Theseus and the Minotaur on a Mac: Computer Technology Takes Ancient Greek Art Exhibit at the Fogg Into the 21st Century

On the right sits a storage jar from around 540 B.C. that portrays a scene of Theseus and the Minotaur. It can be found in the new exhibit at the Fogg,The Social Context of Greek Art. But why is this scene important? Who was Theseus What's a Minotaur? What are all the designs on the pot? What about the dress of the characters? And, what's a "storage jar?"

This exhibit not so much answers these questions as it provides an accessible and viable means to address these and countless other issues about Fifth Century Athens and Greece. Gregory Crane, Associate Professor of Classics, has organized the two-room exhibit of ancient pots, coins, weapons and everyday objects with one very non-ancient device: Perseus, a computer database that sits calmly in the form of two Macintoshes beside the exhibited objects in the galleries.

Perseus contains a diverse and comprehensive group of archaeological, historical and literary details. It includes the following: multiple photographs of exhibited objects and similar works from different periods; photographs of architectural plans, structures and landscapes; maps of Greece; numerous historical and literary texts from the period and etymological analyses of these texts and a concise history of the period.

The viewer can take advantage of all these sources to learn more about this particular storage jar and the culture that produced it. He or she can read about Theseus in its original primary text. He or she can look at other swords, vases and fashion from the period and other periods and compare them. Perseus thus opens up the questions and possibilities for analysis and study of Greek culture.

For example, one might choose to trace the representations of the Theseus story before, during and after the Golden Age in order to see which elements were emphasized pictorially. One could consider what the stress of, say, the violence of the scene or the ornateness of the dress, signifies.

Crane incorporates this method into his core class, "Classical Greek Literature and 5th Century Athens;" this teaching technique integrates the artistic and archaeological records with the literary ones. Rather than imposing a dogmatic approach and theory on this material, Crane's overall objective is to motivate any museum visitor to use the information: "...to reorganize from bottom up, what issues we are addressing...to change the possibilities" of study.

Data of the Database

Although the centrality of the exhibited objects should not be ignored, the database makes. The Social Context of Greek Art strikingly unique. For "Scene of Theseus and the Minotaur" and others like it, the viewer can access Perseus to find out relevant information of the history of the object and its acquisition, as well as to look at high-quality photographs of the object.

The Perseus photographs--between about 40 and 60 computer-scanned pictures of each work--show the piece from various angles. Each file includes perspectives otherwise inaccessible to the viewer, like shots from beneath; the database also includes zoom-in shots of astounding clarity.

The other photographs on the database--architectural sites and maps--are included to "Let people browse around and acquire a concrete and gut feeling of a living society." Thus, with a few simple clicks on the Macintosh, one can acquire a terrific sense of the a city like Delphi. After locating Delphi on a map of Greece, the viewer can click a few more times for the history of the region and for background on particular structures.

The viewer can also click to see the architectural plan of a particular Greek temple and its physical evolution through the years. Photos of the temple and its surrounding landscape complete the viewer's experience; it gives him or her a "better feeling than with conventional tools," the next best thing to a trip to Greece.

Another part of the database provides a concise, but substantial, history of the Golden Age. The history begins by describing Greece's clashes with Persia, and closes with the military expeditions of Alexander.

In between, one can read about the Athens-Sprat relationship, from alliance to confrontation; of shifts in the social and political structures through the period; and about gender relations and attitudes toward the ancient Greek family. Again, the overall effect is to flesh out the exhibit and provoke the viewer to thought and synthesis.

The database also includes numerous texts from the Classical period and a comprehensive glossary that allows students to probe into the original Greek vocabulary. When reading a work by Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles or others, students can highlight an English word and the original Greek word will appear with its meaning.

Crane points to the differences in the meaning of "respect" as an example: respect for people and respect for Gods are two different words in Greek; furthermore, "respect" for a king connotes servility. Perseus makes word derivations far more available to the student, thereby radically changing another logistical problem formally intrinsic to this kind of study.

