The authenticity of the manuscript formerly known as The “Grolier Codex” remained under doubt for more than 50 years. In 2017, the National Institute of Anthropology and History gathered a team of specialists that after two years of research confirmed that “The Maya Codex of Mexico” is the oldest legible document of The Americas.
It was displayed for only a month due to the special needs for its conservation; certainly not enough time to bring the opportunity to a large number of people to appreciate its story, imagery, essence, and materiality. This supposed an opportunity for El Gabinete, because we were involved since the primary stages of planning so that every technological product responded to the discourse and to the task of explaining the complex contents of a Mayan manuscript that is actually a divinatory calendar of Planet Venus. From the beginning every App was designed to be responsive and be inserted into a website, in order to reach more people.

Working closely with curators and designers from the planning stage, we created an ecosystem of digital products that were related to and complemented each other in such a way that they became a whole communication experience, but also each one could be understood independently:

1. Information video that explains: What is a Codex? Installed at the beginning of the exhibition, in Spanish on one screen and in English on another.
2. Short documentary: The “Grolier Codex”: It’s Surprising Appearance and Many Questions, with Spanish audio and English subtitles.
3. Video production with a 3D animated recreation of the Synodic Cycle of Planet Venus.
4. App for tablets that explains the contents of each Codex folio through its iconography and worldview, showing HD images with full zoom. This App works somehow as one integrated element with the next product (5), since the animation on the elements respond to the significance of the iconography explained on the App.
5. Monumental Video with animation of different elements of the Codex in each folio.
6. Interactive module to explore the research process and results on the materials and conservation process of the Codex: “The Scientific Cabinet”.
7. One Augmented Reality web App that works with a graphic Timeline that shows the stylistic elements on each folio that the user may explore with Augmented Reality markers that bring enhanced information and audio capsules.
8. Four digital labels on 75-inches screens.