Project “Talking Heads” Partners Meet in Poti, Georgia
From 28 to 30 September 2026, representatives of the Latvian National Museum of Art participated in an in-person meeting of the international “Talking Heads” project partners in Poti, Georgia. The meeting focused on practical testing of the digital platform, refining the historical personas developed by the participating museums, and evaluating artificial intelligence solutions. Continuing the work initiated during previous meetings, project participants explored the platform’s functionality in depth for the first time, creating and testing digital conversational experiences for museum visitors.
As part of the programme, the project's technology partners presented the latest progress in the development of the digital platform and demonstrated its functionality. During practical workshops, museum teams used previously prepared research materials to create digital visitor experiences, enriching their historical personas with biographical information, artworks, and historical sources. Participants then tested personas developed by other partner institutions, assessing the natural flow of conversations, historical accuracy, multilingual communication, and the ability of artificial intelligence to maintain each persona’s distinctive character and historical context.
During joint discussions, project partners analysed the platform’s usability, principles of information structuring, and the reliability of AI-generated content. Practical testing helped identify necessary improvements in both the administration process and the visitor interface. A key conclusion was the need to strike a balance between historically accurate information and engaging, personalised conversations, while maintaining the essential role of museum professionals in content verification and quality control.
As part of the visit, participants also explored the cultural and historical heritage of Poti and visited Kolkheti National Park, whose unique wetland ecosystems form part of the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021. A guided boat tour of Lake Paliastomi offered an opportunity to discover the region’s exceptional biodiversity. The visit concluded with joint discussions on the next stages of platform development, the testing process, and the involvement of partner institutions in its further refinement.
The programme brought together project partners from Ukraine, Georgia, North Macedonia, Greece, Slovenia, and Latvia, fostering international exchange of experience and collaboration within the “Talking Heads” project.
During the "Talking Heads" project, a digital platform will be created, allowing visitors of museums, galleries, and other cultural heritage sites involved in the project to engage in dialogues with selected artworks, such as sculptures and paintings. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it will be possible to bring artworks to life, ask them questions, and engage in realistic, contextually relevant conversations. This will provide visitors with a personalized experience, allowing them to delve deeper into the history and meaning of the artworks in a new, interactive way.
The project “Talking Heads – Conversations with Art from the Past” is implemented under Grant Agreement No. 101174331 and co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme (CREA-CULT-2024-COOP).
