2021 Zielona Góra
Regional Museum (Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej) in Zielona Góra tells a story of a region covering Nysa Łużycka, Obra, areas around rivers Warta and Odra. Through exhibitions and educational activities the museum aims to share the knowledge of the culture, history, traditions and historical landmarks of the lubuskie voivoideship.
New exhibition called „The heritage and the modern day. Zielona Góra – lubuski region” is located in the newly added extension of the museum. Designing this exhibition (and its audiovisual installation) began when the building work was well under way. This presented a certain challenge as there was no option of making any changes to the building project design. A+V issued inter-disciplinary guidelines for other involved industries (for example electric power grid and utilities), which resulted in maximizing the exhibition space and enabled the vision of the architect and historian to come true in the museum space.
The priorities of the exhibition was to use simple means of communication, minimalistic blocks and carefully selected exhibits. We designed appropriate multimedia solutions enabling easier communication of historical content to complete the exhibition.
City and the region from X until XVIII century
The central point of the first part of the exhibition is a mobile multimedia model, controlled from a 22” touch panel, through a dedicated exhibit management application. It is possible to choose a particular subject on the display screen, for example Ziemia Lubuska or Zielona Góra in medieval times. Once the subject is selected, a presentation starts. Thanks to mobile elements, the model changes its layout depending on the selected subject. It is a unique solution in the Polish, but also European museum market. A set of three projectors is used for displaying image in the space, utilising blocks as projection surfaces (mapping). Audio narration is complementing the presentation.
In addition, there is an option to select a film from the touch panel. The chosen movie is projected on the screen installed behind the model.
There are also glass cabinets in this first part of the exhibition, including authentic exhibits, large-format print of the glogowski principality, lords’ portraits and a manual weaving loom.
City and region – XIX and early XX century
The next part of the exhibition presents the most important industries in the life of the city and the region: cloth making and winemaking.
Clothmaking area includes a large format print on the wall, presenting the interior of a cloth factory. The printed image is complemented by a multimedia station with a 65” touch screen and a mobile application, which shows a development of the industry in the region.
Winemaking section of the exhibition includes a large format print showing an interior of a winery. There are glass cabinets and a multimedia station incorporated in the wall. The station shows an application (on a 65” touch screen) which tells the visitors about the migration of the citizens of Zielona Góra area to Australia.
Apart from a glass cabinet with relevant exhibits in the space, we will also find a 40” display screen showing an authentic film about Zielona Góra before the 2nd World War. A selection of museum exhibits and iconography are shown on the multimedia station with a 22” display screen.
Crucial year 1945
This part of the exhibition is dedicated to post-war settlement in lubuskie area. The exposition includes documentation, photographs, souvenirs, articles of everyday use and recordings of citizens’ memories. There are 7 multimedia stations in the space, each consisting of a 22” touch screen and two sets of headphones – presenting statements from witnesses of the 1945 events.
In addition, Year 1945 zone also includes multimedia stations:
• „From far away” – animation of the arriving citizens routes shown on a 65”display screen;
• „Life from scratch” – projection of movie materials (chronicles, iconography etc.);
• „Community, church, education” – documents, photographs, texts presented in an application on a 22” display screen.
In this area of the museum there are two stations for children educational journey, which are described later in this article.
City and the region after 1945 + a road to Europe
The main element of this section of the exhibition is a film shown on the main wall – image comes through a projector and sound is distributed by a set of wall speakers. The film talks about events that took place in this region after 1945 – focusing especially on the development of the city of Zielona Góra as a cultural and educational center of the region. The recording is based on authentic video materials and photographs. In addition, there are authentic street name signs and signboards placed on both sides of the screen. There are large format photograph prints placed on other walls in the space.
Everyday life axis
This section is located in a corridor leading from the exhibition to the museum exit. There is a timeline made of items of everyday use – showing a story about changes in technology and mechanics of common objects, i.e. coffee burning device, wood coal iron, lamps etc. There are presence sensors installed next to the exhibits, along with a set of 6 speakers – when a visitor approaches a particular exhibit, they will hear sounds related to that object, i.e. machine typing, setting the table with porcelain etc.
Multifunctional room
A multifunctional room is complementing the exhibition part of the museum. It has been designed to accommodate meetings, conferences or small artistic forms. The room has been equipped with a slick audio-visual system including: a professional Christie projector with 10 000 lumen brightness and a sound system consisting of ElectroVoice speakers, Sennheiser microphones, Extron DSP processor and sound players. A stage lighting system with a control panel has also been installed in this room. The room is fully automated to offer simple operation without specialist technical knowledge.
Regional Museum (Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej) project is a brilliant example showing how important the project design stage is, when representatives of various industries are involved from the early stages. Early involvement of the exposition executors (including an AV integrator) in the work related to electrical and tele-technical installations will reduce the number of necessary coordination agreements on each of the next stages of the project.
The role that technology is playing in modern museums is huge. This fact requires understanding that multimedia systems are connected to many installations of various disciplines. Thanks to our experience, engagement and full dedication to this project, the final result has been achieved – satisfied objectives of the Investor and positive feedback from the visitors. The Regional Museum (Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej) is a new „must-see” point on the map of Zielona Góra and lubuskie voivodeship. Check it out yourself!