Beyond the Item: Digitising Biographies and Itineraries of Cultural Heritage Objects in the Natural History Museum Vienna and beyond, the bITEM Project

The bITEM project carried out at the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHMW) and the Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS) of the University of Vienna explores new ways of digitally documenting and disseminating museum objects, their contexts and biographies. With the aim of enhancing access and interpretation, the project addresses challenges of presenting complex histories of museum objects beyond physical displays. Using an interdisciplinary approach, bITEM combines methods and concepts such as 3D scanning and material semiotics with CIDOC CRM and the open source database system OpenAtlas. The project focuses on five diverse case studies from the NHMW’s collection, offering insights into how these objects’ spatial, social, and chronological contexts can be mapped and presented more holistically. The resulting openly accessible web application ( bitem.at ) provides interactive tools, 3D models, timelines, and network graphs. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of combining traditional research methods and archival holdings with advanced digital tools to document and visualise cultural as well as natural heritage objects in novel ways. This approach enhances public access while also serving as a valuable research data resource, establishing a model for future projects in digital humanities and cultural heritage preservation that could select and instrumentalise parts of these tools according to their own prerequisites and requirements. Thus, the bITEM project highlights the potential for interdisciplinary, digital approaches to enrich the understanding and accessibility of museum objects in general.