Information Technology

The documentation and management system for the objects of Museum collections and the Photographic Archive.
It was acquired as part of the project "Digital Documentation and Promotion of the Benaki Museum’s Collections and Archives" (Operating Programme "Information Society". 2004-2006).

The CLIO-MITOS system was developed by the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) within the framework of the European programs STRIDE (1992-1993) and POLEMON (EPET II, 1995-1997). CLIO-MITOS is an eight-centred system of documenting cultural information that uses the semantic data model SIS. Its characteristic feature is the open and dynamically developing structure of the data that provides the user with the possibility of specialising the data entered.

Further information on the website: http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl/projects/projects_individual.jsp?ProjectID=20

Other agencies participating were: The Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), the Ministry of Culture and the companies Epsilon SA and Intrasoft.

The MITOS-CMDB system was developed to cover Museum curators’ need to manage the artefacts in their collections electronically. A project in the framework of the POLEMON program (EPET II, 1995-1997), it was developed in prototype form.

CDS-ISIS, the Canadian electronic documentation system for museums was configured and was used, which was used in 1991 for the electronic documentation of the Library and the documentation of the Museum’s collection of paintings, drawings and prints.

The official Museum website was presented for the first time in June 2000. Five years later it was redesigned and enriched so as to publicise the Museum’s special character.

The website was redesigned as part of the project "Digital Documentation and Promotion of the Benaki Museum’s Collections and Archives" (Operating Programme "Information Society", 2004-2006).

The application draws a portrait of Athens in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, through the paintings, prints and illustrated publications of the foreign travellers who visited it. These works constitute the most significant historical source of information about the period. The user will be able to enjoy unknown images of the city and the references by travellers, within a systematic historical, geographical and narrative framework.

The application was developed as part of the project "Digital Documentation and Promotion of the Benaki Museum’s Collections and Archives" (Operating Programme "Information Society", 2004-2006).

This application looks at the stage designers’ approach to ancient Greek drama through some modern Greek artistic productions that are not as well known as they deserve. The core of the material to be presented consists of existing facts about the design of sets for performances of ancient drama in which famous artists and stage designers have taken part including Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Yannis Moralis, Giannis Stephanelis, Nikos Nikolaou, Yannis Tsarouchis and Dionissis Fotopoulos.

The application was developed as part of the project "Digital Documentation and Promotion of the Benaki Museum’s Collections and Archives" (Operating Programme "Information Society", 2004-2006).

As part of the exhibition entitled "Near Likeness: Versions of the portrait of Antonis Benakis" (December 2004-January 2005), a multimedia application was designed on the subject of the novel "Trelantonis" by Penelope Delta, which is partially based on the childhood of her brother Antonis Benakis. This application, which is an electronic story in video form presents, in modern cartoons, the main episodes of the story that are brought to life through the voices of the people, young and old, who volunteered to play the characters in the book.

This multimedia application, on a DVD-ROM entitled "Greece at the Benaki Museum", was issued by Kastaniotis Publications in 2002. The application was also issued in English by the Benaki Museum in 2004 with revised content and in a new package.

Multimedia technology is utilised in a creative way, so that the visitor can see many aspects of the Greek collections and the character of the Museum. The work presents the story of the Greek civilisation from antiquity to the early 20th century, through 44 movie clips that are organised into four major periods: "In search of the Distinctive Characteristics of Antiquity, Continuity and Cohesion during the Byzantine Period", "Hellenism During the Period of Foreign Rule" and "Towards to Modern Greek State".

The main advantage of the application is the ability to search through the Museum artefacts with multiple criteria using an Index and historical maps. A search engine allows the visitor to look for some 1000 objects based on the historical period to which they belong, their type, material and technique. At the same time, a second search engine provides the public with the ability to explore the sites from which the Museum objects originated or were found.

Part of the application is dedicated to the history of the Benaki Museum, the work of its founder and donors, as well as to its content, activities, operation and objectives today.

