Design a plane
The Yorkshire Air Museum were looking for a way of bringing to life a local aviation pioneer called Robert Blackburn. There aren't many pictures of Robert and he always looks very stern. We created an interactive which lets you relive the decisions the Blackburn Aircraft company made when designing three of its aircraft. Design your aircraft and then try and test flight to see if it flies.
Play Design a plane>
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Customs Cutter Simulator

The
Merseyside Maritime museum had a problem. How do you communicate the challenges and visceral nature of ships and the sea using static objects in glass cases? When the gallery is focused on
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (tax collection) the problem becomes acute. We used 3D game technology to create an exciting simulation of sailing a Customs Cutter on a mission to catch offshore smugglers.
Paragon Creative created a full size reconstruction of a Cutter wheelhouse, complete with steering wheel and throttle. Visitors sail down the river and need to avoid the shore, buoys and other ships. They also need to deal with real Customs issues such as tainted fuel and maritime law. The sun gradually sets over the sea and both tension and atmosphere increase as visitors race to catch the smugglers before they escape. Not surprisingly, this has quickly become the most popular exhibit in the gallery.
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Find out more about the Company of Merchant Adventurers
Find out more is one of two kiosks I created for the
Company of Merchant Adventurers in York. This is an information rich exhibit containing a complete story of the hall, 3D reconstructions of the hall through the ages, a timeline and a quiz. The exhibit is constructed so that it is easy for the Company staff to update the content. It is also being converted to run on the company's website and will be distributed on a CD to schools in the surrounding area. For this exhibit I worked with
Bivouac for the design and illustration and
Bright White for the 3D animation.
Watch a 3D reconstruction of the hall (requires broadband)>
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Be a merchant
Be a Merchant is one of two kiosks I created for the
Company of Merchant Adventurers in York. The game gives you a chance to try your hand at being a medieval merchant. You have to buy and sell goods all over Europe and try to make as much money as possible. The game is based on real historical archives and features a stunning medieval map of Europe. For this exhibit I worked with
Bivouac for the design and illustration.
Play Be a merchant>
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Extinct! - Are you smarter than a plant?
Professor Ottoline Leyser from the University of York wanted more people to understand the strategies that plants use to maximise their chances of survival. So we created a "sim city" type game which lets you take the role of a wild or farmed plant. Can you avoid getting eaten by pests, attract bees to pollinate your flowers and make enough seeds to ensure your chances of survival?
Thanks to the BBSRC for funding support.
Play Extinct!>
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Find out more about the future of science
The
Centre for Life had a lot of future science they wanted to put into their gallery without covering the walls with text panels. We created three different exhibits on the subjects of
Climate change, Ageing and Stem cells.
Each exhibit contains a vast amount of information to keep the fact hungry happy, lots of gorgeous photos and there's even a quiz to draw in the less enthusiastic. The exhibits are constructed so that it is easy for the centre staff to update the content if the science changes. Thanks to
Bivouac for the graphics.
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Science news quiz

The
Centre for Life were looking for an exhibit to display the latest science news feeds from the internet. The problem is this isn't really new any more. My local Sainsbury's has a newsfeed display and so do some of the bus stops here in York. Nobody takes any notice of them. So we came up with the idea of turning those news headlines into a simple
Have I got news for you style missing words quiz. The one in the Centre for Life is displayed on a huge 55 inch screen, complete with thumpable push buttons and "uhh-ohh" noises. Needless to say its a great hit with visitors and who leave knowing far more about what's happening in science than they ever expected. As usual, thanks to
Bivouac for the "read all about it" graphics.
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The food game

The food game was created for the
Newcastle Centre for Life. Players have to move around three different countries to try and find enough to eat. Although fast paced and fun the game also contains a lot of information about the food people eat in different countries. For this exhibit I worked with
Bivouac for the design and
Dilski for the illustration.
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Multiplayer space game
Spaceport is a new attraction which opened on the Wirral waterfront in 2005. I created an exhibit for up to four players based around a huge projection onto a table. The exhibit features a quiz on the Milky Way and then an exciting race round the galaxy.
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The grain game

