HFBK Online Gallery

HFBK University of Fine Arts Hamburg

The HFBK Online Gallery is a three-dimensional, digital exhibition space for the web. On the one hand it serves to present selected student works and thus the external image of the university, on the other hand it serves as a tool for students in the conception, planning and documentation of exhibitions.

For the first iteration of the HFBK Online Gallery, we developed a simple and intuitive control system that prioritizes the basic movement patterns of an exhibition visit. The user can approach an artwork by a simple tap on it and look around the room by swiping. The simulation of the walking speed creates a credible feeling of space and underlines the claim to an honest examination of the presented exhibits. The secondary mode on the right mouse button, mouse wheel and two-finger gesture allow experienced users extended interaction possibilities, such as enlarging or rotating around an exhibit.

The graphic design is reduced and simplistic to focus all attention on the artworks. The user interface provides all relevant information about the exhibition and its exhibits and can be hidden to enjoy the exhibition in full screen.

The HFBK Online Gallery is a modern web app with a specially developed engine based on ThreeJS / WebGL and typescript with a minimal footprint. This technology mix enables a high-quality 3D experience in the browser on desktop and mobile devices without a need to install an app on the device. Thereby the exhibition becomes a low-threshold rich media online experience for a broad user base.

The exhibits were scanned in an elaborate process by the HFBK documentation team and prepared for real-time display. The digital replicas use the modern data format glTF, while further meta information is stored in Json files.

The prototype of the curator mode enables the placement and positioning of the artworks in the exhibition space from the first-person perspective as well as from an isometric overview in the browser.

The HFBK Online Gallery starts with the digital version of Hiscox exhibition 2019 and is a project of the Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU) and the Hamburg Open Science (HOS).