As part of the exhibition "Greek Jewellery from the Benaki Museum Collections" (summer 1999) a multimedia application was developed that was presented at the entrance to the exhibition venue and offered visitors a chance to seek further information about the jewellery in the exhibition. The user would start his search with five basic criteria: the types, materials, manufacturing and decorating techniques, themes and dates of the jewellery. The user was able to browse among groups of different exhibits ending up at the particular objects that interested him, whose position in the exhibition hall was indicated. With this different type of tour, the visitor could acquire a fresh picture of the nature of jewellery over time.

The application was developed in its prototype form as part of the POLEMON program (EPET II, 1995-1997). Its objective was to present a panorama of Athens to the broader public through the paintings, prints and accounts of the Europeans who visited the city during the period of Turkish rule.

The application contained two main parts: "The city of Athens" and "The monuments of Athens".

Framework for Management and Design of Multimedia Applications in Education and Training.

FAME was an Esprit program that provided for the creation of experimental applications that would contribute to creating new methodologies for developing multimedia software for the field of education and training. The Museum participated mainly by organising experiments in the usability of the applications. Other agencies participating were: the company First Informatics SA and the Lambrakis Research Foundation.

HI-FI was an Esprit European program, within the framework of which methodologies and original systems were developed for the use of hypertext for access to information stored in relational databases. The Benaki Museum participated by developing a documentation data model of cultural information as well as the multimedia application "Gold of Greece", which supported flexible searches among the gold jewellery of the exhibition of the same name that travelled all over the world.

The following organisations also took part: the companies Systems and Management SpA, Syntax Sistemi Software SpA, Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung mbH, Siemens, Music/Forth and Epsilon Software as well as the Technical University of Milan.

Production of a prototype CDI optical disk entitled "Iera Odos" ("Sacred Way") on the subject of the Sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries (1992). This was the first Greek effort to produce an educational optical disk on the subject of Greek antiquity and one of the first attempts to depict an ancient temple in a photorealistic way. The goal of the production was to explore the possibilities offered by the CDI as an educational tool. The production was realised as part of the European program COMMETT-2, in which the following participated: Archaeology Institute of Oxford University and the companies NewMedia and Mechanical Intelligence UK from the United Kingdom and I-TEL, Mneme and PETA SA from Greece.

The Benaki Museum participates in the European project Europeana Inside, co-financed by the European Union under the program CIP-ICT-PSP for supporting the "Digital Agenda for Europe", offering material from its valuable collections that will enrich European culture digital library, EUROPEANA.

The Europeana Inside project was launched in April 2012 and will run until September 2014. This is a Best Practice Network within which world-leading cultural heritage institutions, global collections management system providers and experienced technical partners work together in order to reduce legal, technical, financial and operational barriers to participation in aggregated services by cultural institutions. You may find more information on the main objectives and the members of the Network under the http://www.europeana-inside.eu

Program to promote collaboration between organisations and agencies active in the field of cultural informatics. Its objective is the management, modelling and conservation of cultural information. The operation of the Human Network for Cultural Informatics offered information and training services by conducting conferences, seminars and meetings and by maintaining a website with information about its activities on the WorldWideWeb: http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl/projects/projects_individual.jsp?ProjectID=7

The following agencies participated: The Institute for Computer Science (ICS-FORTH), the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the National Technical University of Athens, the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP), the Institute for Cultural and Educational Technology, Epsilon Software SA., ATC, Vikelaia Library of Herakleion, The History Museum of Crete, The Foundation for Hellenism, Lambrakis Research Foundation, the Mt Sinai Institute, the University of Crete, the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, the Ministry of Culture.

Project for the development of an inter-European network to exchange cultural information.

The following agencies participated: ERCIM-EEIG (France), System Stimulation Ltd. (U.K.), Bull (France) EUROCLID (France), FINSIEL (Italy), Intrasoft (Greece), Museum Documentation Association (U.K.), Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (U.K.), Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (France), Instituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione (Italy) Giunti Multimedia (Italy) Fratelli Alinari (Italy), Ministry of Culture (Greece), Bibliotèque nationale de France (France), Benaki Museum (Greece), CNR-CNUCE (Italy), CNR-ITIM (Italy), Institute of Computer Science ICS-FORTH (Greece), Institute for Language and Speech Processing (Greece), IMAG (France), LIRMM (France), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (U.K.)

