Tatyana Gorbachevskaya
Media Art Museum in Worms
New media art makes up a special form of art that principally relies on digital technology for its mediation. The Museum for Media Art in Worms caters for this art form and presents the public with various types of gallery spaces to view and interact with these types of art works. Part of its permanent exhibition is a computer-mediated presentation of the Nibelung myth.
The Museum for Media Art is situated in the grounds of the Festplatz, close to the Rhein River. The location of the museum attempts to renegotiate the relation between the city and the river and mediates between these two by activating the part of the Festplatz close to the river edge.
The architecture of the museum is organised by two regulating models: the model of a valve and the model of a migrating line. Combined, these two principles form a complete architectural framework for the design of the Museum of Media Art.
The first, the valve, is conceived as a flexible framing mechanisms that controls views. The idea of the valve is derived from a study of Diller+Scofidio’s Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. The valve system works as a control system that defines the organisation of space on the basis of visual connectivity between spaces and in terms of how a visitor approaches and sees an exhibited artwork.
The model of the migrating line was developed from a study of modulations in yarn deformations in knitted textiles. The focus was on the sectional modifications that were induced in the yarn in relation to a migrating base line along the yarn axis. This resulted in the development of a model where deformations of the sectional space were based on the migrating base line. The sectional articulation of this yarn model was used as a basis for the architectural organisation of the museum. The model was particularly important in defining the relation between the building figure and the ground.
Beyond the exhibit of new media art and the presentation of the Nibelung myth, the Museum of Media Art contains laboratories for sound, video and Internet, a conference amphitheatre, a library, a film archive, a terrace and a café.