Let’s make an image of the world
Models help us to understand the world. Using the virtual St.Gallen globe and the perspective of the great wandering spider, you will experience an unusual view of the world: from a great distance in time and space and from an unusual proximity. What do you learn from this?
Virtual St. Gallen Globe – How does a historical object become explorable?
The St. Gallen Globe is one of the most important cultural and historical objects in Switzerland. It was completed around 1576 and combines heaven and earth on the same spherical surface. The 2.3-meter original is now in the National Museum in Zurich, and a faithful replica is in the Abbey Library of St. Gallen.
The virtual online globe brings the history of globalization of the last 500 years closer to science and the public, thus continuing the original task of the original globe, which was to impart knowledge. It can be explored regardless of location and time: www.3dglobus.ch. At Scientifica, you can explore the old world of the St.Gallen globe on a virtual model using a touch screen. The project was made possible by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, the Stiftsbibliothek St.Gallen and the Landesmuseum Zürich and implemented by the research group Knowledge Visualization of the ZhdK.
With the senses of a spider – How does virtual reality teach us empathy?
The second project takes us from the big world model to the small world of the Tiger Bromeliad Spider, Cupiennius salei. It hunts insects at night and orients itself with the help of special sensory hairs that can detect air currents. In an immersive 360º virtual reality animation film, you can experience the spider’s world through its senses. Using art, design and contemporary technology, the project thus raises awareness of biodiversity and species conservation. What do you feel after the virtual experience of the world from the spider’s point of view? Do you feel more empathy for this animal than before?
Research project virtual Tiger Bromeliad Spider
Knowledge Visualization
As a simplified representation of complex realities, the model appears in numerous scientific disciplines. Knowledge Visualization is a discipline in the Department of Design at the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, which offers teaching and research in the field of visual knowledge communication. It specializes in scientific illustration, model representations and knowledge transfer in the field of immersive media.
