Total Real. The discovery of visualisation

Models, experiments, manual skills and useful knowledge: These were the basic ingredients with which the educationalists and theologians August Hermann Francke and Christoph Semler founded pioneering schools in Halle around 1700, in which not only the intellect but also the senses of the children were comprehensively addressed. Visualisation became the linchpin here, so to speak, in order to make the growing natural history and technical knowledge of the time "comprehensible" in the truest sense of the word by means of real things. A ground-breaking idea that gave rise to a completely new type of school: the Realschule. The exhibition is dedicated to this early modern "STEM* initiative" and also looks at our present day from a historical perspective: what is visualisation, how does it come about and is it perhaps more important today than ever? Can nature and technology - in the face of increasingly complex knowledge, encapsulated smart devices and new virtual worlds - still be conveyed vividly at all?