Cultural heritage in a hologram

Pupils build hologram box in class and exhibit museum objects in the Bad Freienwald tourist information office

Holograms can be very helpful. For example, the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker would never have found his way to the weak point of the Death Star without this floating, three-dimensional representation. Tony Stark would not have been able to build his superhero armor and many a complicated attack plan would never have been implemented. However, holograms are not as common in reality as we know them from science fiction films. Nevertheless, pupils at the Erna and Kurt Kretschmann secondary school created something similar: two wooden boxes in which a book and a cap, as if made of light, float freely in the air. One of these "holoboxes" will soon be on display in the tourist information office in Bad Freienwalde, where it will be used to promote the rich history of our region.

These boxes, which were created in WAT lessons, are an invention from our company and have been on display here since 2022. Museum employee Alex Schirmer came up with the idea while working on the Digitization project "100 objects Oderbruch"We photographed objects in small local history rooms and village museums that vividly tell the story of the quarry. The main task was to put these objects into a Database to be inserted. But we also wanted to display the digital content such as photos, videos and descriptions - without having to hang up another monitor. That's how the idea of the hologram illusion came about." Through the clever use of a monitor and a semi-transparent mirror, the aha effect can not only be produced easily, but also inexpensively for around €200 (and less).
As a result, the Holobox itself became the focus of subsequent projects. In order to give many small museum institutions the opportunity to exhibit digital content, a Free building instructions as a video and step-by-step instructions in pdf format. And tested with the pupils in class.

Once the boxes had been built, however, it was essential to find objects that could be exhibited in this way. Ben Schubert, head of the Fontane Househelped out. During an excursion to Schiffmühle, the young people not only learned something about the great poet, but also created the content for their boxes using researched facts and their own smartphones.

The Holoboxes will not be on display again at the Oderbruch Museum until the season opens in March 2024.