Augmented Temple is a media installation that makes it possible to experience Jerusalem’s Herodian Temple between 20 B.C. and 70 A.D. The core of the installation is an architectural model of the vast complex which once sat on the Temple Mount and attracted up to 10,000 visitors daily to religious festivals. The model is augmented with a projection that shows the different areas of the temple, reveals how people moved through the complex, and introduces individual, typical visitors.
Four ‘viewers’ pointing at the model offer immersion in realistic scenes. Short, animated films take visitors on a virtual camera tour through the crowds for events such as Yom Kippur and the pilgrimage festival. The scenes offer a lively impression of the specific rituals and customs performed at the site: the purchase of sacrificial animals, their preparation and offering, the transfer of sins to a ram, women’s round dances, and currency exchanges by those who travelled from far away. The design of the detailed scenes is based on scientific findings and required the modelling of approximately 3000 individual figures.
Augmented Temple was developed for the “Welcome to Jerusalem” exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin.
