year: 1999

Display Case

Prototype for an interactive reading device for hieroglyphs, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1999

The items in a planned exhibition on the ancient history of writing had one common characteristic: they could not be read by the average visitor. He is able to contemplate the graphic or artistic qualities of the inscriptions on display, but their content and meaning remained unknowable.
The display case makes the translation of each hieroglyph tablet "visible." A special glass covering allows the text of the translation to be projected as if it were resting on the tablet itself.

Programming: Daniel Schmidt
Light design: Nathan Thompson
Hardware: Wolfgang Schemmert