Touch the Past project is an educational and cultural plug-in for creative and educational industry aiming to empower cultural consciousness in order to enhance cultural heritage management in Greece using 3D printing. The main goal of this project is forming a new generation respectful to archaeological inventory using the rules of educational gaming, use of 3D printing in monuments’ restoration and the inclusion of disabled people in art and culture.

In collaboration with Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and their ongoing enhancement plan, the team delivered workshops to 6 secondary and high schools of Piraeus that will also participate in excavation, restoration and cultural promotion process using 3D scanning and printing and their methodology as has been developed so far targeting pupils & teenagers, disabled people, cultural & educational institutions.

The feedback after the completion of the first "Touch the Past" project was that the team manages to spark the curiosity of the children and their teachers/guardians through 3D printing technology and history became fun at last! The vision is to shape creativity into a cultural consciousness. Join “Touch the Past” and “Set the monuments free!”

Touch the Past is a project about participation, cultural heritage and green ecological awareness. It addresses local communities, especially the new generation, in order to strengthen cultural and ecological consciousness. It aims to improve cultural heritage management methods and techniques via technological improvement and eco green perspective.

During our project, Touch the Past, a team of experts designs 3D models of ancient artifacts found in local communities around Greece. We design precise models of special findings that have not been presented to the public until now and have been kept as exhibits in museum showcases for safety reasons. In addition to this, we construct two innovative shredders for recycling plastic and turning it into 3D printer wire filament.

We use open-source developed technology which we improve in order to satisfy the needs of the local communities. More specifically, members of our community use open-source software to construct innovative shredders in order to recycle their personal waste. Secondly, we design machinery equipment to turn the recycled plastic flakes into a 3D wire filament which we use for our 3D printers. Finally, we deliver workshops in schools among others for children with disabilities such as visual impairments. They use 3D printed molds of ancient artifacts to reproduce the original artifact they can touch and thereby understand. Our goal is to include everyone in recycling activities and to encourage cultural understanding at the same time.

The educational methods are innovative aiming to empower creativity, environmental awareness and decrease social and physical discrimination. Visitors recycle plastic from their own homes, create 3D print molds from the recycled waste as well as copies of the ancient artifacts. Thus, they can realize the importance of creating something new out of waste but also of being a member of a cultural community.

In collaboration with Kulturhaus Osterfeld in Pforzheim, we developed a project in which we tested different technical char- acteristics of 3D printing methods and equipment. The goal was to create a network of diverse institutions and companies who would all work together for a common cause: the production of 3D printed models from Greek, German and European history.

The output was a video by those involved from the Kulturhaus team, explaining their feelings and impressions during the project, and touching and feeling the printed results.

The key partners were the Museum of Jewelry, the Archaeo- logical Museum, the Goldsmiths Design School, the University of Pforzheim, the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments), Forestadent and EG3D.