The grain game was created for the
Science Museum's web site to publicise the well known
Launch Pad gallery. It's proved to be enormously popular and at one point was accounting for over 10% of all hits to the museum's site. Players have to use the various conveyers belts, funnels and other equipment to catch all the grain before the time runs out.
Play the grain game>
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East Sussex composting game

East Sussex Council are very proud of their new industrial composting facility, and rightly so. It finds a new use for hundreds of tonnes of garden waste and stops it ending up in landfill. But how could they communicate this without getting entangled in jargon and the general ickyness of the process? We focused in on the really fun part of the process - driving the truck. We then created a simple game which lets you try for yourself. Can you pick up all the waste and get it in the right vessel without denting your truck?
Play Composting>
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Islington green living centre

Islington Council opened their
Green living centre in Autumn 2007. The centre is designed to help people to live a greener lifestyle. Islington had a wealth of information they wanted to have available and rather than print thousands of environmentally unsound leaflets they asked us to create two information rich exhibits which would let visitors email information to themselves. The exhibits are designed so that Islington staff can easily update the content themselves. Each exhibit also has several quizzes to bring the less committed visitors onside!
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Climate change weather studio
The
Centre for Life wanted to talk about the how climate change could affect our weather in the future. So we created a mini weather studio to let visitors read the weather in the year 2050. The forecast is displayed on an autocue and visitors have to read it while pointing out the features on the map which is displayed behind them. It's not as easy as it looks on television! The exhibit provides several different forecasts to reflect the possible effects of climate change. It was completed in May 2007 and at the time some of the predictions looked a little extreme. After the summer of 2007, with flooding in Northern Europe and heatwaves in the south, it's all starting to look uncannily accurate. Graphics and photo doctoring by the
usual suspects.
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Wasted - The recycling game
Wasted is a fast moving game I created for the
Plasticity exhibition at the
Science Museum in London. You have to try and recycle as much rubbish as you can before it fills your bedroom. To make matters worse your mum and dad are out shopping for more stuff - you need to give them the right advice to avoid getting even more rubbish. The only good news is that you're being helped by your two pet mice. Yes, it's going to be one of those days...
Hand-drawn illustrations by
Dilski and a clean graphic look from
Bivouac give this exhibit a fresh original style
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Carbon calculator

The carbon calculator was also created for the
Newcastle Centre for Life. They had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted so we responded by giving it a cool clean design and adding some elephants... The exhibit asks you questions about your lifestyle and then calculates the amount of carbon dioxide you've produced. Once you're feeling sufficiently guilty it then gives you help and advice on cutting down. Thanks to
Bivouac for help with the design of this one.
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Art labels

The Science Museum's Energy gallery contains several commissioned contemporary artworks. I created a touchscreen label for each of these to interpret them to gallery visitors. I worked with design company
Graphic Thought Facility to make sure that the labels complemented the existing gallery graphic scheme.
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Gary Hill art interpretation
HanD - HearD variation is a stunning art work by the acclaimed artist Gary Hill. At over 14m high, the projected installation is one of his largest and is displayed in the Science Museum. I created a simple kiosk to interpret the work for visitors to the museum.
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Lauchpad Trace system

The Science Museum in London revamped its popular
Launchpad gallery in November 2007. The museum was keen to encourage visitors to reflect on the experience and leave a trace of their visit behind so we created the
Trace system to do this. Visitors create drawings or comments which are then scanned in and displayed on screens in the gallery. Gallery staff can control the whole experience using a web based content management system.
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Visitor feedback system
I created an extensive kiosk system for the Science Museum in London to allow them to collect comments from their visitors on a range of issues. The comments are then moderated and sent back to the gallery where they can be displayed on kiosks, projections or the website. The system is known as
Tell and consists of several kiosks and a web based moderating system which is capable of handling over 100,000 comments a year. The images show a kiosk on the theme of
Genetic testing for huntington disease.
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