NACHRICHTEN–NEWS

Background

The special exhibition NACHRICHTEN-NEWS at the Museum for Communication Berlin, designed by gewerkdesign and realised in cooperation of the museum with the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, takes place on the occasion of the Year of News 2024, in which the 75th anniversary of the dpa and the German Constitution with its Article 5 on freedom of the press are celebrated. In times of fake news and “alternative facts”, it was important to us to familiarise ourselves with scientific and curatorial perspectives on the topic of news, as well as a real inspiration to deal with this topic creatively and bring it into the space.

The basic design principle is based on a clear structure of colour and form. The main part of the exhibition, like the graphic appearance, is segmented in three colour-coded areas in the primary colours yellow, blue and red. The yellow area focuses on the question of “What we hear” by showing the historical development of news from marketplace rumours to real-time reporting. In the blue area with exhibits and stations relating to the craft of journalism and journalistic quality control, “How we trust” is conveyed. In the red area, milestones in communications technology such as the Morse telegraph are displayed to show “How we see the world”.

The spatial set-up of the exhibition is an increasing sorting of the cacophonic news flood that we are confronted with today, resulting in a clear overview and positioning within the diverse media landscape. The prologue is tightly packed with iconic news images in light boxes and on screens, the word “news” is visible in oversized letters in many languages of the world next to, above and below the image clusters, a news ticker runs newsflashes. In the course of the exhibition, visitors attain an ever clearer understanding, which is also furthered by the many hands-on stations. Finally, in the epilogue, a concrete result about what medium ideally suits one’s individual preferences is produced in the Media Match.

NACHRICHTEN–NEWS has a modular, sustainable and inclusive design and reflects the controversial relationship between the news and its users. The exhibition is dialogical throughout: Visitors are being asked their opinions station by station – in the exhibition space and beyond it, in the social media of the museum. The interactive exhibition is intended to make visitors explore and become conscious of what habits and needs motivate us to choose specific news channels. As we learn in the exhibition, it is today easier than ever to access news from all over the world, however, the general interest in them is paradoxically as low as never before. That is why the superordinate societal, political and media-related contexts in which we live and act are taken into account.

Tasks / Range of Services
Exhibition design and planning, object presentation, hands-on development, implementation planning, exhibition production, project management, exhibition graphics, corporate design of the exhibition