A Trip to Lucerne

Chapel Bridge, Lucerne
Image Source: flickr (raveneyes_48)

On the weekend of September 25 and 26, 2009, students and instructors from the TEC-CH programme went to the city of Luzern, located in Central Switzerland. Famous for its beautiful Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), the city was also vibrant with culture and made an exciting destination for our annual field trip, under the course titled Interactive Communications for Museums, this year co-taught by Peter Samis (SFMoMA), Shelley Mannion (British Museum), Kris Wetterlund and Scott Sayre (Sandbox Studios).

In addition to the delights of travel, the trip to Luzern was also an immersive learning experience for students, and perhaps for instructors as well. Our itinerary included visits to the Museum of Art Lucerne (Kunstmuseum Luzern), the Swiss Transport Museum and the Hans Erni Museum, with an optional visit to the Bourbaki Panorama. With such an eclectic mix of museum types, students had the opportunity to experience various styles of interpretation, to observe visitor behavior in diverse settings, and to imagine different ways that interactivity can enhance each museum experience.

Kunstmuseum Luzern

Our first stop was the Museum of Art Lucerne. Housed on the fourth floor of the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL), the building itself was a masterpiece by architect Jean Nouvel. There were three exhibitions on display during our visit: A Hans Erni retrospective, Silence, and Nox Borealis.

In order to experience the difference between an unguided visit and a guided tour, students entered the exhibitions one-hour before their scheduled appointment with docents. During the hour, students were free to roam the museum and were asked to record their experiences at a mobile phone prompt that vibrated every 10 to 15 minutes. The exercise stemmed from a constructivist approach to learning, giving students time to consciously reflect on their experience while unconsciously learning as they were immersed in the museum environment.
Once the docents arrived, we began a guided tour of all three exhibitions. The difference in experience became evident almost immediately, with our very helpful guides pointing out connections between various artworks and telling us stories behind paintings.

Bourbaki Panorama

The next day we took a detour from our planned itinerary to visit the Bourbaki Panorama Luzern. As Peter Samis commented, essentially it was the equivalent to multimedia in the 19th century. Commissioned by entrepreneur Benjamin Henneberg and created by a team of painters led by Geneva artist Edouard Castres in 1881, the panorama depicted the internment of the Bourbaki Army in Switzerland. As a circular painting set up in a rotunda, the panorama used optical tricks and technical innovations of its time to give visitors the illusion of being at the center of the event. To heighten a sense of immersion, the painting also extends into a faux-terrain where visitors can see a realistic set with figures and props, such as a group of soldiers gathering around a fire, or guns on the snow-covered ground as soldiers lined up at the internment. In addition to the fascinating sight of a panorama, there was also a museum located underneath. With dioramas, videos and a lot of wall text, the museum supplemented the panorama with historical contexts and facts of the Franco-Prussian War, the Bourbaki Army, and the Panorama in Lucerne.

Swiss Transport Museum

After our visit to the Bourbaki Panorama, we went to the Swiss Museum of Transport, a completely different museum environment compared to the rest of our trip. The Swiss Museum of Transport celebrates the technological achievements in all modes of transportation and communications. It is a venue dedicated to families, especially those with young children, with many interactive features designed to entertain and educate young audiences.

One particularly engaging example of the exhibitions at the Swiss Museum of Transport was the Auto Theatre, featuring various ground vehicles displayed on a multilevel parking garage. Visitors in the theatre can vote for the vehicle of their choice, from the car, motorcycle, to even a baby carriage, and then they can watch the winning result being retrieved from the garage, followed by a brief presentation about the historical contexts of the vehicle. The sheer scale and the mechanism were magnificent sights to watch, and the competitive element in the votes really captured visitors to stay and follow through the narratives of the theatre.

Auto-Theatre at the Swiss Museum of Transport

Image Source: flickr (Peter Samis @ ICM2009)

Hans Erni Museum

Our final stop, the Hans Erni Museum, was at the same site as the Swiss Museum of Transport. It was dedicated to one of the most popular Swiss artists of its time, Hans Erni, whose work included a wide range of styles and themes.

During our visit at the Hans Erni Museum, Kris Wetterlund led a VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) session with the group, where we simply looked at a painting and spent time to think about what we have seen: symbolisms, who were the people depicted and what they were doing, and many other studies into the painting’s details. The session sparked much curiosity about the painting amongst students, and many also pointed out that VTS would be effective in creating an interest in interpreting artworks and historical artifacts. While the results of a VTS session may or may not be accurate, it has definitely created a lingering sense of curiosity that leads participants to find out more.

More Information About the Trip and ICM2009

All of our photos from the field trip can be found at flickr, under group name ICM2009. We also had Twitter presence during lectures, hash-tagged #ICM2009. Further, our final student presentations were live-blogged and the complete transcripts are available here.