For further information, please consult the website: http://www.ercim.org/activity/projects/aquarelle.html

TISSUS A market place for textile images and patterns.

The main aim of the TISSUS program was to create a single database with substantiated contents and, above all, high-resolution images of textiles, addressed to the clothing design industry. The Benaki Museum selected textiles from its Coptic collection and developed a bilingual thesaurus of terminology (Greek and English) for documenting and presenting related objects.

The following agencies participated: Selisa (France), Epsilon Software S.A. (Greece), R&S Informatica (Italy) Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Lyon (France), Cycnos Systèmes Ouverts (France).

For further information, consult the website: www.tissus.com

Program for cooperation between three European museums, the Benaki Museum, the Oxford Museum and the Setubal Museum of Portugal, in order to make known the European cultural heritage. The theme of this cooperation covered everyday objects from life in Europe during the Greco-Roman and Medieval periods.

The results of the program are presented on the website: http://portal.oxfordshire.gov.uk/content/publicnet/museums/oikos/index.html

Research program of the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs on developing a communications network between Greek ethnographic museums.

Participants were the University of Patras, the Sarakatsanoi Museum, the Folklore Museum of Kymi and the company 01 Informatics.

The information bulletin Mitos was concerned with issues related to the material culture and information technology. Its articles presented news and views about documentation and IT applications in the management, study and publicising of the material culture. The three issues of Mitos that have been published to were very well received by archaeologists and art historians and covered a gap in the Greek literature.

The 3rd issue of Mitos is available from the Information Department of the Benaki Museum. For further information contact documentation_system@benaki.gr

List of contents of the Mitos bulletins (available only in Greek):

• A. Delivorrias, "Introductory note"
• K.G. Dallas, "The end of innocence"
• K. Haratzopoulou, "Interview with Evangelos Chrysos"
• K. Haratzopoulou, "Cretan Renaissance"
• M. Economou, "Assessment of applications"
• "FORUM"
• I. Dionysiadou, MDA: "International Conference"
• P. Konstantopoulos, "Polemon"
• A. Claudel, "The database of the Swiss Cultural heritage"
• K. Haratzopoulou, "Current research programs"
• "International news"

• K.G. Dallas, "Introductory note"
• M. Velioti, "Ethnographic museums and documentation"
• L. Liavas, "Music, dance, song"
• E. Tsenoglou, "Costume collections"
• M. Argyriadi, "The doll"
• P. Theologi-Gouti, "Pre-industrial workshops"
• A. Rovatsou, "Embroidery"
• A. Rovatsou, "Interview with Stelios Papadopoulos"
• S. Michailidis, "National technologies"
• T. Hatzinikolaou, "Folklore museums and collections in Greece"
• M. Velioti, Rena Loutzaki, "Muse"
• R. Loutzaki, "National archive of traditional Greek dress"
• E. Kosmetatou, "Acquaintance with the Corgialeneio History and Folklore Museum of Kefallonia"
• K. Maraveyia, "The Corgialeneio Museum and Information Technology"
• I. Smyrlis, C. Vallianos, "Daedalus"
• M. Throuvala, "Conferences, Publications, Seminars, Exhibitions"

• K.G. Dallas, "Introductory Note"
• A. Rovatsou, "Benaki Museum: Museum of Hellenism"
• I. Dionysiadou, "Information Technology at the Benaki Museum"
• I. Dionysiadou, "Cultural Documentation"
• M. Moraitou, "Management of Collections"
• "Model recording of works of art CIDOC/ICOM"
• N. Menti, "Sacred Way"
• P. Constantopoulos, "Cultural informatics at ICS-FORTH"
• "Seminar: Museum and Information Technology"
• S. Michailidis, "Ancient technologies"
• M. Throuvala, "Conferences, Publications, Seminars, Exhibitions"