LVIV – The Ukrainian Catholic University on November 2 opened Ukraine’s first virtual museum of classical music thanks to the work of students of UCU programs in computer science, history and culture studies. Work on the project lasted two months.
The students did everything themselves, from graphics to information content. In this way, they are trying to interest their peers in the classics. The virtual museum is a bridge between the classics and modern technologies. Only a smartphone is needed to access it.
“First you scan a QR code. Then you go to the corresponding page of our project. Your next step is to connect a headset to your smartphone. Then put the headset on your head and you can enter our wonderful museum,” explained the project’s co-author, Mykola Bilyayev, a computer science student.
Virtual visitors can enter four rooms, each of which reflects an art era: the Baroque with Bach, Classicism with Mozart, Romanticism with Chopin, and Impressionism with Debussy.
The interior of each room corresponds to a given era. It shows the most famous paintings of that period, with an explanatory text, and the music of a composer of that period is heard.
“An interesting parallel is that the room for the Romantic era, which the music of Chopin represents for us, has only a grand piano and almost nothing else. The grand piano symbolizes that Chopin chose this instrument as the only object of his creativity, and then more can be found out about his biography,” said Ksenya Stetsenko, a student of UCU’s culture studies program.
“The essence of the museum is to give a general picture, an image of what Baroque looks like, and Romanticism. There are elements that create the atmosphere,” added Maria Hirna, the founder of the virtual museum and a student of UCU’s computer science program.
The virtual museum is accessible during the hours of operation of UCU’s Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Center.