[090612] Move mouse inside application to create shapes.

KuratorTool is a web-based, social 3D tool built as a teaching platform on the subject of curation and museology. The project was initiated as a pilot to explore the possibilities of using an online platform in an educational context, allowing users to create, share and discuss exhibitions.

The tool was built using the game engine Unity ( http://unity3d.com ) that enables an immersive 3D experience in the browser. Users select one of three available exhibition spaces to start from, either empty or as a remix of an already existing exhibition. Using simple tools for configuring the space and placing art, users can then create a virtual exhibition. Through a basic guided-tour tool they can also create a commented walk-through of their exhibition.

The project was funded by the Heritage Agency of Denmark, and was created in collaboration with three institutions - Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Heart - Herning museum of Contemporary Art and The Hirschsprung Collection. The three institutions were selected based on their different exhibition profiles, Nikolaj being a modern art gallery, Heart a contemporary art museum and Hirschsprung specializing in the Danish Golden Age.

The project was targeted at high schools, and was initiated as a reaction to a new curriculum for high schools in Denmark, that expanded on the fields of curation and museology. It was user tested in 2009 with students and teachers at Christianshavns high school in Copenhagen.

Future goals of the project include opening the project up to existing external collections available on-line and working out issues of copyright for those collections. Working with three dimensional art (e.g sculpture) and video art and expanding on the social part of the project with user profiles and hooks to other existing social platforms. We've also touched on the possibility of using handheld devices in the actual museums to bring a virtual exhibition into the real space.

Visit the KuratorTool website to try it out hands-on.