1000 Years of the Olympic Games: Treasures of Ancient Greece. Digital reconstruction at the home of the gods

摘要

The paper results from a recently completed project that complimented an exhibition, 1000 Years of the Olympic Games: Treasures of Ancient Greece, at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (July 18 - November 18, 2000). This Exhibition offered an opportunity to supplement the traditional experience of the visitor by the introduction of 'virtual reality' components. These included a 3D digital reconstruction of the site of Olympia in 200 BC, the laser scan of the famous statue of Zeus from the archaeological museum in Athens, and the construction of a large-scale website. The website included presentation of the digital Olympia model; the Zeus in 3D; statuary from the Temple of Zeus; panoramas of the archaeological site at Olympia; together with a host of other interpretive information and scholarly resources. The discussion of the website is prefaced by an outline of questions raised with regard to the presentation of complex archaeological datasets in digital environments, and the archaeological basis for reconstruction of Olympia. Perspectives on the creation of the digital works that have particular relevance to the WWW10 forum include the use of "zoomable" technology to display the extensive photographic resource of object movies and 360° full screen panoramas; and the use of anaglyph glasses for 3D presentation. The website analysis includes discussion on design and architecture issues, bandwidth intense resources for the education and cultural sector, and what the website logged in terms of user statistics.