Ancient Roman City In Turkiye Revived In Projection-Mapped Immersive Museum

July 5, 2024 by Dave Haynes

An ancient Roman trading city is revived and explored using more than 120 projectors at an immersive museum in Selçuk, Türkiye that opened in mid 2023.

The Ephesus Experience Museum looks at what life was like in Ephesus before it was largely destroyed in an earthquake in 262.

From PR about the immersive experience:

Ancient Ephesus, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was one of the most important trading centres in the Mediterranean region. Ephesus Experience Museum, owned by Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism and developed and operated by DEM Museums, enhances the visitor experience at the archaeological site.

The Ephesus Experience Museum has already won an award, having been awarded the Best Museum category earlier this year at the US Mondo-Dr Awards which honour prestigious projects in the exhibition and hospitality sector worldwide. The Ephesus Experience Museum, which has been operating since August 2023, has already gained international attention and reputation.

The museum offers visitors a comprehensive exploration of Ephesus’ history, from its founding to its peak as a major urban centre. Guided by a storyteller in 17 languages, visitors journey through three distinct rooms, experiencing the ancient city through advanced audio-visual technology. The museum’s multi-sensory features include 360-degree projections, 3D soundscapes, and atmospheric effects like fog and scents, which together create a vivid, engaging, and educational experience.

One exhibit uses 90 projectors and audio to create a sense of the earthquake in progress. The sensory stuff is interesting, though I guess unless people are seated as they are at some theme parks and other attractions they can’t do the sort of physical shaking that would really bring home the sense of a quake.

This is similar in how it operates to many of the projection-driven immersive exhibits that have popped up in recent years, but the distinction here is that it is tied entirely to the place, as opposed to ideas and themes (like space exploration) or famous artists. Ephesus, in western Turkiye, is one of the largest excavated archaeological sites in the world, though only about 20 percent has so far been unearthed. So seeing this would very much fit in with going to see the ruins.

The ruins are in the same general area as the Turkish electronics firm Vestel, which has been getting increasingly active and visible on digital signage. But I don’t THINK Vestel makes professional projectors like those supplied by Panasonic.

Along with Panasonic Connect Europe, the project involved distributor and system integrator Astel Profesyonel Goruntu Sistemleri, content creator Marshmallow Laser Feast and exhibition designer Atelier Brückner.

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