Save the Gamebooks

Project description

The Berlin State Library has systematically built up an internationally renowned collection of pop-ups, paper stages and other gamebooks dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Their characteristic moveable elements invite to play and interact with these books. Said collection constitutes the basis for a concept study – funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the project acronym BeWeB-3D and targeted to archives, libraries and museums – on how to digitize and visualize moveable books and dynamic book objects in 3D. Due to the recent material turn in the Humanities this has become a major task for cultural heritage institutions in general. The BeWeB-3D project was carried out in cooperation with the Berlin-based Center for Digital Cultural Heritage in Museums (ZEDIKUM).

On the basis of the data generated in this context museum4punkt0 – a national joint project led by Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz – has developed a browser game for children to show the connection between historical moveable books and modern video games.