IT and Culture: Interactive exhibition, celebrating the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Dickens, underway in London

On December 9th 2011 the Museum of London (UK) staged its new exhibition “Dickens and London”, which is celebrating 200th birth anniversary of an English writer, and is called the first major UK exhibition on the author for over 40 years.

Recreating the atmosphere of Victorian London through sound and projections, you'll be taken on a haunting journey to discover the city that inspired his writings. Paintings, photographs, costume and objects will illustrate themes that Dickens wove into his works, while rarely seen manuscripts including “Bleak House” and “David Copperfield” – written in the author’s own hand – will offer clues to his creative genius.

During your visit you'll discover how Dickens' childhood experiences of London, working in a blacking factory while his father was locked away in a debtor's prison, were introduced into the stories he wrote. The great social questions of the 19th century, including wealth and poverty, prostitution, childhood mortality and philanthropy, will also be examined, all of which set the scene for Dickens' greatest works.

Highlights of the exhibition will include an audio-visual experience bringing to life the desk and chair where Dickens wrote his novels, and a specially commissioned film by one of the UK’s leading documentary filmmakers, William Raban, which will explore the similarities between London after dark today and the night time city described by Dickens over 150 years ago.

The new exhibition at the Museum of London is a part of an international project known as Dickens 2012, launched to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth, which falls on February 7th 2012. Institutions and organisations from all over the world are partners of Dickens 2012 and work together to deliver a programme of events and activities to commemorate this very special anniversary. London and UK will host a number of special commemorative exhibitions, while venues in France, Switzerland and the United States will also show the rich heritage of Dickens’s life.

The exhibition at the Museum of London will be open until June 10th 2012.