Academy of Arts in Osijek, Department of Applied Arts

To mark a city means to observe it as a certain space. Hence, there is a correlation between the proper reading of its text, the recognition, understanding and mapping of those values that help create and uncover the identity and the actions of the city and individuals. That is a process which enables the comprehension of a genius loci (the spirit of a place). In order for a place to be designated as a City, one has to be acquainted with its ambience, geography and climate and determine it not only by the characteristics of its inhabitants, their abilities and activities but also by their spiritual civic traits. In this paper, the research scope is focused on those semantic spaces which make the Inner City (Fortress) the most urban part of Osijek, exclusively on the formation of civil culture from the point of the liberation of Osijek from the Turks on 29 September 1687 to the demolition of the fortress walls in the period from 1923 to 1926. Namely, military officers, merchants and craftsmen had a unique private time rhythm, which introduces a thesis that the repetition in a civic space is not a routine – it rather transforms an individual habit into a sort of a ritual.

Proper research into invisible sleeper-spaces and their mapping requires an understanding of the mutual connections between urban space and our collective urban experience. Lefebvre views spatial discourse as a triad linking mental, physical and social standpoints of space that may represent power. Space, according to Foucault, underlies the enforcement of power and social life, while space-shaping should be construed as a mechanism of power through which influence is exerted on society. This necessitates the use of an interdisciplinary approach to explore spatial humanities. Hence, the author takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore spatial humanities, i.e. document the beginnings of research into spatial cognition, ‘turn to space’, spatial transformation, etc. Documenting memories in an urban space allows it to become a place of symbolism, and different symbolic systems of invisible sleeper-spaces transform it into a spatial-temporal communicator.

In his cultural memory theory, Assmann links social groups, culture and memory. One of the characteristics of cultural memory is the, so called, process of identity coalescing. In other words, it indicates uniting with the group from which the awareness of uniqueness emanates. By means of reconstruction, cultural memory is related to being current, which is one of the prerequisites of its transfer to cultural heritage institutions. By studying, reading and analyzing the content of cultural heritage institutions, one takes part in the construction of meaning and helps shape the spirit of the times.
Collective memory is transmitted through photographs, records (material) that carry a communicative significance (mental images that individuals, locals, parishioners keep as ideas of the city), while the existence of keepers of that memory who are entitled to knowledge (e.g. priests) is crucial for the institutional support of communication. Archival heritage agents of St. Michael Parish in Osijek's Tvrđa will be presented by means of utilizing the Cataloging Cultural Objects standard, and this paper will serve as a contribution to the study of digital humanities. Agents (the creator and participant as natural and legal persons) are considered critical elements in the process of analyzing and cataloging heritage materials. The agent identifies an individual, a group of individuals, a corporate entity, a cultural group or other entities that contributed to the creation, development, production or changes in the memory space and cultural memory. Based on the analysis conducted on a sample of 578 agents, it can be concluded that the St. Michael Parish is a collective memory institution, which creates space memories of Osijek Inner City, reconstructs agents and events that are relevant to the collective memory and official history of the space, and sustains identity.

The 18th and 19th century printing industry of Osijek Inner City is a relevant source that gives insight into how the cultural images of the city were created in that period. The publishing work of I.M. Divald and his successors allowed Osijek to become a center of world and folk literature, while their publications, known as Divaldiana, shaped the trilingual Slavonian literature, as well as the direction of Croatian cultural and literary tradition. While adhering to the democracy principle, it is necessary to ensure the transparence of this material by means of modern information technology and the process of digitalization. That is how surrogates are created. Heritage will no longer be solely determined by its location; however, it will become a destination. By joining metadata properly, the digital collection becomes valuable as these data play a key role in explaining the collection identity, along with its usefulness in a global society. Every digital product should be user- oriented, and the assessment should serve as an instrument of change. By subjecting fragmented heritage to the process of digital convergence we are allowing for its integrity, and the development of the city phenomenon.