Never before has Persepolis (capital of Persia from 550 to 330 BC) come so close to a wide audience as in Persepolis Reimagined: a digital tour where visitors can take a look at the historic city. How did the Getty Villa Museum create this digital experience?
Collaborate to bring an idea to life digitally
Why is this experience such a success? Because the Getty Villa Museum started this project from their own collection and mission. From the content, with the aim of enriching their physical exhibition for a new and broader audience. Digital became a means to achieve that goal.
To make it a successful experience, various parties were involved to bring the idea to life: historians and collection experts from the museum collaborated with external art experts, archaeologists, creators, and digital technicians to realize the digital tour.
By collaborating, the museum successfully created a digital world
Precisely through this intensive collaboration between the domains of culture and technology, Persepolis Reimagined became a historically accurate and accessible world for visitors.
How did the museum make the digital space accessible?
Digital requires a different approach to presenting information. By involving experts in online usability, factual information can be displayed at the right moment. For example, in small snippets, after zooming in on a detail or when entering the next room.
Every detail was considered, always with historical accuracy in mind: from the architecture, colors, and reliefs to the vegetation and music. For each component, historians and source material were consulted. This way, the digital experience does not detract from history and is an enrichment of the museum's collection.
Digital makes history visible
The added value of digital offerings is enormous. In this case, it is the only way to make this history accessible to an unprecedentedly wide and international audience. In reality, there is almost nothing left of this city, and few people can visit it.
However, Persepolis Reimagined is not just digital. It is an extension of the physical collection of the Getty Villa Museum. Visitors to the museum can enhance their physical visit through the digital tour. Visitors who first experience the online tour may also become interested in the rest of the museum's offerings. Through the digital offering, more people get to know the history and other collections of Getty.
About the Getty Villa Museum
At the Getty Villa Museum, visitors are transported back to the time of the Greeks and Romans. They find Ancient Greek and Roman artifacts in a newly built mansion in ancient Roman style. The museum is part of Getty, an organization focused on preserving global artistic heritage. Through various locations and projects, they make collections accessible to the public and professionals.
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