Chapter 2. From Thread to Web – Creating the Digital Psiloritis

Continuation of Chapter 1, From Thread to Web: “The Cultural Organization Androidus-Argastiri at the core of Digital Culture”.

Our activity, completed in 2023 and continuing to this day, has produced important tools and technological outcomes that promote, in a reliable, engaging, and innovative way, the rich cultural heritage of our mountain, Psiloritis.

Through collaborations, documentation, and technological innovation, we have developed a set of digital and dynamic applications, with the potential for further development and expansion, focusing on life, folk culture, and the identity of Psiloritis.

A brief overview:

1. IDAology

Since the summer of 2023, we have completed a first important cycle of production and development, starting with the research project IDAology (More info: https://idaology.gr). This project allowed us to collect and process data on pastoral life, presented as a virtual reality experience, an augmented reality book, and most importantly, as a digital archive of stories, narratives, images, and representations of shepherd life on Psiloritis.

Through IDAology, we laid the foundation for gradually building the “Digital Psiloritis”: a technological concept that brings together actions, applications, audiovisual material, and cultural elements, transferring Psiloritis from mountainous Crete to the digital and global space.

Within the next two months, we expect to release two major digital culture innovations (both online and physical), offering adults and children the opportunity to experience, in an authentic and interactive way, the life of shepherds and the natural environment of the mountain.

This experience is offered through a virtual reality headset for mobile devices that we developed, allowing users to explore a 360° environment and discover pastoral life on Psiloritis.

Using a mobile device and the headset, users can explore the daily life of shepherds—from the mountains to the coast, from cheese-making and stone shelter building to wool processing on the loom, and from the sounds of the flocks to the music of the mountains (via the IDAology VR app).

At the same time, with a focus on children, we created a premium edition of an augmented reality “living” book titled “Pastoral Life and the World of the Shepherd on Psiloritis”, where the characters become active narrators, guiding the reader through the story (via the IDAology AR app), turning reading into play, interaction, and communication.

2. Metartum App

Later in the year, we developed the digital application metARTum (More info: https://metartum.site), aiming to highlight the iconic dry-stone structures of Psiloritis as a meeting point of contemporary and folk art, cultural heritage, and cutting-edge technologies such as augmented reality (AR).

This project (available for free on Android and iOS as “metartum”) is essentially the first open augmented reality art exhibition of the mountain, accessible to everyone with just a mobile phone (or tablet) and the curiosity to explore its beauty and secrets.

Through metartum, visitors can explore the shepherds’ stone shelters (mitata) and, as a reward, experience three digital artistic collaborations between traditional musicians (lyra, fiaboli, mandolin) and contemporary artists working in visual arts, sculpture, and physical theatrical dance expression.

3. Epimenides II – On the Nature of Things

Synergies truly make history, especially when they connect elements that may initially seem opposite or even conflicting.

In collaboration with the Greek National Opera and the Ministry of Culture, we participated for the third time in the program “All of Greece, One Culture”, bringing Epimenides back to the Ideon Cave as the inspiration for a new musical composition focused on nature and the environment.

Eight musical groups, three artisans, one visual artist, and one actor created a collective artistic work, presenting original compositions in music, theatre, visual arts, and craftsmanship, connecting melody with poetry and theatrical expression, as a contemporary tribute to the sacred site of the Ideon Cave on Psiloritis.

4. NIZA – The Oath and the Unwritten Law of Psiloritis Shepherds

Alongside the above projects, funded through both European programs (ESPA) and the Ministry of Culture’s Digital Actions program, we presented our ethnographic work on the oath and unwritten law of Psiloritis shepherds on Cosmote TV, in two international universities, and at Greek film festivals (More info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eae2Ez_beGE&t=8s).

With the completion of this first cycle, we have already opened the path for new proposals, projects, and actions currently under development, following the core philosophy: preservation, management, and dissemination of our cultural heritage.