Parian Marble: A Virtual Multimodal Museum Project

Abstract

This case study is about the cultural promotion and exploitation of the ancient quarries of Paros island in Greece, in a multilayered project which uses modern technologies attempting to “return” all the marble works that have been created from 7^th to 5^th century BC to their place of origin. Taking total advantage of the emerging technological affordances of 3-dimensional documentation of Cultural Heritage assets and Virtual and Augmented Reality, this case study’s project is aiming at a curatorial concept of breaking the restrictions of geography and time and raising awareness by engaging stakeholders, policy makers and citizens of Europe in digitalization of heritage through virtual environments. Virtual Cultural Heritage along with Virtual Museums, being the current research advancement in the respective domain, propose the framework where broaden dialogues and intensified discussions among the people involved in the documentation of the past will take place, as well as fully contextualized educational practices and design studies for the development of new immersive experiences and innovative applications.