Museum content

Get involved, think and be amazed

Over 100 play and experiment stations spark an interest in maths. In ‘Epsilon – Adventure Land for Little Ones’, children aged 3 to 8 discover their own mathematical world of numbers, shapes and patterns. A collaboration with the Department of Mathematics at Dresden University of Technology.

Europe’s centre for the photography and film industry

The museum building, with the Ernemann Tower, was once the landmark of Dresden’s photography and cinema industry. In the restored executive offices of the former Ernemann Works, the museum looks back on a century in which over 150 manufacturers of cameras, film cameras, projectors, photographic paper, film stock and specialist accessories made Dresden the largest centre for the industry in Europe. Many innovations and the quality of Dresden’s camera industry remain legendary to this day.

The exhibition on Dresden as a ‘city of cameras’ begins in the world of work. A multivision presentation, featuring numerous photographs, film clips and audio recordings, introduces visitors to the history of Dresden’s photographic and cinema industry between 1900 and 1990. An exhibition in the former offices of Heinrich Ernemann AG showcases selected products from the camera and cinema industry spanning more than 100 years. ‘The photographic industry and visual worlds’ of the period around 1900 are presented in the exhibition on the history of Ernemann-Kamerawerke.

The Opto-Acoustic Experiment Area

Everything is a wave: let’s go wave-riding! The opto-acoustic experiment zone is all about the physics of waves: it is only thanks to sound waves that we can hear music, and thanks to light waves that we can perceive colours.

But what properties do these waves have? Can you hear light and see sound? Have you ever played football with light or created sounds simply by moving your hands in the air? And what secrets can our youngest visitors discover in an old shipwreck?

These are just a few of the more than 50 interactive and amazing experiments awaiting curious researchers of all ages at the Wellenreiter.

Typewriters & Electronic Brains

Nowadays, information circulates around the world as a matter of course. The interconnection of digital data via computers, smartphones and the internet forms the basis of our age. Yet the fundamental inventions behind mechanical computing and writing date back a long way.

Photography – Cinema – Video

The eyes and the brain form a powerful alliance: together, they can construct images from particles of light. Our sense of sight provides us with up to 80 per cent of the information about the world around us. In doing so, our eyes constantly occupy a quarter of the brain. But the world in our minds also has its limits: the eye is slow to react, and humans are forgetful.

The history of technical visual media stretches far back in time. Caught between the real image and the imagination, we have created a whole arsenal over the last two hundred years: the peep-show, the camera, the film camera, the projector, the ‘telly’, the smartphone – always with the aim of producing, storing and showing others perfect representations of the world. These devices have also helped us to understand how our vision actually works and where the eye and the brain require technical assistance.

New techniques of image-making have created entire industries, transformed our viewing habits and expanded the horizons of the visible. They have also influenced our trust in images. A scarcity of images has long since turned into a deluge of images. Whereas the production of images used to be the preserve of a few technically skilled specialists, today anyone can take their own photos and films and share them worldwide. Moments are fleeting: to freeze them in time, we create a technical image. Moving scenes appear lifelike: films can transport us to places and times we have never visited. Three-dimensional vision feels real: it allows us to immerse ourselves, even in virtual spaces.

Clusters of Excellence, high-tech, cutting-edge research

Dresden is one of the most important centres for scientific research in Germany. With the ‘Showcase of Research’, the Dresden Technology Collections offer a series of exhibitions and events that provide information on current research projects at Dresden’s institutes, on the aims, methods and results of the research, and on innovations from Dresden, whilst encouraging discussion. Interactive exhibits have been developed and built for this purpose in collaboration with the scientists.

Previous partner institutions in the ‘Schaufenster der Forschung’ programme:

• Olfactorial Perceptronics
• Interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence ‘Physics of Life’ at TU Dresden
• Barkhausen Institute (BI)
• Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat – Complexity and Topology in Quantum Materials at TU Dresden

A Quantum Adventure

Children, teenagers and adults are invited to explore the crazy world of quantum physics with all their senses and find out whether Cat Q is dead or alive. Whether with a school class, as a birthday highlight or together with family and friends – there are many different ways to explore the escape room.

Energy in a digital world

The COOL X exhibition is an expedition into the world of micro- and nanoelectronics, offering a glimpse into the next generation of energy-efficient information and communication technology. Interactive exhibits bring to life how a chip is created and how it is constructed, and demonstrate how researchers at Saxony’s Cool Silicon leading-edge cluster aim to limit the dramatically rising energy consumption of computers, mobile phones and global information networks.

Cool X asks: Are there limits to miniaturisation? What does a jay have to do with wireless networks? How much energy is in the air? And what can each and every one of us do to help save the digital world from an energy collapse?

The exhibition was funded by the Cool Silicon Cluster of Excellence and designed in collaboration with scientists from the research projects.

www.cool-x.info

Talking machines, recorded music and the recording studio for talented individuals and tech enthusiasts

At the end of the 19th century, two technologies emerged almost simultaneously, heralding the dawn of a new acoustic era. The mechanical control of pianos and other musical instruments, as well as the recording and playback of sounds and noises using needles and rotating cylinders or »Platten«, made it possible for the first time to reproduce music and speech faithfully.

The exhibition showcases a wide selection of talking and musical machines, as well as historical sound recordings. Highlights include the ‘Happy Jazzband’ by Popper & Co from the 1920s, featuring automatic drums; some of the earliest phonographs and gramophones; and a reel-to-reel tape recorder built by a Dresden engineer in the 1950s.

Computer Games and Society

Are computer games addictive, do they lead to isolation, do they alienate us from nature – or do they teach essential skills, facilitate learning, connect people worldwide and open up new horizons? To explore these questions, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through time, from the early days of computer games to today’s virtual reality. Live players regularly demonstrate key computer games – and, of course, visitors are also invited to have a go.

The exhibition was developed by the Chair of Computer Graphics and Visualisation at TU Dresden to mark the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Computer Science at TU Dresden, based on a seminar on computer games and society, and was curated by Kathryn Babeck.

100 Years of the Ernemann Building

The tower building of the Dresden Technology Collections was erected 100 years ago to expand the production of cameras and cinema projectors by Ernemann-Werke AG. The exhibition ‘Zeitfenster’ invites visitors to explore the history of this impressive industrial building. As you walk through the museum, ‘Windows into the Past’ dotted here and there invite you to delve into the history of the building and discover fascinating facts about the structure and working life in the factory. Set off on a journey of discovery!