“ Adventure Soil Life ” – A virtual journey through an unknown world

Few people are aware that there are more organisms living within a cube metre of soil than man on earth. With the virtual reality (VR) experience “Adventure soil life”, the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz brings visitors closer to the biodiversity underneath their feet; this approach reflects the research focus of the museum: soil organisms. Shrunk to the size of a woodlouse, they explore the hidden world and get an almost realistic impression of the habitats and their inhabitants. The VR experience has been created as part of the Senckenberg activities within the pilot project “museum4punkt0 ‐ Digital Strategies for the Museum of the Future” funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The VR is part of the international touring exhibition “The Thin Skin of Earth ‐ Our Soils”. The development of the VR experience has been organized as an iterative process between developers of an external company (.hapto) and the taxon experts of the museum. Visitors ́ acceptance and emotional perception, practical challenges and sustainable use are evaluated and documented to share these experiences with other cultural institutions planning their own VR experience. Introduction Although, the soil organisms are crucial for ecosystem services in all terrestrial habitats the knowledge about soil biodiversity is generally scarce. As research museum with a special focus on soil zoology the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Görlitz aims to provide knowledge on soil related topics to a broad public. Therefore, the museum produced and presented three touring exhibitions (from 1995 until now) to increase awareness and draw the attention of the public on the diversity, biology and importance of soil organisms, soil formation, destruction and protection as well as on soil science. The inaccessibility of soil and the small size of the majority of its microscopically small organisms are major challenges for the success of soil exhibitions (Xylander & Zumkowski‐Xylander 2018). Therefore, the classical exhibitions show many models of the animals, mostly magnified approx. 200 times, as well as pictures and films of the habitat and its inhabitants. Today, innovative digital technologies such as virtual reality (VR) open up completely new, additional possibilities for dealing with these challenges. Visitors can immerse into virtually reconstructed habitats and get to know their organisms in the form of animated 3D models. Thus, not only their appearance, but also their movements and behaviour can be experienced. In a certain way, a VR‐Experience can allow visitors to become part of a biocoenoses, man normally has no access to. This enables emotional accesses and advanced learning experiences which classical exhibitions could not provide (Xylander 2019). Description of the example