Page 32 - Holyland Magazine - 2017 Edition

Undergraduate students work alongside top biblical scholars at the Guests will receive a hand held digital guide allowing them to personalize
annual Logos conference coordinated by Museum of the Bible. their tour and track their location within the museum for easy navigation.

The handheld digital guide will also feature tabernacle of Moses’ time, the walls of the (the weight of 3,462 Asian elephants); the
another revolutionary technology called performing arts hall are curved in design, use of 6,127 linear feet of scaffold platform
“augmented reality,” a technology deployed evoking an ancient tent flapping in the wind. (about 20.5 American football fields); 23,194
by the Museum of the Bible in collaboration Inspired by the breathtaking potential of cubic yards of excavated soil (enough to fill
with Israeli companies, which “augments” modern technology, the performing arts hall 9.5 Olympic swimming pools); all thanks to
physical objects on a touchscreen, allowing will use a digital 3-D mapping technique the excavation and hauling-off of material
guests to engage with the material more to transform the theater into an immersive which required the equivalent of 15 miles of
interactively. This powerful technology is experience that brings the audience into the trucks lined bumper-to-bumper.
even being used in Israeli schools to help production unfolding around them, allowing
children learn about the Bible and has been visitors to experience the Bible in ways To make this $500 million project possible,
so effective that the Israeli students who that were previously impossible. Using 17 the Museum of the Bible hired some of the
experienced it consistently rated their Bible high-output floor-to-ceiling 4K projectors best design teams in the world—teams
courses with augmented reality among their and angle-compensating software, digital that have already worked on other world-
favorite classes. When applied to the Bible, images will be seamlessly woven together class museums such as the U.S. Holocaust
whether in the classroom or in a museum, over varied surfaces to create a coherent Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian
these new technologies provide incredible environment—scene, landscape or Institution’s National Museum of African
breakthrough ways to learn, experience and background—for visitors. The walls of the American History and Culture, the National
interact with the material. theater literally transform to become part Law Enforcement Museum, the National
of the theater staging, creating a one-of- Museum of the United States Army, and the
The museum will also feature a state- a-kind, memorable theater experience. National Museum of the American Indian.
of-the-art Performing Arts Hall that will Furthermore, the hall is built in the style of an
provide perhaps the most immersive theater ancient amphitheater to improve the visual Once completed, the Museum of the Bible will
experience in the world. Located on the and acoustic experience for visitors, and become the newest addition to Washington,
fifth floor, adjacent to the two-story atrium will feature a variety of activities, including D.C.’s pantheon of great museums and will
glass galley that provides stunning views live performances, scholarly lectures, represent the most significant effort in a
overlooking the National Mall and U.S. presentations, Bible readings and musicals. generation to bring the Book of Books into
Capitol, the 472-seat, 8,000 square foot, the modern world through both cutting-edge
100-foot ceiling performing arts hall will When all is said and done, this cutting-edge scholarship and technology. Just as Israel has
provide a unique experience for museum museum will have been completed only after brought an ancient people into the modern
guests. Inspired by the ancient and sacred the demolition of 19,385 tons of concrete world, the Museum of the Bible will help bring
this ancient book into the 21st century.

A young girl tests out a prototype Visitors will be immersed in the caves of Qumran to view Dead Sea Students use Museum of the Bible’s interactive Bible
of the digital guide being used at Scroll fragments on the History Floor at Museum of the Bible. curriculum that has been developed for the smartphone
the museum. generation.

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