Contemporary environmental education
The history and future of the forest are the focus of the new Wald:Welten exhibition at the Silvanum Forestry Museum.
On behalf of the Styrian Eisenwurzen Nature and Geopark, we provided the concept and implementation for five interactive touchscreen stations. We also developed an AR app with additional interactive stations for smartphones and rental devices.
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Talking bark beetles and digital tree felling work
Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of the forest! Learn exciting facts about the Styrian Eisenwurzen region, climate change or experience how the bark beetle challenges our forests. The interactive AR experiences and touchscreen content enhance the exhibition with impressive digital elements that deepen knowledge in an educational way and invite visitors to join in.
Highlights: Visitors can virtually fell a tree themselves and experience the timber industry from a subjective perspective. Elsewhere, bark beetle “Ipsi” explains interrelationships in the forest ecosystem in an entertaining TikTok style.
Touch installations and gamification introduce children and young people to the world of non-representational art. Six stations invite young visitors to get creative themselves and immerse themselves interactively in the design of abstract visual worlds. Here is an overview of the individual stations.
Game “Gesture”
Visitors can create color spots by touching the touchscreen. Full body use: The screen not only reacts to the index finger – it can also be painted with knees and elbows. The intensity of the color stain is directly proportional to the duration of the touch. Based on the color world of an original painting from the exhibition, a new work of art is created.
Game “Dance”
At this station, your own body becomes a paintbrush. Up to 4 visitors can create a picture simultaneously by means of dance and body movement. A motion-tracking camera is used to capture the body movement and translate it into an image.
Spiel „Geste“
Mittels Berührung am Touchscreen können Besucher*innen Farbflecken erzeugen. Voller Körpereinsatz: Der Screen reagiert nicht nur auf den Zeigefinger – es kann auch mit Knien und Ellbogen gemalt werden. Die Intensität des Farbflecks steht im direkten Verhältnis zur Dauer der Berührung. Basierend auf der Farbwelt eines originalen Gemäldes aus der Ausstellung entseht so ein neues Kunstwerk.
Game “Painter”
At this station, a portrait photo taken in the exhibition space can be transferred into different painting styles of the exhibition. The range of different painting styles of abstract art thus becomes visible by means of a selfie.
Game “Throwing colors”
This team game refers to the action paintings of the artist Shōzō Shimamoto, which can also be seen at the Museum Reinhard Ernst. Visitors create abstract art by digitally throwing bags of paint onto a canvas, just like the artist.
Game “See colors”
The color theory of Josef Albers can be experienced by young visitors at this station. The goal is to digitally mix colors and get as close as possible to the color code of an original painting from the exhibition.
A new museum for abstract art
Making art tangible for everyone is the mediating approach of museum founder Reinhard Ernst and his wife Sonja. After around eight years of planning and construction, their new, architecturally impressive museum opened its doors to the public in summer 2024. One of the two art lovers’ main concerns is to promote children’s creativity, as Ernst repeatedly emphasises in interviews. He therefore sees the colour laboratory as the ‘heart of the new museum’. We are proud that we were able to make a major contribution to the success of this heartfelt project with the conception and realisation of the colour laboratory.
