How the Wallraf Game inspires enthusiasm for medieval art
The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud in Cologne is focusing on innovative art education and has launched a digital game for the public aged 12 and over: The Wallraf Game – an adventure with analog and digital monsters, devils and saints
“Ricarda’s Secret” is over 600 years old, but thanks to state-of-the-art technology, all young people at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud can finally unravel it. This summer, the game of the same name was launched in the famous medieval collection of the Cologne museum: “Ricarda’s Secret” is an adventure with analog and digital monsters, devils and saints for all art fans and gamers aged 12 and over. Equipped with the museum’s own mini-console and headphones, players will travel through the Middle Ages and not only discover wonderful works of art such as the Lochner Madonna and Dürer’s “Piper and Drummer”, but also immerse themselves in Cologne life around 1400.
“With the Wallraf game ‘Ricarda’s Secret’, we can literally appeal directly to a young audience in a playful way and get them excited about our medieval art,” explains Dr. Marcus Dekiert, who has been director of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corbaud in Cologne since 2013. “In Ricarda, the gamers meet a character of their own age with whom they can immerse themselves in the medieval narrative world.” In the mixture of computer game and audio story, which the Wallraf conceived and realized together with author Ralph Erdenberger and digital agency Interlutions, the players help the young monastery student Ricarda to recover stolen relics. This is how the girl is freed from captivity. During this journey through time, twelve paintings are brought to life and the painted characters tell their own stories. They help gamers to decipher secret pictorial symbols and bring them closer to the distant world of the Middle Ages: What was life like in Cologne back then? Who were the city’s patron saints? Why were people so terrified of the devil? What power did saints have? And who waited for the dead in heaven? “Ricarda’s Secret” was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and Sparkasse KölnBonn as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR funding program.
For the conception and realization of the game and its audio stories, the Wallraf was able to win over the well-known author Ralph Erdenberger, who has many years of experience in the development and production of stories and radio plays about the visual arts. The games were programmed by the Cologne agency Interlutions, which took care of the layout, programming and system development. Prominent narrators such as Wilfried Schmickler breathe life into the characters in the game and bring the Middle Ages back to life.
More than 60 minutes of lively audio experience and ten different interactive game elements fascinate (not only) young people. References to their own reality, visual experiences and explanations of existing knowledge lead to a high density of knowledge transfer in a playful way in “Ricarda’s Secret”. The game introduces the young target group to the abstract world of saints, relics, heaven, hell, clergy and devils in an entertaining but also educational way. The creators have deliberately combined audio stories and computer games in order to engage young people in their own world. However, the museum deliberately focuses on the actual experience of the Wallraf in front of the paintings themselves.
The Wallraf Game and inclusion
The Wallraf Game is a free offer. Mini consoles and headphones are handed out in the museum foyer for a deposit. This means that users do not need their own smartphone to use the game, nor do they need to download or register. This is because the museum wants all young people to have access to this service. Last but not least, on-site use also supports the museum’s didactic intention that gamers should engage directly with the works of art. The game lasts between 60 and 90 minutes.
Tip: In 2016, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum opened the “In the Museum Laboratory” department, which has since given visitors an insight into the work of the conservators and thus behind the scenes of collection care (read more here). One of the paintings on display there is “On the banks of the Seine near Port Villez”, which was first identified as a forgery by the Wallraf’s art technicians. Visitors are given a clear explanation of what happens behind the doors of the “Department of Art Technology and Restoration”. You can find the video here.