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In
the framework of "Unternehmen Capricorn" project we developed
a knowledge space ["Virtueller Wissensraum"] in collaboration
with 10 Austrian museums. The programme, built with EPIC Megagames' UNREAL
Game Engine enables 3 users to enter a cross-disciplinary environment
based upon objects from the Technical Museum, Jewish Museum, Museum of
Natural History, Museum of Modern Art amongst others. The content provided
by these museums had to be made accessible and comprehensible to users
of different age, educational background and computer literacy. fuchs-eckermann
developed a system of connotations amongst the objects, which then was
translated into a spatial structure of rooms, corridors and places of
different size, shape, remoteness or proximity. The viewer/ listener of
their knowledge space explores a semantic structure by navigating virtual
spaces with the topics being contained in these rooms. The connecting
architecture between these rooms resembles staircases, passages, elevators,
hidden doors or portals according to the nature of the connotation. Quite
contrary to web-based databases and hypertext structures, the links therefore
possess a quality of their own, carrying much more information than just
"is connected with".
fuchs-eckermann: 'We are looking for something which Friedrich Nietzsche
labelled "Gay Science", ["Fröhliche Wissenschaft"]
a mode of experiencing knowledge in a joyful as well as thoughtful manner.
Nietzsche thought that you can only come across important insights if
you discover them when "dancing". And that’s precisely
what the users of our computer game have to do. They have to move in order
to find out facts, they have to dive and swim to get deep into certain
areas of knowledge and they have to dance around to discover unexpected
aspects of a topic.'
Following this methodology, the user of the virtual museum has to jump
into a water zone in order to hear about the extinction of an ancient
fish once populating the Danube River. The user has to operate triggers
and barriers to learn about the dangers of machinery provided by the Technical
Museum. Or he/she has to walk to down a spiral staircase to reach the
hall of Sigmund Freud’s subconsciousness ["Die Traumdeutung"]
The game was set up in a building at Karmelitermarkt in Vienna's 2nd district
from 2nd May until 30th June 2001.
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