Decades following the demolition of the Berlin wall in 1989, Berlin’s DDR museum is planning to offer an exclusive augmented reality experience of the historic event to the people. The AR experience is known as ‘Tear Down This Wall’ and it is likely to take the viewers through the historic event.
The AR experience is designed in association with Virtue, a renowned creative agency, and its aim lies in educating the youth about the injustice that the older generation had to pass through. Klaus Schroeder, Freie Universitat has admitted that a significant percentage of the German population had grown up after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and they had no idea about the sufferings of the people at that time.
A real-life experience
As per the source, the DDR museum and Virtue had worked on the project for more than 300 hours in the past 14 months, and it helped to gather relevant information including historically accurate AR reconstruction of the same.
Users can interact with huge AR objects and experience the real-life scale of parts of the wall. Executive Creative Director of Virtue, Morten Grubak said that the AR experience features a key tool, a pickaxe that was used by the people for demolishing the wall, and Minecraft Earth will take viewers through the entire journey.
Tear down the wall yourself
Users are required to download the Minecraft Earth app to live the AR experience, and individuals from any part can experience the historical event with ‘Tear Down This Wall’. The DDR Museum’s Director, Gordon Freiherr von Godin said that this would be the first time people from all over the planet can participate in tearing down the wall, and they can enjoy a 1:1 full-scale model in real life, which makes it an exclusive thing.
Viewers can even invite others to explore the wall, or they can take a pickaxe and demolish the wall as Berliners did 30 years back. The director added that the AR experience would turn the viewer into a participant, and it will make a distinction to the younger generation.
Connceting the real and the virtual world
The Executive Creative Director said that Augmented Reality would create a ‘phygital’ hybrid experience by connecting the real world to a virtual world, and it will be a powerful experience for the viewers.
He also added that the AR experience would provide a hint of what lives used to look like before the demolition of the wall, and students will get an idea. Grubak said that he is proud to be a part of the initiative, and they have transformed the traditional history into a unique experience.
Teaching course
‘Tear Down This Wall’ is a part of the latest teaching course that can be accessed by people all over the world, and teachers can use it in the classrooms. The course comes with group exercises, curriculum, and discussion guidelines for students of VI to IX grade.
The makers are expecting to grab the attention of the younger generation with Augmented Reality and interactive materials, and they are planning to take the gaming experience to a new height by expanding it to a fully-fledged teaching module.
