Athens Olympic Museum: A History Journey by Vehicle Technology – Financial Postman
If there is one point in modern Athens that harmoniously combines contact with classical antiquity, historical knowledge, love of sports, modern world history and new technologies, this is just one. The Olympic Museum of Athens.
The Museum operates under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Hellenic Olympic Committee (IOC) and is a member of the International Network of Olympic Museums in the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It is located inside the Golden Hall shopping center, next to the Athens Olympic Sports Center, in the area that in 2004 was located at the International Broadcasting Center.
A kind of time capsule in Athens
We could say that the Olympic Museum of Athens also functions as a kind of time capsule. The space, although modern and with a modern design, refers covered in antiquity. An element that makes sense since entering the main venues begins a journey, a narrative of the course of the Olympic Games in time, from antiquity to the present day.
The fact that there are a number of rare exhibits in the Museum, such as the office of Dimitrios Vikelas, the man who together with Pierre de Coubertin led to the revival of the Olympic Games and was also the first president of the International Olympic Committee, contributes to this.
Personal belongings of athletes, medals, documents of participants in previous Games, the torches used in the ceremonies complete the image. A special place is occupied by parts of the uniforms and equipment used in the opening ceremony of the Athens Games in 2004.
A special point of reference, of course, are the Greek events (ancient Olympia, Athens 1896, Athens 2004) and the Greek athletes who emerge through large stations of the exhibition that simulate the respective stages where these important sporting events take place.
The Permanent Exhibition
In the Permanent Exhibition of the Museum the visitor learns about the origin and the history of the Olympic Games with a chronological narrative, through which the three great Greek stations are highlighted: the birth, the revival and the return of the Games to Greece.
Through interactive exhibits and authentic evidence, the principles, values, structure of the International Olympic Movement, organizations and institutions, sports and the athletes themselves are presented.
From the early games of antiquity to the establishment of the Olympic Games in Ancient Olympia, in the effort to revive them in modern times, in the Games of 1896 to the modern Olympic movement. Great trip and definitely interesting.
The technology factor
One element that makes the Permanent Exhibition of the Olympic Museum of Athens is the application of “AR Companion”, an application of Augmented Reality that allows visitors to diversify more information related to the topics, but also remarkable Olympic stories.
During the description in the Permanent Exhibition, the visitor is asked to locate the special notes (AR Markers) and, using the Augmented Reality technology of the application, to reveal to his device the information and the multimedia material hidden behind them.
The application does not need to create a Museum from the visitor to create a user profile and can be deleted from his device after visiting the Athens Olympics.
It is worth noting that the Museum focuses on continuous innovation and the creation of interactive exhibits through which the teacher of the role is highlighted and the experience of its visitors is improved.
It is characteristic that three of the derivatives of the Museum, the introductory installation “Visit to the Past”, the interactive map “Journey to Olympia” and the flip book “Olympic Charter” which includes physical and digital features, happened together with a nomination that was awarded to Ermis. Awards 2022 in the Production category and subcategory Set Constructions & Event Branding with a Gold Award.
At the same time, the flip book “Olympic Charter” won the Silver Ermis Award in the Digital Craft category and the “Innovative Use of Tech” subcategory.
The Museum has a rich audiovisual material, from videos, animation, interviews and graphic illustrations, to screen projections and interactive applications that give the visitor “the spark that ignites the emotion”. Thanks to all this and the Augmented Reality travel applications, flash back in time becomes a fascinating journey into History.
In addition, the Museum adopts an entertaining learning technique, offering a variety of exhibition and interpretive media, copies from international collections, interactive exhibits (hybrid and digital) and with original items and heirlooms, which escalate from the present to the imaginary.
“Common Place”… History and Augmented Reality
The Museum’s Event Hall has the project “Ancient Olympia: Common Place”, the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and Microsoft, which uses Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to digitally preserve and restore the archeological site of Ancient Olympia.
In essence, this is a mixed reality exhibition in which the visitor can tour and digitally explore Ancient Olympia as it was at its peak, in the 2nd century AD.
The visitor, wearing the mixed reality HoloLens mask of Microsoft, has the opportunity to see before his eyes the hippodrome, the temples of Hera and Zeus, the workshop of Pheidias, and of course the ivory statue of Zeus with the monuments being reconstructed. realistic way. Especially the statue of Zeus you will see standing in front of you revealing all the magnitude of his magnificence. At the same time he hears the description, the history and the evolution of what he sees.
The exhibition includes a total of three digital browsing and exploration stations: the interactive viewing of 27 monuments of the sanctuary in real scale, through Augmented Reality, a large viewing tour of the digitized Ancient Olympia, and the entire 3D interactive analysis of the “public” . Olympia, through the latest technology computer screens.
It is noted that for digital browsing there is an age limit (13 years and over) as the mixed reality mask should be able to be safely applied to the visitor’s head.
More information about the Olympic Museum of Athens can be found here.
* We thank Mrs. Maria Papaioannou, General Manager of the Olympic Museum of Athens, for her hospitality and the most complete tour.