Odysseum Cologne

 

In Cologne, a new house of experiencing knowledge is being created which will also address the issue of global contracts. Scientific innovations and future issues of humankind are in the limelight. A key topic is the interplay of scientific and technical potentials and the manner of how they are made use of by society.

Odysseum has great ambitions. It will not only deal with selected scientific disciplines but will also raise fundamental questions:

• Is technology the solution?
• Where are information technology and genetic engineering leading us?
• Is violence on the globe unavoidable?
• Is there a chance for sustainable development?

With its name, Odysseum Cologne refers to the Odyssey from Greek mythology: a metaphor for the complex development of an individual with his own personal ups and downs. Furthermore, Odysseum will reflect four million years of human evolution from the jeopardized hominid to the ruler of the world, and this still represents an odyssey with an uncertain outcome. In Cologne, it will be perceptible that we are all seekers in an increasingly complex world.

Odysseum Cologne will present outstanding offers for further education to teachers and pedagogues themselves, as well as for their students. The socio-political relevance is obvious: sustainability, biological evolution, nutrition, water, genetic engineering and robotics are all subjects which demand a permanently scientifically secured and didactically attractive processing.

From the landscape level, further in-depth study rooms in the lower floors can be reached.
Odysseum Cologne considers itself to be an open platform for imparting and transferring knowledge and for dialogue within the society.

Therefore, Odysseum wants to integrate a broad spectrum of social groups as well as scientific and technical players and their subjects in the presentation and communication processes. This also happens via the Odysseum-Portal “Life – Insight – Future” and the planned Odysseum-Club.

The establishment of Odysseum Cologne in the midst of one of the densest research regions in Europe is the expression of a modern knowledge society. The broad social examination of the most diverse facets of progress is a constituent of a new growing culture.

In the subject segment “Orientation issues”, for example, the visitor will experience the following scenography: from the ramp, which illustrates the development of the super-organism of humankind, an in-depth study room can be reached in which the Montreal Protocol as a signpost for future is dealt with. The threat to a global resource (namely the intact ozone layer) is imparted as well as its solution, which is specified in the Montreal Protocol, e.g. the successful use of co-financing mechanisms.

In an in-depth study room in the mountain of sustainability, the visitor can also deal with the issue of global contracts. This is done against the background of how to shape our future. Here, the visitor is confronted with questions such as:

• Does sustainability stand a chance?
• Liberty and democracy for everybody?
• Is a world democracy possible?

Odysseum Cologne is due to be opened in 2008.

Project manager:

Armin Frey

armin.frey@global-contract.org