Bode-Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Perfect Match! Bode-Museum
An art mediation project that brings research, teaching, and digital interpretation together in one shared, everyday-friendly format.
With “Perfect Match! Bode Museum,” the Bode Museum uses the logic of a dating app to lower barriers around museum spaces and historical art. The project is rooted not only in mediation but also in research: the content is based on provenance research and object biographies, developed in a joint seminar with the University of Greifswald.
What makes this project special
- The app makes the Bode Museum’s collections accessible in an unusual format for a 21st-century audience.
- The familiar swipe-and-match principle playfully lowers barriers to museum spaces and “high art.”
- The content is based on current art-historical approaches from provenance research and object biography.
- The project emerged from a joint seminar between the Bode Museum and the Caspar David Friedrich Institute at the University of Greifswald.
- Students researched object histories and developed them for the app in workshops with curators and conservators.
- Hidden stories become tangible in dialogue, from painted evangelist figures to contexts of war and looted art.
Voice from practice
Lowering barriers without losing the research
“For many people, dating apps in one form or another are part of everyday life, so why not try applying that logic in the hallowed halls of a museum? It is also about lowering barriers: taking away fear of museum spaces and fear of high art through new technologies.”
Access
The familiar dating-app logic makes the entry point into historical art easier and more immediate.
Research
The app translates art-historical research into a format that makes it accessible without trivializing it.
Teaching
The joint seminar with Greifswald also turns the app into a teaching format with a real public audience.
The app is the result of a joint seminar by the Bode Museum and the University of Greifswald.