Project: Developing information units on the social history of working and living on the moors of northwestern Germany
Objective: Using audio stations, touch screens, etc. to bring to life the life-size plaster figures on permanent display at Emsland Moormuseum to illustrate typical working activities.
Scientific support: Lena Lewald , Tel.: +49 (0)5937 70999125
In individual departments of the permanent exhibition, Emsland Moormuseum shows how the landscape in northwestern Germany developed from the original wild peat moorlands into today’s cultivated landscape. The developmental stages of each period, such as the early colonization of the moorlands and particular cultivation methods, are shown and explained using photographs, maps and objects. To date, the exhibition units have lacked specific biographical examples of the living conditions of the settlers, peat workers, foremen and farmers, etc., although plaster figures that illustrate this are largely complete and on display in the separate parts of the exhibition. To remedy this deficit, Emsland Moormuseum has spent several years conducting interviews with witnesses and collecting memories that have been passed down, personal mementos, etc. This project aims to distil these memories and breathe life into the plaster figures by giving them a realistic background. In concrete terms, various forms of addressing visitors will be provided, with corresponding content. This could mean, for instance, a person telling a story in the first person over a loudspeaker, a touch screen inviting visitors to delve into a person’s life testimonies, or a conversation in the form of a dialogue.