When you have a whole group of young people – and you need to get everyone to actively participate in a discussion about something as abstract as the concept of democracy, you have to use some means to get everyone into the same mental mode.

This was the challenge we received from Fortene who established the Demokratisenteret at Høytorp Fort in Mysen. In close collaboration with Fortene and Høytorp Fort’s friends, we created a “reset film,” where we weave together concepts such as fake news, echo chambers, the cold war, dictatorship, the principle of separation of powers, defense, and independence – and what all of these have to do with the concept of “Democracy.”

Technically, we’ve also explored many different things here. We 3D-scanned the entire fort, modeled the concentration camp at Momarken, scanned and animated soldiers, and used both new and old visual techniques in a seven-minute introduction. The project was divided into two parts, like all our projects, with an introductory phase and the production itself.

The video wall is a specially built LED wall with curved sides. When we work with customized surfaces and environments, we need to take into account how they are experienced. Therefore, this time we modeled the room before it was built, and tested the content on a virtual wall throughout the production process.

At the start of the project, this was like most other projects; an exciting challenge in a new context. As we have worked on this, our experience has been that the subject holds a greater importance than much of the other work we have done. It has also been quite a challenge to weave all of this together into a story that will serve as the introduction to a discussion around a large and important topic.