Museum exhibits and installations
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>
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.
Find out more about the Company of Merchant Adventurers
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>
Image: John Oxley
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.
Find out more about the future of science
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.
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.
Play the Science news quiz>
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. Play the food 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.
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.
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>
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!
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 Play Wasted>
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. Try the carbon calculator>
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.
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.
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.
