Information
After six years of innovative and experimental project work, Page21 is celebrated - a milestone for digital art and culture in the Ruhr region.
Can analog works of art be retold digitally? The storyLab kiU at Fachhochschule Dortmund in the Dortmunder U, cooperates with the Dortmund Museum of Art and Cultural History and the Museum Ostwall in the Dortmunder U to prove just that. The result of the experimental research project: Page21. Initiated by storyLab kiU and funded by the "Neue Künste Ruhr" program of the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and the City of Dortmund, research has been conducted since 2020 into how immersive technologies can create narrative tools for contemporary art and museums.
In contrast to traditional digital archives, Page21 does not simply want to photograph or scan works of art. The aim is to build new narrative worlds (narratives) around the objects. Visitors should literally "immerse" themselves in works of art. One idea: the immersive space. Four meters wide, four meters long and four meters high. Equipped with projectors, 36 loudspeakers, body shakers and tracking systems. Thanks to a tracking system, the projection adapts its perspective to the visitors' movements and viewing directions and shows a three-dimensional narrative world similar to VR glasses. So far unique in NRW. It opens up a multi-layered world of sound and images and offers new socio-political perspectives on various works from the art collections of North Rhine-Westphalia.
At the end of the project, Harald Opel and his team will present a review of the results of six years of research, a presentation of selected immersive worlds and a joint discussion on possible paths for art in digital space. All from 6 p.m. on March 12, 2026 at Dortmunder U. Admission is free.