Media stations for the museum 

The monastery museum of Ottobeuren Benedictine Abbey was founded in 1881 and is thus the second-oldest museum in the Allgäu region. Over the past few years, it has been completely renovated and redesigned. The new permanent exhibition focuses on both the history of the abbey and the lives of the monks, past and present. In the monastery’s impressive rooms, visitors can discover interactive media exhibits and marvel at the abbey’s religious, cultural and art-historical treasures.

As part of the redesign, we have been commissioned to produce content for a wide variety of multimedia exhibits. As the monastery museum operates under the motto ‘A museum for everyone’, all aspects of inclusion must be taken into account during the production of video and audio content.

The media exhibits are designed to bring the history of the Benedictine Order to life through different senses and offer visitors an insight into monastic life. Our aim is to convey the monks’ lives as accessibly and authentically as possible.

In the first room of the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a three-dimensional audio installation. To this end, we are collaborating with the Stuttgart-based DJ Niklas Ibach, who is composing a piece combining various chorales and electronic music.

For the video stations, we are writing the script, directing and filming on location with the monks. We are also handling sound, editing, German and English subtitles, and sign language. At one video station, for example, visitors learn about the monks’ diverse areas of work, such as beekeeping, cooking or gardening. At another video station, the monks answer various questions: Do you ever have doubts? Have you ever been in love? How did your family react to your decision to enter the monastery? 

For the audio stations, we edit the speakers’ texts and add a narrator. This creates varied audio tracks with the character of a radio play. At one audio station, visitors are invited to symbolically sit down at the table with the monks and learn about the sequence of the communal meal. 

A special media exhibit is the Regula Benedicti, the Rule of the Benedictine monks. Using analogue flip cards, key thematic areas from the Regula are contextualised and made accessible in the form of text and moving images on the monitor below. We are responsible for the layout, construction and production of the flip cards, as well as the screen design and animation for the monitor.