Macrographia (subtitles)

Macrographia is part of "Macedonia: from fragments to pixels," a special exhibition of prototypical interactive systems with subjects drawn from ancient Macedonia, the result of a collaboration between the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (AMTh) and the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology -- Hellas (ICS-FORTH), hosted by the AMTh.

Macrographia is a system that presents very large images, which visitors can explore by walking around in a room. The images are projected on a screen and are analyzed part-by-part depending on the location of each visitor in the room.

Macrographia presents the "Wall-painting of the Royal Hunt" from the tomb of Philip II at Vergina, ancient Aigai, a large work of art, presented almost in real size. This is the largest ancient Greek painting that has been found to these days, its length exceeding 5.5 meters. It is dated in 336 BC, the year when Philip was murdered, and decorates the front of the tomb of the great king. Widely admired as a rare masterpiece of ancient Greek art, the painting shows ten hunters chasing five different animals in a complex landscape.

The system occupies a room, with one wall being the projection screen. Visitors enter the room and the system follows the movement of each one separately. The images projected in front of each visitor change according to hers/his location in the room. The painting is divided into five sections, which correspond to the prey of the hunters. When someone stands in front of a section, depending on the distance from the screen, the image she/he views and the caption underneath change. There are four levels of information: the present state of the painting, an artist's sketch, an artist's modern rendition, and notable details. Visitors can select the language of the accompanying text by entering the room from the left (for Greek) or right side (for English).