Where there is culture, there is technology to support it!

Technology has made wonders in the field of e-culture on a global scale. But, the sector has so much potential and space to be creative that countries and organisations with rich cultural heritage can constantly develop new ways to bring people closer to culture through technological means and approaches. For us, MOMus is one such case. 

MOMus (Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki) is an organisation that is based on the unification of five museums (the Museum of Modern Art - Costakis Collection, the Museum of Contemporary Art - Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, and the Experimental Center for the Arts) based in Thessaloniki and Athens, that joined forces to create this single, large, integrated public cultural institution.

Due to the rich cultural heritage that the organisation hosts, it aspires to leave its mark on international modern and contemporary art, photography, sculpture, and experimental arts, and become a focal point of cultural interest in Greece and South Europe.

In that direction Hypertech S.A. undertook the responsibility to enrich the digital presence of MOMus with new digital tools that attract new and returning visitors from Greece and abroad, contributing to the national strategy for boosting tourism (cultural tourism). 

The project includes:

1.    The design and development of a brand-new website that promotes the presentation of all five museums, the organisation’s exhibits, and collections, and further data that make it both attractive and useful to the end users. The website is being designed following the design thinking approach and therefore, all Ui/ Ux principles. 
2.    The design and development of a native mobile application in both iOS and Android environments. The application works as a supplement to the website and offers the users further information and guidance about all fixed and variable MOMus exhibitions within the city, personalised routes suggestions, specific app exhibitions within each museum with the use of QR codes, and for gamification purposes a treasure hunt that triggers the users visit more exhibitions and discover more artifacts. 
3.    The design and development of digital signage that is located both within the museums and outside of them, in various points of interest through Thessaloniki (such as the airport, the port, the main train terminal, etc.), informing both citizens and visitors about the museums' activities, upcoming events, the existence of the app, etc., and working as another mean that attracts more visitors to the physical museums.  
4.    The digitisation and documentation of more than 1,000 selected MOMus exhibits, intend to enrich its existing collections and utilise them in the new applications and systems that are being developed as part of this project. Collection digitisation is being performed with specialised staff, machinery, and the latest digitalisation guidelines that show absolute respect to the artifacts while at the same time ensuring that optimum quality is achieved for the end user. A new metadata scheme has been proposed to MOMus that ensures longevity and interoperability with other national and international cultural libraries. 
5.    The integration of all existing and new digital collections through a new digital asset management application (DAM) that leverages the new metadata scheme, follows international standards, and makes data shareable through APIs to various libraries from around the globe.

The above-described activities will end up highlighting and further promoting through various new and existing digital channels the cultural treasures of the organisation, expanding its target audience in age and ethnicity, offering an unlimited source of the cultural reserve to all interested parties breaking the limitations of any possible disabilities, empowering the general promotion of the city of Thessaloniki and the general Region of Central Macedonia, to its citizens and visitors.