After six years of digital research and virtual experiments, the Dortmunder U and storyLab kiU celebrated the conclusion of the Page 21 project. The speakers explained what the project is about and visitors experienced it.
In the "Page 21" project, Harald Opel and his storyLab kiU team explored how immersive technologies can be used as narrative and mediating tools for contemporary art and museums in a sustainable way. This sentence could be read and heard in one form or another at the ceremony on March 12 at Dortmunder U. A sentence for the advanced.
Immersive means that you can immerse yourself in it, feel part of the action, for example with 3D representations and VR glasses. Narrative means telling a story. Conveying means making understandable. Sustainable means lasting and with acceptable effort.
Page 21 is an attempt
So for newcomers, the sentence could read: The "Page 21" project explores how computers and projectors can be used to display images and objects from museums in such a way that you can immerse yourself in them and perceive yourself as part of the artwork. It is an attempt to find a new format for old art. A form that fits this time and the future.
That is much more difficult than it sounds. But it is urgently needed. After all, the current world of social media, VR and AI is a far cry from hand-painted pictures, modeled objects and stories in books. Going to a museum, engaging with an oil painting, a sculpture or even a book, requires us to turn away from our usual perception. This may be relaxing for the experienced, but the gap between the less experienced majority of people and art is growing.
So Page 21 is not a turning away from old art, on the contrary, it is an expression of the conviction that these works are still valuable to us. It is an attempt to save them, to guide them over into our world, to make them understandable again here and now.
Page 21 is a room that is larger on the inside than on the outside
The result is the immersive room: an area measuring around four by four meters, surrounded by three walls and projected onto by several projectors. Using sensors, the projectors react to the movements of the person on the surface.
For example, they can appear to walk through the projected environment and trigger changes, such as opening buildings and looking inside or advancing the story. The work of art, which can only be viewed, becomes a story that can be acted out.
Page 21 is a new world
In the foyer of the Dortmunder U, the participants reported on how they experienced the six years of research and explained their understanding of this major experiment. "We started out with a lot of question marks," said Regina Selter, Director of the Dortmunder U. "It was a new world for us."
This pioneering work was worthwhile: "It will continue to have an impact after the funding ends." Mayor Ute Mais emphasized that these "completely new forms of storytelling" are not about replacing museums. "On the contrary, it is a supplement."
Page 21 is a lexicon
Harald Opel, director of kiU and the Page 21 project, compared Page 21 to a palimpsest. This is a piece of paper whose original text has been scraped off in order to be rewritten. This was a common cost-saving measure in the Middle Ages when dealing with what was then an expensive material. Many medieval texts contain traces of older, completely different thoughts (which can be made visible using modern technology).
"Even works of art are not fixed, self-contained things," said Harald Opel. In immersive space, "familiar works can suddenly tell us something new in the context of our present, our social issues. Because we have changed." T.S. Eliot wrote that "at the end of all our searching, we may arrive back at the starting point - and then really recognize the place for the first time."
Page 21 is finished
The funding for this cooperation with the Museum Ostwall and the Museum of Art and Cultural History totaling 1.5 million from the Ministry of Culture and Science has now come to a regular end. "This was a really large sum for the new arts," said Nicola Hülskamp from the Ministry of Culture and Science, and thanked Harald Opel: "You have persevered and driven this wonderful project forward. You have made it."
During the project, the storyLab kiU team was expanded by four positions, which only worked on Page 21. Their involvement will end with the project on March 31, 2026.
Page 21 is not over
"The page," said Harald Opel, referring to the side of the immersive space that is constantly being rewritten, "remains open. It grows with every new perspective, with every new connection between art and the present."
The immersive space can now be visited, played with and rewritten in the foyer during the entire opening hours of the Dortmunder U. Ten narrative worlds are available. Admission is free.