CULTURAL MAPPING

MYTH, HISTORY AND TRADITION IN THE HANDS OF SOCIETY.

Cultural Mapping aims to collect and communicate opinions, personal stories and experiences, as a way to promote an area’s cultural heritage, tradition and natural environment. The first pilot application focuses on the triangle formed by Knossos, the Minoan Route and the Dictaean Cave and its purpose is to promote the natural inheritance of the Cave while demonstrating elements of the Minoans everyday life at the Knossos palace.

In order to accomplice its goals, Cultural Mapping used the Clio Muse platform through which each user has the ability to read or listen to short stories, take a virtual tour via 3d images and orientate in space with the help of GPS technology.

All of the above not only constitute an invaluable tool of sharing the experience on social media, they also provide a “living” memory of the place and add immense value to the area’s natural features.

FIELDS OF ACTION

• Enhance the sense of Community

In order to further promote its mission, Cultural Mapping depends on promoting unknown details of history and tradition hidden in collective memory. It seeks out memories of the people forming the area’s community.
This is why via this website we offer local people the ability to share their personal stories, photographs, legends etc with the world. Even local products, services and offered activities can be used in order to further enhance each route with real stories – stories passed on by previous generations and connecting tradition with the area’s current everyday life.

• Create Certified Cultural and Natural Trails

Due to its variety in histories and routes, Cultural Mapping aims to the unification of points by subject or time period, thus building the routes in a way which provides visitors with an interesting and comprehensible story, giving them a complete image of the era in which said story took place and connecting it with the surroundings. Hence, Cultural Mapping highlights natural trails and helps uniting these trails so they can be certified by ERA (European Research Area) as Leading Quality Trails.

• Enhance Social Entrepreneurship

Cultural Mapping aims to capitalize the value of the routes in order to create new job and entrepreneurship opportunities, overall enhance each area’s identity and promote local products and services, thus creating new job opportunities in the culture and tourism sectors. ATHINA Educational Network supports Cultural Mapping’s goals in this field by creating two post-graduate specialization programmes for:

• Tour Guides for outdoor activities
• Interactive guides

• Educational Aspect of Cultural Mapping

Cultural Mapping not only aims to create educational and recreational trails for school visits. It also maintains a strong educational profile by constantly promoting students’ participation in further enhancing the routes, such as the promotion of certains spots in Heraklion city by stories and photos taken from students and implemented in the application. Future plans of Cultural Mapping include the creation of summer schools with cultural and nature-oriented activities.