ICS: A piece of Smart City in the Museum Ulm
The Intercultural Communication Space (ICS) is a smart spatial construction for intercultural encounters, equipped with modern technology for multilingual communication: language-based translation of 80 languages, digital sketching and online image search. Since its update in spring 2022, the ICS also translates Ukrainian and all other foreign languages of the Danube countries.
The prototype of this innovation is located in the atrium of the Museum Ulm and can be used free of charge during the museum’s opening hours. Simply take a seat in the ICS for two, start the technology and the entertainment begins! The ICS offers pandemic-compliant space for 2 people and is suitable for younger and older users, friends, neighbours, colleagues, language tandems, new citizens and many more.
As a public institution, what can the Museum Ulm contribute to good coexistence in Ulm’s urban society? How can people be brought together and exchanged? And how can smart technology support intercultural communication? The Museum Ulm asked itself these questions at the end of last year 2020 and developed the project idea of the ICS. The Museum Ulm sees itself not only as an exhibition house for art, archaeology and Ulm’s cultural history, but also as a place of encounter and communication for people of all ages, social classes and cultures.
With the ICS, we create, in a public place, an occasion for encounter and exchange for people with different cultural backgrounds. The art, cultural and urban history environment of the Museum Ulm is particularly suitable for promoting intercultural communication. Especially when smart, user-friendly technology that can be used free of charge helps to overcome language barriers.
The ICS is a joint project of the Museum Ulm and the Digital Agenda of the City of Ulm and was funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI) as part of “Smart Cities made in Germany“.
Interested parties were able to give input on the development of the ICS via online participation. For the construction, a temporary project workshop on the Danube was occupied and opened to the public. At the re-opening of the urban experience space m25, visitors were able to take a first look at the finished ICS – before its official launch in the Museum Ulm.
Teamwork makes the dream work!
As a short-term measure of Ulm4CleverCity, the entire project team only had a few months to realise the project. The ICS was designed and built by Patrick Kaczmarek from Bootschaft | Büro für Gestaltung, the UX-UI design and branding came from Kathrin Uhlig (also from Bootschaft) and the software was developed by Martin Schubert and Toni Thomä from 1tm solutions. Sebastian Reger & Nathan Nyland from Projektraum Reger contributed the reactive lighting setup as well as the electrical installation. The project was documented by Ulm-based photographer Stefan Eigner (eignerframes).
We would like to thank SGP Schneider Geiwitz & Partner for generously providing space for the temporary project workshop and Carl Götz, Neu-Ulm for the support in the procurement of wood.
The open source data of the ICS is available at the following links: Construction Source Code
We are happy to answer questions about the ICS: ics.museum@ulm.de
For news about ICS, Museum Ulm and Smart City Ulm follow: #icsmuseumulm #museumulm #ulm2030
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