal and inter-state practices concerning the return of cultural artefacts seized during the colonial period and kept in public collections. The project focuses on the creation of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) representing Beninese cultural heritage from the ethnographic collection of the Toulouse Museum, with the aim of transferring their ownership and use to present-day Beninese stakeholders (the royal family of Abomey and local Beninese authorities). The project is already well underway, and the Beninese partners have been identified. This initiative seeks: (1) to split the legal regime of the objects concerned and enable their return to the communities of origin without altering the status of classified cultural property held in public collections; (2) to promote concerted practices for the valorization of cultural heritage; and 3) to find new ways of producing common goods.
The aim of this collaboration would be to establish a more in-depth partnership and change scale, leading ultimately to the submission of an ERC project on the same theme. The idea would be to move towards a comparative study of digital return practices of cultural assets. Case studies could cover museum institutions in the countries of the universities participating in the project. The Toulouse Capitole University project leaders, for example, are hoping to extend their research into the Brazilian intangible cultural heritage collection held by the Toulouse Museum of Natural History.
Anthropologists, lawyers, museologists, historians and computer scientists are invited to express their interest in joining this project. I intend to answer the ENGAGE.UE “Research Label” call. Thank you in advance for your interest!