Client
Museum of London
Exhibition Design
In house team
Eighteen new video, interactive and sound installations were created for the new permanent galleries at the Museum of London.
The key sculptural multiscreen AV installation that uses 3D video mapping, animated media, images and typography to bring an early printing press to life.
Archive imagery was used to create a 6 minute film that graphically told of the impact of the first printing presses in London.
Three HD projectors were used and a master movie split across the three sources, synced to a specially written audio commentary in the style of a contemporary news report, voiced by Panorama presenter Paul Kenyon.
In addition we specially created the featured font printing it by hand via woodblocks and a manual letterpress to create the alphabet for all display graphics.
Specially created software was developed for a number of exhibits that read signals from proximity sensors built into solid tabletops. This enabled us to create touch surfaces without requiring special screens or interactive foil surfaces. Projection from above was used to create a finely detailed reactive interface that users could trigger by touch or gesture. Made in London was a game for younger visitors that allowed them to follow the paths they may have taken as a young apprentice.
One of the highlights of this project was getting access to original etchings created by William Hogarth of the denizens of 18th Century London. We generated high resolution images and then split the illustrations into layers. Using the touch tables visitors could select and explore the rich array of characters within Hogarths illustrated portraits.
Diversity uses the pioneering documentaries of Peter Watkins and the Museum’s film archive to create atmospheric backdrops of Post-War Britain to their object display cases. Each decade is represented by a cabinet containing a collection of fashion, graphics and products of the age. The film backdrops play out slowed down and mute until we ‘tune into’ the sounds of that era and the film soundtracks and speed snap into playback.
For Iconic Landmarks we tried to imagine what a Google Map of 19th Century London would appear like and produced this for Iconic Landmarks. Finely detailed period maps can be explored by selecting key locations from the menu. This then brings up layers of supporting information, images and graphics. The map itself is subtly supplemented by details such as boats sailing along the Thames, shadows and clouds passing overhead and the early marvel of steam trains speeding across the city.