The time-honoured building exudes tradition and has been home to the first state school of optometrists for a century. In the future, it will be complemented by a new building that closes the gap to the Volkshaus event venue and the Jena Philharmonic. It is the starting point for the exhibition, and from here visitors can access the various levels in the old building. The corridors connecting the old and new building have a fitted appearance and lead to the halls dedicated to the  macrocosm, mesocosm and microcosm as well as the treasure chamber in the attic.

From the large and distant to the human scale, right down to the smallest of details: The great themes of optics unfold on three levels Macro – Meso – Micro. The dark central corridors create a recurring linear dramaturgy that arouses curiosity and uses targeted lighting effects to introduce the themes in an eye-catching manner. An intro room presents each section with a strikingly staged key motif. The adjoining halls feature a light or dark design, depending on the requirements: Expansive stagings alternate with halls in which the focus is placed on select key points. Historical microscopes, telescopes, eyeglasses and ophthalmic devices enter into a lively relationship with interactive elements, phenomena and modern applications. Optics becomes an active experience.

In keeping with Confucius’s guiding principle ‘Tell me and I will forget; Show me and I will remember; Let me do and I will understand’, numerous interactions on the four exhibition levels let visitors explore phenomena for themselves, recognize optical effects and understand how they are related. Experiments with lenses, prisms and optical paths, interactive showcases and media tables, films on history and videos of current research all invite visitors to get involved and experience sheer amazement. Again and again, the important historical exhibits encourage onlookers to immerse themselves in the respective period and get to the bottom of how the objects work.