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Our latest partnership with the Ashmolean Museum is a-maze-ing!
Our long-term partnership with the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford continues with their latest exhibition, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality.
This temporary exhibit is the first UK exhibition to focus on Knossos on the island of Crete where, according to legend, an elaborate labyrinth was built to hold a ferocious Minotaur.
With over over 100 objects which have never left Crete and Greece before, alongside discoveries from the Ashmolean’s Sir Arthur Evans Archive, the Ashmolean team tasked Imagineear with creating a predominantly audio tour to contextualise, inform and inspire visitors as they navigate the artefacts in their own direction at their own pace.
Imagineear rose to the occasion producing classic exhibition style content featuring interviews with over 20 curators, archaeologists, experts in everything from maps to video games and audio even features Poet Ruth Padel, Professor of Poetry at King’s College London (2014-22).
This was no mean feat given that many interviews were conducted remotely with expert contributors from around the world, including UK, Greece, France and the USA.
Imagineear’s script was narrated by Miranda Hinkley, a fluent Greek speaker as well as a keen Minoan culture and archaeology buff.
In addition to the narration and interviews is a thoughfully selected soundtrack featuring various sourced music incuding authentic Greek Kithri. Game enthusiasts may also recognise music from Assasins Creed: Odyssey, a UBISOFT production which features a reimagined Knossos.
Complementing the audio are beautiful graphics and visuals created by Imagineear’s design team. The stunning interface designs, mirroring the exhibition aesthetic, really demonstrate how we can produce classic audio tours to the highest standard and truly enhance the visitor experience.
“This project was such a pleasure to work on from start to finish, for so many reasons.” said Will Penswick, Project Manager, Imagineear. “The subject matter of the project and the exhibition’s content were particularly fascinating, and personally inspiring, and subsequently we found that with every expert we interviewed (from both the UK and abroad) for the multimedia guide and every piece of research we undertook, it felt as though we were making our own rewarding discoveries around Knossos and the Labyrinth.
These discoveries led to the development of a wonderful script and visual identity for the guide. We also enjoyed a close and fruitful collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum team throughout which allowed us both to achieve things and reach milestones that we may not have thought possible at the start of the project.”
“Taking a design led approach to the audioguide for Knossos allowed us to deliver powerful audio content in the most beautiful way.” said Vasileios Karageorgos, Design Director, Imagineear. “Drawing on influences from the artefacts on display and on my personal background and knowledge of Greek aesthetic and design I produced dynamic graphics and interfaces that reflect not only the beauty of this ancient culture but also the mystery and intrigue. The results – we hope everyone will agree – are stunning and prove that classic audio tours can be much more than you would expect!”
"Imagineear were a joy to work with...Efficient, effective and as genuinely excited about the exhibition content as we were"
Natasha Podro
Interpretation & Digital Content Producer
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