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10/11/2023 | Pressemitteilung

From wood and bone to bits and bytes

Research into colonial hunting trophies from the depot of the (ethnological) museum in Witzenhausen is entering the next phase. The results will soon be incorporated into a computer game.

Image: Maximilian Preuss.
Project employee Maximilian Preuss scans a caiman specimen. A three-dimensional digital object is created from the data.

As part of the digitization funding programme of the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art (HMWK), a cooperative and interdisciplinary project has been launched with the aim of 3D digitizing and indexing horns, snake skins and animal skull bones that are part of the hunting trophy collection of the German Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL) in Witzenhausen. The project, led by the Kassel University Library, builds on a previous project between the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Kassel and the DITSL: The horns, taxidermy and animal skull bones were inventoried in 2022 and also researched to some extent with regard to their local and hunting provenance.

The scans and in-depth scientific research, which will be continued by the former project participants, will also be incorporated into the development of a computer game for schoolchildren. This will be used in the Museum Witzenhausen in the Weltgarten - Center for Global Learning.

"This project, which is admittedly rather unusual for us, offers the opportunity to build up expertise in the creation and hosting of 3D digitized material, its presentation and delivery to the planned Hessian cultural heritage portal," say Claudia Martin-Konle, Head of the University Library, and Arvid Deppe, who is responsible for the project, describing their motivation. The historian Maximilian Preuss, the art historian Linda-Josephine Knop and the historian of science Marion Hulverscheidt are responsible for the content and scientific project work. Simon-Lennert Raesch - the brothers grimm UG - is responsible for the realization of the game. He had already successfully created a VR simulation of the first Documenta in 1955 with Knop.

Creating paths in a playful way and with new media in order to understand and learn from history - this is how the relics of colonial hunting can become an important starting point for dealing with a challenging topic.

 

Further information:

https://uni-kassel.de/go/hokbit
https://www.uni-kassel.de/fb05/fachgruppen-und-institute/geschichte/fachgebiete/neuere-und-neueste-geschichte/zff-projekt-was-bleibt-sind-holz-und-knochen
https://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/aktuelles/meldung/2022/03/01/Krokodile-im-Keller

 

Contact:

Claudia Martin-Konle
University Library, State Library and Murhard Library of the City of Kassel
Diagonale 10
34127 Kassel
E-mail: direktion[at]bibliothek.uni-kassel[dot]de