The King's Kunstkammer: Presenting Systems of Knowledge on the Web
Tine Wanning, Denmark
Bente Gundestrup, The National Museum of Denmark, Denmark
http://www.kunstkammer.dk

Session: Virtual / Physical

The King's Kunstkammer is an interactive on-line exhibition that aims to create a virtual reunification of a now-dissolved Renaissance collection and to demonstrate the principle of collecting and classification. The on-line exhibition is based on the original Danish Royal Kunstkammer which was established around 1650 by King Frederik III as one of several European collections, arranged and organised according to the Renaissance ideas of a cross disciplinary profusion. In 1825, the 10,000 objects were dispersed to the newly established specialised museums of art, history and natural sciences. In The King's Kunstkammer, about 250 of these objects are reunited and "placed" in the original 9 chambers which reflect the order of classification in the Kunstkammer. In the interactive part the user can create a personal exhibition from the objects in The King's Kunstkammer. In a virtual museum the user can pick up objects in storage and place them in the showcases in the exhibition rooms. In storage the objects are partly organised in boxes in an untraditional way, e.g. shiny things, round things. And in a true virtual museum, one object can of course be found in more than one box! The finished exhibition is saved at the Web site for 30 days, a catalogue can be printed out, and other guests are invited to see already existing exhibitions. A visitors' book serves as a communication device between exhibitors and for general comments. Finally, The King's Kunstkammer has a comprehensive hypertext presentation of the story of and the ideas behind Renaissance collections.