In 1999 Weimar was elected the cultural capital. This CD-ROM is a documentation of a very sophisticated art installation about Goethe´s Garden House in Weimar.

During the DDR the original Garden House, the one were Goethe has written his Faust, was presented to the audience with some furnishings. After the wall came down, historians mentioned that the furnishing was not historically approved. So Weimar removed the interior. And the visitor was able to enjoy the pure Garden House.

Even though the presentation was authentic and original, people missed the emotional immersion of a furnished Garden House.

The city of Weimar decided to build an original copy of the house, situated very close to the original. Thus the audience could experience all.

In 1999 the media company artemedia was assigned to create another Garden House in the Orangerie of the castle Bellevue in Weimar. From the outside the building was transformed into a Look a Like of the original Garden House. Once the visitor stepped into the building he would find himself in a virtual space. His tour would start in a copy of Goethe´s writing room. The visitor would be invited to write into a book that looked like Goethe´s scrapbook. Meanwhile a video camera would grab this process. The visitor would proceed with his tour and just before stepping out of the Garden House III he would see the video projection of him writing. Like a time lapse or a deja vue.

The center of the installation was a mystical dark blue room with projections of the 3 D Garden House on the walls. One wouldn´t know if it is a movie of the second Garden House or a simulation. Additionally a series of water pools were embedded in the floor. We projected water drops falling onto the smooth surface of the pools. One could hear the subtle sound of the bounce. Thus we created a real impression of non existing drops falling into water.

The CD-ROM documents the results of this art project. We are questioning original authenticity and illusion. One section of the CD-Rom displays the 3 D Garden House.

The graphic team had to accomplish the unification of the immense amount of footage without loosing the idea. We wanted to revive the atmosphere of the Garden House III. So we worked on a style that looked like paintings on screens. The overlapping of different pictures created new spaces. They had to be filled with the visitor´s imagination. This type of virtual painting enabled the user to explore the space of mutual relations.