Cultural experience in 3D: Exhibition of the "Apocalypse Münsterland" project successfully launched

MÜNSTER/MÜNSTERLAND. "This makes you want more!" That's how many of the visitors to the exhibition container of "Apokalypse Münsterland", a cooperation project of 28 museums and exhibition houses in Münsterland, sounded this morning. On the Hafenplatz in Münster, passers-by had the opportunity to experience cultural assets from the region - not behind glass, but digitally through virtual reality technology in 3D and haptically through 3D prints.

"We are thrilled at how well the exhibition is being received and how curious people are," said project manager Kathrin Strotmann from Münsterland e.V. Around 100 people got involved with the museum of the future, entered the container, put the virtual reality glasses on their noses and immersed themselves in the world of the exhibits, in burial chambers, churches, machines and paintings.

"It is an interesting and inspiring experience. It makes you want to take a look at the museums in Münsterland in the real world," said a passer-by after visiting the container.

The background to "Apocalypse Münsterland": the future has lost its culture and is sending an SOS to the present. "Help us, send us culture you want to preserve!" In 2018, over 2000 visitors to 28 museums and exhibition houses in the region had heard the call for help and selected 28 cultural assets to send as a digital message to the future. Students from Münster University of Applied Sciences had taken on the digitisation. Passers-by were now able to take a "last look" at the digitised exhibits in the container before they are transmitted through the container as a sending station of the future.

Astrid Kießling-Taşkin, board member of the Commerzbank Foundation, praised the concept of the exhibition: "Cultural institutions have to take a big step towards their audience in order to be fit for the future. And an even bigger step is necessary to reach new target groups. With 'Apocalypse Münsterland' this has been achieved in an exemplary way. From the very beginning, the audience was involved in the project and took on the task of a curator, so to speak. And with the mobile and digital presentation in the container, culture becomes more accessible. On the other hand, it can be experienced personally. Whether proximity, participation or interaction - important core elements of successful mediation work are involved in 'Apocalypse Münsterland'."

And Münster is not the only station of the container. It will stop at 19 locations throughout Münsterland a total of 23 times.
Dr. Barbara Rüschoff-Parzinger, Head of the Cultural Department of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe and member of the board of the LWL Cultural Foundation, underlined this mobilisation of cultural offerings and the inclusion of rural areas: "Mobility and digitalisation - two buzzwords that offer many opportunities for the interaction and juxtaposition of urban conurbations and rural areas in our Westfalen-Lippe region. The scenario of 'Apocalypse Münsterland' adopts both and arms our cultural treasures for the future. It's a clever coup to showcase evolved culture with the latest technology in Westphalia-Lippe, which is why the LWL Cultural Foundation is happy to support the project."

"For our architecture students, Apocalypse Münsterland was a great opportunity," said Professor Martin Weischer, Dean of Münster University of Applied Sciences. "Because it doesn't happen often that you see your own design on the street so quickly. The 'Museum of the Future' course also showed how diverse and creative the work of architects can be, and that digital techniques and processes are becoming increasingly important at the MSA, the Münster School of Architecture."

Christian Vogler, managing partner of BOK + Gärtner GmbH, underlines the cooperation: "Within the framework of this exciting research project, we were able to work out new digital mediation methods with the students of the MSA and incorporate them into the conception of the exhibition. The diverse cultural assets of Münsterland can be experienced in this form in a very innovative way."

www.apokalypse-muensterland.de/containertour

Further information

In the regional cultural and cooperation project "Apocalypse Münsterland", a project community of 28 museums and exhibition houses in Münsterland is working together under the project management of Münsterland e.V. with other cooperation partners from the region: Münster University of Applied Sciences, Department of Architecture (MSA | Münster School of Architecture), BOK + Gärtner GmbH (agency for communication design and scenography), the FabLab Münster of münsterLAND.digital e.V. and the Münsterland Art and Culture Foundation.
The project is funded and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (State Funding Programme Regional Cultural Policy), the LWL Cultural Foundation, the Commerzbank Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture based on a resolution of the German Bundestag (Federal Programme Rural Development).

The participating museums and exhibition houses can be viewed at www.apokalypse-muensterland.de/museen.