Ghostbox
Giving a voice to the ghosts of the past
Summer Semester 2024
Bachelor Semester 4
Designed with:
Vanessa Pelger, Anne Voigt and Karl Herrmann
Tools:
Fusion 360, Arduino
The Project „An’s Werk!“
As students at HTW Dresden, we worked on the ‘An's Werk!’ project to critically re-examine the past. In the course ‘Interventions. Museums as active places of democracy’, we developed interactive prototypes that enable new perspectives on the objects in the Parade Apartments of August The Strong in the Residenzschloss in Dresden. Our aim was to use art and design to encourage people to reflect on the past and the future. We were supervised by Prof Diana Simon and Franz F. Richter.
The GhostBox is an interactive installation that invites people to engage with the stories of the grand clock in the Parade Apartments. In the form of a multi-sensory, rectangular pillar, the GhostBox stands approximately three metres in front of the clock and stands out from the opulent rooms with its white, geometric body.
On the top of the pillar, four different figures made of transparent plastic are positioned in the corners, embodying the ghosts of the past: the merchant, the clockmaker and Mother Nature tell of times gone by. The activist establishes a link to the present.
Interaction with the GhostBox is simple and intuitively accessible thanks to the design. A gently pulsating light encourages users to move a figure onto the small pedestal in the centre of the pillar. As soon as a figure is placed in the centre, the ghosts of the clock come to life: the selected figure lights up and a story sounds from a hidden speaker behind the clock. This activates the playful discovery of further stories.
This concept was awarded a prize by the Dresden State Art Collection (SKD) and will be part of the exhibition in the Residenzschloss in future.
© 2024 | HTWD FAKULTÄT DESIGN, FOTO: KARLA SCHROEDER