The Database and the Fogg Museum

In addition to marking a shift in academic approaches, the integration of Perseus into the Fogg also indicates an increasing centrality for computers in Harvard museums. The Social Context of Greek Art marks the first time the Fogg has used computers in an exhibit. According to University Art Museums Deputy Director Frances A. Beane, it is "an innovation whose time has come," and it has met with no resistance from the Fogg.

The computerization effort is part of a move by Harvard Art Museums to involve students and the public with the museums and their collections. At present, Beane and other museum directors are negotiating with several technology companies to fund a computers network system that will allow Harvard to establish a computerized archive of the University's collections. Harvard's prints, paintings and other works of art number some 120,000 objects.

Such a system--expected to be purchased and introduced into the museums some time in the next year--will allow a student researching a particular theme or artist to see photographs of relevant works in storage. This system, increasingly used in museums like the National Gallery, will contain relevant acquisition information and historical background and will include mechanisms for zooming-in and for revealing the scale of the object.

Beane sees the main goal as ultimately creating a kind of "electronic bulletin board where we could have scholarly discourse about items in the collection." At the same time, the system would more fully integrate the museum into the day to day teaching in the University, with a Hollis-like system as the final goal.

Beane recognizes that the time-scheme for all of this will be several years. Thus, after the system is purchased, the Fogg will seek student and faculty input to determine the specific functions that the system would include.

One noteworthy point: Beane very much wants the computer to remain only a means to an end--students must still look at the original work. Thus, Beane and other museum directors will not want the picture quality to be "too good." Further, the viewer should always realize the potential for computers to pick up details beyond the human eye because it [the art] is just too small."

Finally, Beane regards the database as central to the museum's aim to make art more accessible to the public. Beane believes that the database gives the viewer as much or as little background information as he or she wants. The, historical and etymological powers of the system, now made so accessible to the viewer, can be explored to the extent that the viewer chooses.

Academic Populism

Although the Fogg show marks Perseus's completion as a database, Crane plans to expand beyond Harvard. Perseus has been published by Yale University Press, and will be marketed shortly. While Crane recognizes that Perseus will not be widely distributed for a while, he is encouraged by the enthusiastic response from other universities and high schools.

Crane is particularly happy at the response from the latter, and continues to introduce Perseus to that audience. Dozens of high schools already have test copies, and next month Crane will address a conference for this purpose.

He attributes this success to the database's open-ended possibilities for creativity and exploration, rather than its maintenance of academic dogma, both in method and content. Crane believes that most students are "sick of text books and canned answer."

Crane sees Perseus's potential accessibility as the core of his "populist and staunchly democratic ideal," something he regrets not seeing more of at Harvard. He feels that the current reality of academics only writing for academics is "not viable." "We need in the Humanities to engage the imagination and intelligence of people outside our field. We need to get the populace to have discipline and skepticism."

He sees Ken Burns's recent Civil War television series, and its enthusiastic response, as the beginnings of higher public involvement in formerly scholarly pursuits. Rather than spending all of their time passively watching, the public--with some combination of video and computer--could potentially spend "[thirty minutes] watching, and [ninety minutes] browsing for information." Crane's computer database combines the "popular and the scholarly."

Unfortunately, Crane realizes that most of the Harvard community "assumes that most normal people aren't going to do this. "However, he knows that an interaction with the public is essential: "Nobody is going to support us for very long if they perceive us as caring for nothing but ourselves. Social scientists and natural scientists address key problems like how to maintain the economy and how to stop AIDS...we have to address ideas that resonate with in the population and provide intellectual leadership."

At present, Crane sees that Harvard perpetuates this problem. "Institutionally, Harvard does not provide enough incentives for faculty to set their work and ideas in a wider context. In many disciplines, there is no incentive but to write for other specialists." As a result, there is a "disproportionate share of the brightest minds not being directed at the most seminal problems."