Exhibition with virtual glasses shows USP museums – 04/12/2024 – Education

In celebration of its 90th anniversary, USP (University of São Paulo) opens, this Friday (12), a traveling exhibition that allows immersion in its four museums and their cultural and scientific collections.

With the use of virtual reality glasses, the visitor will be able to immerse themselves in each of the buildings that make up the so-called statutory museums of the university – the Ipiranga Museum (part of the Paulista Museum), the MAC (USP Museum of Contemporary Art), the MZUSP (USP Zoology Museum) and MAE (Archaeology and Ethnology Museum).

The exhibition begins at the Ribeirão Preto campus (about 320 km from São Paulo). It will also pass through Pirassununga, Bauru, São Carlos, Piracicaba and Lorena, before reaching the capital (see dates below).

“This was a very old demand from interior boards to take museums to other campuses, because they have very rich collections”, explains sociologist and vice-rector of USP, Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda.

The four museums are independent units of USP where, in addition to cultural activities such as exhibitions, there are undergraduate and postgraduate courses, research collections and extension activities for the public. Because they are located in the capital, many of the students, staff and professors from the university’s other six campuses located in the interior do not have access to them.

According to Arruda, the idea for the exhibition came from the immersive exhibition of the Sistine Chapel, by Italian painter Michelangelo, which took place in São Paulo last year. “I looked at that and thought, why don’t we do the same thing? And then I took the idea to the Dean of Culture and Extension, in the form of Professor Hussam Zaher [pró-reitor adjunto]who embraced the idea and coordinated the exhibition.”

The USP rectory provided material and logistical support and helped with the acquisition of 40 virtual reality glasses, provided by the laboratory of professor Marcelo Zuffo, from Poli (Escola Politécnica), director of the InovaUSP Innovation Center. “My group has been developing virtual reality since 2000, with more accessible equipment, which is why I proposed bringing this technology to the population,” he explains.

In the case of the Ipiranga Museum, director and architect Rosaria Ono says that physical pieces from the collection were taken to the event, such as porcelain from the end of the 20th century, as well as black and white images of the interior of São Paulo at the beginning of the last century.

In the immersive experience, visitors start at the entrance area and continue on a tour of the historical monument, founded in 1895, located in the Ipiranga neighborhood. “We will display 2 of the 11 exhibitions in our collection, the History of Brazil, which runs through that most well-known axis of the history of Colonial Brazil up to the painting ‘Independence or Death’, and the other is ‘Worlds of Work’, which explores all economic activities since colonial times, including wood extraction, coffee planting, sugar, and urbanization”, he says.

When visiting MAC USP, the immersion begins at the main entrance and continues through the sixth and seventh floors, where the museum’s long-term exhibitions are located, where you can see important works, such as “A Negra”, by Tarsila do Amaral. Three versions of the sculpture “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space”, by the Italian futurist artist Umberto Boccioni, are also part of it — the originals in plaster and bronze, only virtual, and a 3D replica —, says the art historian and director of the museum , Ana Magalhães.

“There is a limitation in transporting the original in plaster and bronze, but with virtual reality visitors will be able to see the original work, in addition to the 3D replica.”

The Zoology Museum will display current and fossil species of Brazilian animals, such as the fossil crocodile Baurusuchuswhich had a 3D replica produced and which can also be touched, the giant dinosaur Tapuiasaurus macedoi and some insects from the Araripe Basin, the largest fossil basin in the country.

Furthermore, specimens from scientific collections that have been digitally reconstructed will help you see the internal structures of animals, such as frogs, beetles and monkeys. “By using this technology, visitors do not replace the physical visit, but have a more enriching experience, serving as a new approach to the institution’s teaching, research and extension knowledge”, says entomologist and museum director, Marcelo Duarte.

Finally, at MAE, visitors will be able to see archaeological records of original and indigenous peoples of São Paulo, such as cave paintings, spearheads, ethnographic pieces, among others.

With immersion goggles, it will be possible to enter Abrigo Itapeva, an archaeological cave found near the municipality of the same name, around 300 km from the capital. The idea is to maintain the focus on the populations that lived in the territory thousands of years ago, explains archaeologist Eduardo Neves, director of the institution.

“We decided to bring pieces that speak to the indigenous peoples of São Paulo, but not only that, because we also have materials from Ilha do Marajó. So we will tell, through the exhibition, a very brief overview of the indigenous cultural diversity present in the past and present here “, he states.

In addition to the four museums, the exhibition includes a video installation called “4M”, by artist Tadeu Jungle, a project commissioned by a thematic project Fapesp at MAC-USP, which, according to Magalhães, helps to translate the curatorial process to the general public. of museums and the importance of their scientific and cultural collections.

For MAE, the exhibition is an important moment to showcase part of its collection, since the building that houses the collections, within the Cidade Universitária campus, does not have a renovated public visiting area.

“We’ve had a problem for years here at the university, which is the physical space of the MAE, we don’t have a decent building, we’ve been here for 35 years and we still haven’t been able to complete the construction work on the new building in Praça dos Museus, and so we don’t have the means to show that we value this collection”, says Neves.

The exhibition “USP 90 years: an immersive journey through our museums” will open at 4pm this Friday, at the Ribeirão Preto hub of the Institute of Advanced Studies, and will run until February 15, 2025.

Access is free. Group and school visits can be scheduled on the website expomuseus90anos.usp.br.

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WHERE THE EXHIBITION WILL TAKE PLACE

Ribeirão Preto
From April 13 to May 10, 2024, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm
Location: Institute of Advanced Studies | Polo Ribeirão Preto
Rua Pedreira de Freitas, 20 – USP Campus – Vila Monte Alegre

Pirassununga
From May 25th to June 7th, every day, from 9am to 6pm
Location: Former Sports Gym
Avenida Duque de Caxias Norte, 225 – Jardim Elite

Bauru
From June 20th to July 13th, Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 6pm
Location: Angelina Waldemarin Messenberg Municipal Gallery
Avenida Nações Unidas, Block 8 Number 9 Center

San Carlos
From August 5th to September 6th, Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 6pm
Location: Convention Center – Area 2
Av. José Antônio Santilli, 1050 – Bela Vista São-Carlense

Piracicaba
From October 2nd to 31st, Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 6pm
Location: Jumbão – Department of Food Science and Technology
Alameda dos Alecrins

Lorraine
From November 13th to December 14th, Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 6pm
Location: Living Center – USP de Lorena Campus – Area I
Estrada Municipal do Campinho, 100, Bairro do Campinho

São Paulo
From January 16th to February 15th, 2025, Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 6pm
Location: INOVA USP – USP Innovation Center
Avenida Prof. Lúcio Martins Rodrigues, 370 – Butantã