They organise research programmes, conferences and seminars in order to present their innovative ideas and to engage all the more people.
This institution includes:
- a Research and Development Centre based on archaeology and history, which makes use of film productions, multimedia and virtual reality applications, 3D representations, GIS and cartography
- a digital library
- the most important one: a cultural centre called "Hellenic Cosmos" (meaning "The Greek World"), which through a variety of activities and events, such as interactive exhibitions, virtual reality programmes, theatrical and dance performances, music concerts, conferences and documentaries intends to incite inspiration and to lead to people's experience of Greek history. Next to the building of "Hellenic Cosmos" they have built a large one, called "Tholos". Architecturally, it looks like a planetarium (it is a dome-shaped building that follows the architecture of the byzantine "tholoi"). It is a virtual theatre inaugurated in October, which has a full schedule of film presentations and virtual tours(Ancient Agora of Athens being the most characteristic). It is also a virtual reality museum of unique design and technological infrastructure that hosts many digital collections and offers a great experience to its visitors! Of course they are trying to attract children, and young people as well, by placing many touch screens in their buildings where questionnaires and knowledge games can excite them and make them feel intrigued and deeply engaged!
This is just a brief presentation of a foundation that is representative of efforts of introducing new technologies into the museum and "knowledge" field in Greece! Let's hope that more efforts will be done, more museums will take after this institution or, at least more archaeologists, historians, museologists and teachers will be interested and not feel threatened by this "upcoming revolution"!
Please, feel free to check it out on your own! These are the links to the most important sites:
- Foundation of Hellenic World: http://www.fhw.gr/fhw/index.php?lg=2
- Hellenic History on the internet (by FWH): http://www.fhw.gr/chronos/en/
- "Hellenic Cosmos": http://www.fhw.gr/cosmos/
- "Tholos": http://www.tholos254.gr/
- Athletic events through time by FHW (it's about the Olympic Games!): http://olympics.fhw.gr/
Hope this helps!
1 comment:
This is fascinating stuff. I have known about the work of the Foundation for some time - although (I must admit) I have not visited. I am interested in the extent to which digital provision is embedded within its mission and objectives and how this impacts on its organisational structure and funding streams. Equally, I would be interested to hear more about what visitors continue to say about the Foundation. Greece, after all, has a rich (if not one of the richest!) material cultural heritage in the world and the Greek museological tradition is one that traditionally privileges this materiality. How is the heavy emphasis on digitality and representation reconciled with the culture of seeing and being proximate to physical historical treasures? Might we argue that the other deep Greek tradition that the Foundation is tapping into is that of oral tradition of storytelling and narration? Just an idea.
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