Armed with nothing but their smartphones, players do battle with massive chickens, head lice and other nasty apparitions to free Vivienne von Wattenwyl from her feverish hallucinations. What is real and what is simply a delusion? The only thing museum visitors can be sure of is that they have never experienced anything like this before. The mobile game is exclusive to our museum and was developed by machina eX, a game theatre group based in Berlin.
Old stories, new contexts
The main character at the centre of the game is Vivienne von Wattenwyl, a Bern aristocrat and big game hunter who lived and worked in the early 20th century. Vivienne nimbly carries the narrative from place to place and through the ages in an entertaining way — yet not without depth. Along the way, in the heat of the moment, players also learn many interesting facts. By working to free this mysterious historical figure from her feverish nightmares, unknown connections and hidden details about topics and objects in the exhibition are revealed.
The game is for people of all ages who are inquisitive and enjoy playing games. To play, all you need is a smartphone and someone who knows how to use it. The game can be played on your own or as part of a group, although we recommend limiting group sizes to five people. Each group uses a single smartphone. Visitors who don’t have a smartphone, are unable to use one or haven’t yet learnt to read can simply play as part of a group.
The game is free of charge — visitors simply pick up the instructions and can then get started.
The players can decide for themselves in which part of the museum they would like to play. The game can be played ‘on the side’ as they explore the normal museum exhibitions, or it can be the main focus of their visit. The game is divided into sections that can also be played separately.
In May 1923, Vivienne von Wattenwyl, only 23 years old, travelled to East Africa with her father Bernard to hunt animals for the Bern Museum of Natural History. When her father was killed by a lion, she successfully continued the safari with the African hunters and porters as the only woman and white. In 1928, she returned to Africa once more, but this time without a rifle: she only took pictures with her camera. The animals shot by the two big-game hunters are still a popular public attraction today as the cultural-historical centrepiece of the museum, the Africa Dioramas.
machina eX has been researching the interface between theatre and computer games since 2010. The seven-member media theatre collective (Clara Ehrenwerth, Anna Fries, Robin Hädicke, Lasse Marburg, Mathias Prinz, Yves Regenass and Philip Steimel) emerged from the cultural studies programmes at the University of Hildesheim and has since been producing participatory game theatre. machina eX combines modern technologies with means of classical illusion theatre to create immersive playable theatre pieces that are also walk-in computer games. Since their founding, they have developed about twenty live games in German-speaking countries, but also beyond.
NMBE:
- Project management, content concept: Dora Strahm, exhibition curator NMBE
machina eX:
- Project management, artistic direction, sound design: Mathias Prinz
- Technical direction,programming,game design: Philip Steimel
- Text, plot: Clara Ehrenwerth
