Konstellationen // Constellations

In 2020 ACMI partnered with Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (DFF) in Germany to create an interactive visitor experience for the Frankfurt-based museum inspired by ACMI’s Constellation. The Konstellationen // Constellations project, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, was completed in May 2024. This interactive experience invites DFF visitors to an unusual encounter with objects from film history extending the museum visit into virtual space. Visitors can discover exciting connections to other objects in the exhibitions, archives and collections of the DFF, partner institutions including ACMI and along curated digital paths from selected exhibits.

Experience Konstellationen // Constellations. Video courtesy of DFF

The DFF experience 

The centrepiece of DFF's Constellations is the software developed specifically and jointly with ACMI, which enables playful and intuitive navigation from one object to a multitude of other objects. At the start of Konstellationen // Constellations 50 objects in the DFF's permanent exhibition are equipped with barcode scanners or collection screens, where museum visitors can scan their collection card equipped with a unique barcode and save the objects digitally. Visitors can have their card scanned again on large-format touchscreens in the foyers of the exhibition rooms and receive an attractively designed overview of the objects they have collected.

From their favourite objects, visitors can discover around 50 curated storylines about people and objects from film history, which connect them thematically with more than 5,000 objects in the exhibition rooms, archives, DFF collections and partner institutions, including ACMI and the Hessische Landesmuseum Darmstadt (Hessian State Museum Darmstadt HLMD). In this way, individual and unique constellations of film knowledge are created. In addition to these links, the offer includes numerous film recommendations and references to external media, to which visitors also have virtual access beyond their visit to the DFF.  

The project team

The Australian-German project team commenced development of Konstellationen // Constellations in August 2020. In public test runs in 2021, 2022 and 2023, guests drawn from media, culture and the DFF audience tried out the first prototypes. The finished product is the result of the feedback from these test runs. Konstellationen // Constellations is available at the DFF as a permanent offer. Digital project partner MESO digital interiors from Frankfurt designed the technical customisation of the DFF's exhibition spaces for the Constellations museum experience.

Konstellationen // Constellations is funded by the Digital Culture Programme of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). The regional cooperation with the Hessische Landesmuseum Darmstadt HLMD is supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and the Aventis Foundation.