herne
Finding archaeological treasures in a dystopian world – this is possible thanks to the LWL game app “Jo’s Memory”. What is it about.
Life in the near future is comfortable: almost everything is delivered by autonomous drones. No need to leave home. So neither do most people. Only Jo is different. Jo loves riding her bike through the foggy city because there is a feeling that there is something important to discover. But the mist leaves a strange feeling in her head. When strange energy anomalies occur throughout the city and the distribution system crashes, the world seems frozen. Now it’s up to Jo to figure out how to fix the system. As she explores the city, Jo discovers that nothing is what it seems.
Herne: How to become a “half archaeologist” with the game app “Jo’s Memory”
Behind Jo’s world is the new game app “Jo’s Memory” for smartphones. In the dystopian world, the user rides a bike through the city streets as Jo and has to find archaeological objects hidden in packages. Players explore the objects intuitively and thus fill their memory with knowledge about the finds. The special thing about it: The finds are real archaeological objects that are exhibited in the Roman and Archaeological Museum of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association (LWL) and in the German Mining Museum in Bochum.
The app was presented on Thursday, September 1 at the LWL Archaeological Museum in Herne with a big-screen demo and a real bike tour. The game app is a joint development of the three museums in Herne, Haltern and Bochum.
“For many people, archeology is a kind of black box,” says Barbara Rüschoff-Parzinger, head of the LWL Department of Culture, presenting the app. That is why LWL wants to make the field of archeology particularly interesting for young adults and make it easily accessible.
“It was important for us to reach our target groups by involving them in the development of the app from the very beginning,” explains museum director Doreen Mölders. So about 100 people from all over Germany participated in the development of the gaming app as a citizens’ council. “We learned a lot working with the Advisory Council because users grew up with digital media,” says Mölders. Therefore, LWL also wants to work with citizens on future projects.
As a member of the citizens’ advisory council, Kiana Mellinghaus (24), who studies environmental toxicology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, participated in the implementation of “Jo’s Memory”. “I like going to the museum, but I can understand anyone who doesn’t like it,” says the 24-year-old from Bochum. “That’s why I loved the idea that museums wanted to move with the times and develop a gaming app to attract more young people to the museum.”
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Together with Jo, the user becomes “half an archaeologist without even realizing it”, says Raffael Moco Schiller from the Berlin design studio, responsible for the creative implementation of the app, describing the virtual adventure journey. Playing “Jo’s Memory” is about acquiring skills that would be necessary in real archaeology, such as proper care or handling of finds, explains Mölders.
The game “Jo’s Memory” is available for free from September 1 on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. More information about the games application is available on the website blackbox.game/josmemory find.
>>> Background on the creation of the game application
- The app was funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation as part of the joint project “Blackbox Archaeology”, which will have around 1.4 million euros until the end of 2023.
- The Berlin design studio NEEEU Spaces GmbH was responsible for the creative implementation. The studio has already completed digital projects for the Berlin State Museums and the Humboldt Forum.
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