With the help of the “KLJ 3000” detection device, developed by students, visitors to the Duisburger Akzente festival can investigate the “Oscar Huber” for ghostly apparitions.
Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 1 March 2016: Work on this extensive multimedia project was carried out partly as part of courses at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, and partly with the support of student assistants and a great deal of personal commitment from the students. The 20-strong interdisciplinary project group, comprising students from the Bachelor’s programme in ‘Media and Communication Informatics’ and the Master’s programme in ‘Digital Media’, developed design concepts as well as software and hardware to make wondrous phenomena visible and audible. These phenomena can be experienced on the ‘Oscar Huber’ in Duisburg Ruhrort, a 100-year-old barge moored on the Vinckekanal that has been converted into a museum ship. It took a considerable amount of conceptual work, programming and device development, planning and hands-on effort to achieve this result. The result is certainly impressive: four of the retro-futuristic KLJ 3000 ship spirit detectors – developed specifically for the project – will be available for interested visitors to borrow and use during the Duisburger Akzente festival. For the truly brave, the developers have also made the KLJ 3000 software available on the Android Play Store – use at your own risk and without any guarantees! Visit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.You can download the app from hsrw.oscar_huber and go ghost-hunting on your own. A blog associated with the project, ‘Geistersquad’ (http://geistersquad.jimdo.com/), provides further background information.
“What was important to us was the highly interdisciplinary collaboration amongst the students and their engagement with new topics and challenges. This applies to technical development, the creation of creative and design concepts, as well as the acquisition of new practical experience. From start to finish, the students took responsibility for helping to develop and work out all the key aspects of the project themselves,” explained Ido Iurgel, who supervised the project alongside Wolfram Lakaszus.
The project results can be viewed daily from 3 pm to 7 pm up to and including 13 March at Am Leinpfad, 47119 Duisburg-Ruhrort. Admission is free. Visitors will then have the opportunity to track down the ship’s ghosts on the ‘Oscar Huber’ themselves with the help of the KLJ 3000.
