Journey Into the World of Money

With the "SNB Forum" on Fraumünsterstrasse in Zurich, the Swiss National Bank is opening up to the interested public. The Forum offers factual, but also sensual and playful approaches to the complex tasks and history of the SNB.

At the heart of the forum a media wall is located, which can simultaneously be operated on both sides by several people. On the front, the notes of the 9th Swiss banknote series can be admired in a never seen size. They can be moved and turned with the fingers. Thus not only do individual details of the complex design stand out, but also the shimmering light reflections on the surface. Here, the notes spectacularly reveal their often overlooked beauty.

When touched, a unique visual world opens up for each note. Time, light, wind, water, matter and language - in short, the visual core elements of the banknotes - can be visually experienced here. This is done through specific, interactive scenarios: Clocks and prisms are moved, dandelions and paragliders are given lift, and constellations become visible in the night sky through mere touch. The highlight, however: virtual butterflies flutter around and land on the visitors' fingers just touching the screen.

The rear side offers access to a wide range of historical and theoretical topics. A playback system developed by iart provides texts, images and videos taken from the National Bank's CMS. The design is factually simple. But the interaction is sophisticated: Via touch up to four interacting persons can simultaneously move the parameters of different graphics. A detailed historical panorama of the SNB's tasks unfolds.

The project stood under the overall responsibility of iart. The interior design and scenography office EMYL was responsible for the conception and design of the attached cabinet, idee+klang contributed the sound for the experience on the interactive media wall. iart developed the entire contents of the front side, designed the visual framework for the rear side and planned and developed all the software and hardware. The latter included a sophisticated water and air cooling system and a mechanism to swivel the wall by 30°.

The banknotes were photographed from all angles using a specially developed photo booth. 160 individual images form a sequence. This allows each note to be swivelled vertically through 360° - and all details and light reflections appear in unseen magnitude. Based on the analysis of each note, the virtual journeys were developed using a game engine. During a few minutes we dive into the visual world of each note - and can influence the appearances of this world by hand: Interactive storytelling in a new dimension.