Creation of £75,000 Wargaming.net Interpretation Zone for Dornier 17 at RAF Museum’s West Midlands site.
In June the world witnessed the successful project to raise the only known German Dornier Do-17 bomber, from the waters of the Goodwin Sands, three miles off the coast of England.
From October 16th the general public will be able to experience a dynamic new exhibition at its Cosford site which will explore the background of this legendary aircraft and its recovery. The creation of the ‘Wargaming.net Interpretation Zone’ has been funded by Wargaming, an award winning global game publisher and developer.
The grant of £75,000 has allowed the Museum to work with redLoop: the Middlesex University Design and Innovation Centre, to develop new approaches to the display and interpretation of the Dornier as it is conserved. A number of interventions will tell the story of the Dornier, its recovery and conservation – in both the Museum’s physical and digital spaces.
At both sites the public will also be able to see an augmented reality Dornier flying above the Museum, showing the aircraft as it would have been seen in 1940. Visitors will be able to view this through their smart phones via a newly developed app. Additionally exhibits at both sites will display multi-media content – from footage of the Dornier in action in 1940, to film of the recovery operation and the chance to witness the Dornier in action in the Wargaming release World of Warplanes.
The Museum has also tied in with organisations across the globe including the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, The Air Force Museum of New Zealand Museum plus the Pima Air & Space Museum/Arizona Aerospace Foundation to celebrate the launch of the exhibition. Visitors to those Museums will also be able to see the augmented reality Dorniers through their smart phones, hovering in situ.
The exhibition will allow the Museum to develop new education offers focussing on the STEM subjects as well as creating a space where community groups and adult education partners can take part in the Dornier experience. A new dedicated website will also be launched which will the story of the Dornier and its recovery and conservation. The website will showcase the social history behind the Dornier, the forensic science behind its discovery and recovery, archive footage from the Museum as well as user generated content. The website will develop with the Dornier project and function as an innovative hyper textual documentary for the project.
Victor Kislyi Wargaming CEO: “Wargaming is passionate about military history,” said Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming. “When we heard about the effort to recover the Dornier 17, we jumped in to help conserve and exhibit the plane. The new ‘Wargaming.net Dornier 17 Interpretation Zone’ at the RAF Museum opens up new vistas for the display and understanding of military history. Visitors of all ages will be able to interact with history in a way that has not been done before. Through augmented reality and multi-media experiences, the exhibition brings the past alive to tell the story of the Dornier 17, the pilots of 264 Squadron who shot it down, and epic struggle of the Battle of Britain. We are honored to be a part of this ground-breaking exhibition.”
Royal Air Force Museum Director General, Peter Dye: “I am delighted that Wargaming are supporting Museum’s Dornier project by funding the Interpretation Zone. This is innovative project and the support of Wargaming will allow us to tell the story of the aircrafts’ recovery and conservation in an innovative way. Augmented reality, mobile applications and the use user generate content are new developments for the Museum and we are very excited about exploring their possibilities.”
redLoop Director, Dr. Andy Bardill: “Working in partnership with the RAF Museum we have developed a ‘bleeding edge’ approach to interpretation in museum spaces, blending physical and digital experiences throughout the exhibition scheme. This innovative approach will provide new visitor and educational experiences and enable the museum to engage with their audiences both on their museum sites and across the world.”
About Wargaming
Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher and one of the leaders in the free-to-play MMO market. Founded as a privately held company in 1998, Wargaming has shipped more than 15 titles. Currently, Wargaming is focused on its team-based MMO war series dedicated to the mid-20th century warfare that will include the armored World of Tanks, the flight combat World of Warplanes, and the naval World of Warships. The three intertwined titles will form a common gaming universe integrated within the portal www.wargaming.net
Official website: www.wargaming.com
About redLoop
redLoop is a research-led, innovation and design collaboration centre based within the School of Science and Technology at Middlesex University London.
redLoop brings together research expertise, social and ethical philosophies and commercial experience from across the University and its collaborative networks. This enables us to develop innovative interdisciplinary work areas across a broad range of applied research and commercial scenarios in the product, service, interaction, user-experience and technology sectors.
We have recently completed, and are actively working, on a number of projects that bring together physical objects and spaces, digital systems and applications, and media content to deliver new user experiences and value exchanges between institutions, corporate clients, artists and end-users [visitors, customers, audiences, etc]
Official website: www.redloopdesign.co.uk
www.rafmuseum.org