About RenAIssance
RenAIssance is an exhibition that showcases old, digitally restored photography from "George Barițiu" County Library Brașov's collections. By adjusting and colorizing these photographs, and adding various audio-visual effects, elements, and filters, we aimed to breathe new life into them.
We hope we have achieved our goal by presenting an attractive and original way to preserve historical images, and make people experience and appreciate our city's cultural heritage through a new lens.
Resources for the exhibition
Photos: Photo archive from ''George Barițiu'' County Library's special collections
Sounds: Freesound Databases, Photoleap, Videomaker
Wind-Chimes by skydawn -- https://freesound.org/s/331682/
Wind 2.mp3 by FunWithSound -- https://freesound.org/s/390740/
20220626 church bells Aquileia Italy ZOOM0150 16bit.WAV by peter1955 -- https://freesound.org/s/640934/
Fia Cat Purring.wav by magnus589 -- https://freesound.org/s/181957/
CatMeow_Small.wav by ZJ-Davis -- https://freesound.org/s/618900/
children distant.wav by cognito perceptu -- https://freesound.org/s/84359/
Dog Whining (Short) by DaniloSFX -- https://freesound.org/s/672737/
Water_Drops.wav by kMoon -- https://freesound.org/s/90797/
Spoon Sound Effect by erdemvideography -- https://freesound.org/s/546769/
Cockatiel Whistling and Us Encouraging Him by moshverhavick -- https://freesound.org/s/134082/
Forest At Night Ambience by fribergmusic2024 -- https://freesound.org/s/719558/
Music: Internet Archive*, Moviepic**, YouTube***
*''Valeria Missici playing the piano'': Franz Liszt, ''Liebesträume'', from Internet Archive.
**''Students from Braşov's high school on a trip to Italy'': Renaissance, from the mobile app Movepic
***''Valeriu Branişte's family at lunch'': YouTube clip ''Iancu Marinescu-Însirați-vā mārgele(1924)'', from the channel ''Muzică Nemuritoare", downloaded and converted to MP3 format with YouTube to MP3 Converter.
Graphic Editing: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Beta (2024), Photoleap, Snapseed
Audio & Video editing: Photoleap, Videomaker, Microsoft Clipchamp
Website created with Wix.
About the project
''George Barițiu'' County Library Brașov, Romania, is proud to organize an exhibition as part of the Digital Restoration Lab project.
Digital Restoration Lab is a project aimed at systematizing, integrating, and disseminating modern practices for restoration, digitization, digital restoration, and exposure of antique photographs. The most valuable priority of the project is the inclusion of photographic collections in the European digital information fund. Almost all institutions (photo studios, libraries, archives, photo archives, museums, galleries, scientific institutions) need to facilitate access to their collections while simultaneously protecting the originals stored in a controlled access regime, which would reduce the risk of damage, fragility, pollution, fading of images, etc. Many institutions do not have experts specialized in the preservation of old photographs.
To achieve success in the preservation of photographic collections, it is necessary for specialists to be familiar with the characteristics of different photographic processes, which will allow the organization of the most favorable conditions for storage and use of every type of photography.
The project's main goal is to make the process of photography digitization and restoration easier and more efficient for everyone involved and to present rare photographs to a wider audience in an attractive and engaging way.
The project is supported by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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"George Barițiu" County Library Brașov is a public library in Romania, which holds a vast collection of library items (over 670,000), offering to its users a wide range of resources, starting with books, albums, guides, dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers and journals to databases, audiobooks and e-books, atlases, sheet music. The library also has an impressive number of volumes in foreign languages (in English, French and Hungarian), organized in self-contained sections, children's books, toys and strategy games, Daisy books for the visually impaired, music and film collections, etc.
In addition, the "George Barițiu" County Library Brașov houses a series of private photo collections belonging to significant personalities from the region. These collections serve as a valuable historical record and testament to the area's cultural heritage.
Through the RenAIssance exhibition, some of the photographs in these collections have been digitally restored, colored and animated and presented in an attractive way for people interested in photography and local history.
Special thanks to:
Ruxandra Nazare, librarian at the Special Collections Department of the ''George Barițiu'' County Library Brașov, who kindly provided us with access to both the photo collections and the descriptions of each photo.
Nicoleta Tudor, librarian at the Collections Development and Processing Service of the "George Barițiu" County Library Brașov, and assistant manager in the partnership with Digital Restoration Lab, for all the support given in the realization of this endeavor.
About the Author
CRISTINA PALAȘ is a librarian and DTP specialist at the "George Barițiu" County Library Brașov, Romania.
She is a philologist with a major in Romanian and French Literature, and she holds an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Modern Poetry. Before becoming a librarian, she worked as a DTP specialist and book editor at a publishing house.
She is also the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine "Astra. Literature, Arts and Ideas," published by the "George Barițiu" County Library Brașov.
This exhibition provided her with the opportunity to play, enjoy, experiment, and explore the unexpected possibilities of various graphic design programs and applications based on artificial intelligence. It also served as an example of best practices by displaying old photos in an easy and inexpensive manner that can be replicated by any other small cultural institution.
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