SEE MONSTER
by Newsubstance, for Creativity in the UK
In September 2022, SEE MONSTER, the world’s first decommissioned gas platform, opened its doors to the public as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of creativity that took place across the country. Reimagined as a gigantic art installation, SEE MONSTER’s new purpose was to stimulate conversation around reuse, renewables and British weather.
Award-winning creative studio Newsbustance was responsible for the transformation of the old rig, and collaborated with scientists, technologists, engineers, artists and mathematicians to realise this unimaginable feat of engineering. The finished product, which was moved to Weston-super-Mare for its grand unveiling, features publicly accessible levels animated by a 10-metre-high waterfall, a slide offering an alternative route through the ‘monster’, kinetic wind sculptures, a wild garden of plants and trees, an amphitheatre, a broadcast studio, and a space for experiments in sustainable energy generation.
Our judges said: “Extremely impressive one-off project, with a team that made something very unique, bringing together a huge collaborative effort. It’s really clever that the whole structure and project itself talks about its message and there’s so much to discover given the level of detail here and explorative elements. It’s also absolutely right that access was central to the design process.”
First Light Pavilion, Jodrell Bank
by Casson Mann, for Jodrell Bank
The First Light Pavilion is a purpose-built visitor centre at Jodrell Bank, the world’s first radio astronomy site and home to the radio telescope that detected quasars, black holes, and Sputnik 1. Becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, a recent exhibition in the pavilion, designed by Casson Mann, has further emphasised the need to protect its history and present it in an inclusive and accessible way.
At the heart of Casson Mann’s plans for the exhibition was the use of the giant dish panels from the 1957 Lovell Telescope as a focal point, allowing visitors to have direct contact with this special piece of equipment that has been touched by cosmic rays and ‘space dust’. This dish also serves as a surface for multimedia projections which show the stories of Jodrell scientists. Elsewhere, interactive elements offer visitors the chance to crawl into a black hole, climb into a flying saucer, and sit in a deckchair once used to record cosmic phenomena. Across all aspects of the exhibition, Jodrell’s unique history is positioned centre stage, communicating both the human stories and the scientific breakthroughs that it has been home to over the years.
Nature. And us?
by Kossmanndejong for Stapferhaus
The exhibition Nature. And us? at the Stapferhaus museum in Switzerland presents visitors with some of the most pressing questions of our time: ‘What impacts our lives, what triggers the country’s interest, and what moves the world?’ These are asked in relation to humanity's connection with nature, and the current issues we face within this sphere, including climate change and environmental destruction.
The interactive exhibition, developed in collaboration with Amsterdam-based design agency Kossmanndejong, creates a space for dialogue through inviting visitors to engage with stories about politics, science and philosophy. They are asked to leave their shoes at the door, in order to cross various types of textured floors in different rooms, each one providing a new sensory experience. Within the rooms, live music and projected images communicate key messages and questions and platform diverse voices from around the world, while eight separate pavilions offer the chance to understand alternative human-nature relationships. At the centre of the room is an abstract representation of the Earth, with satellite images on the outside that reveal traces of human activity and graphs and data on the inside that show the planet’s current state.
Together, these various aspects of the exhibition create a transformative experience which encourages visitors to reflect on their relationship with nature and their place within it.
Dreamachine
by Collective Act
In 1959, British-Canadian artist Brion Gysin invented a device that uses just flickering light to create strong illusions inside the mind of viewers. Now, over 50 years after its creation, the Dreamachine, as it's called, has been reimagined as an immersive collective experience.
Conceived by London-based Collective Act, and made in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning artists Assemble, Grammy and Mercury nominated composer Jon Hopkins, and a team of leading technologists, scientists and philosophers, the multisensory installation invites visitors to witness the power of the brain. A choreography of flashing lights and music creates a kaleidoscopic effect behind their closed eyes which is conjured entirely by their minds. The space itself utilises a clever relationship between speaker position, light position and ceiling height to maximise the experience, allowing each audience member an unobscured light and music path. All of this is made possible through the combined efforts of many experts from many fields, joining together to apply their knowledge to a truly transformative installation.
Exhibition Design
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The Burrell Collection
by Event Communications, for Glasgow Life
Brought about by a need to protect the structure and the work within, Glasgow’s famous museum The Burrell Collection recently underwent a complete revamp, extending its lifespan and retaining its position as an icon of modernist architecture.
Overseen by exhibition design agency Event Communications, this project involved reworking the interior of the museum to preserve it, but also to provide more accessibility to Glasgow’s diverse community. Updates include new entrances, a piazza, an expanded café and events space, and expanded galleries. Meanwhile, a new hub at the centre of the building allows for all visitors to access every floor with ease. Each of these floors now offers something totally different, from cultural context around the artworks to interactivity with craft techniques. Enhancements to the building also provide various levels of the museum with beautiful natural light and a wide-ranging material palette that integrates seamlessly with the original structure and design.
War Games: Real Conflicts | Virtual Worlds | Extreme Entertainment
by Imperial War Museums, for Imperial War Museums
War Games: Real Conflicts | Virtual Worlds | Extreme Entertainment is an exhibition that opened at the Imperial War Museum in London in 2022 and aimed to investigate the potential of war-focused video games to communicate important understandings around conflict and the impact it has on people’s lives.
Designed by the museum itself, the exhibition was composed of a main area and a separate games zone where visitors could engage with 11 different relevant video games and a training simulator. To navigate the space, they needed to pass through a series of ‘levels’ created to evoke a game-playing environment, and in which they would encounter a range of multimedia experiences. These included large setworks, video projections, wall graphics and themed floor treatments. The experience was enhanced through a muted RGB colour scheme and a pixelated graphics style that referenced the early days of video game design. Neon signage was used throughout for key messaging such as ‘floating’ gaming lexicons that signalled to visitors the augmented layers of information found in video games.
FLUGT Refugee Museum of Denmark
by Tinker imagineers for Varde Museums
The FLUGT museum, located in Oksbøl, Denmark, was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and exhibition designers Tinker imagineers. It stands on the site of the country’s largest refugee camp for German civilians after WWII, which is now occupied by a dense forest. The museum first opened its doors in 2022 and invited visitors to learn more about the history of the camp, but also about the refugee experience – both during that period and in the present day.
To do so, Tinker imagineers implemented a clever exhibition design in the museum that places intimate storytelling at its heart. Through the use of immersive audio and video projections, visitors can experience soundscapes, animations, interviews and original film material that helps bridge the gap between the town’s history and the ongoing refugee crises that we face today. Outside the museum, a large model of the former camp, which is made of concrete and steel, gives visitors an idea of scale, while the forest itself becomes the site of an immersive audio walk that educates listeners on what daily life at the camp would have looked like. As a result, visitors are given an invaluable insight into the refugee experience and allowed, for a brief moment, to step into their shoes.
