A Changing Arctic is an immersive, interactive exhibit experience comprised of four main interactions within the Wyckoff Hall: Polar World exhibit at CMNH.
- Responsive spatial projection mapping creates an immersive experience that weaves stories across the exhibit into an interactive journey spanning past, present, and future.
- Visitor curiosity is encouraged, and they're given the flexibility to create their own narratives across content which is dispersed and integrated throughout the space, bridging the relationships between the environment, ecology, and culture.
- To engage visitors in participatory, reflective activities, a layer of dynamic context is added to existing physical infrastructure, the unique properties of which are honored and enhanced in an additive, non-destructive manner.
Our project resulted in a concept video, live demos and functioning prototypes, research and design documentation, and presentation to students and faculty within CMU's department of Design, Architecture, and Human-Computer Interaction.
An illustrative journey in four parts
Four non-sequential main interactions enable visitors to explore personal areas of interest at their own pace, promoting a sense of discovery, self-initated curiosity, and agency through flexibility.
We focused on ways to facilitate social interaction through collaborative, shared experiences, rather than manufacturing it through reward systems or other artificial mechanisms.
Experiential Learning and Social Interaction | Fate of the Arctic
Peripheral projections relate the fate of the Arctic to the rest of the natural world, and interactive digital projection mapping encourages participants to engage with others in the space.
Visitors are welcomed by a spatial environment immersing them in an Arctic scene. Participants collaborate to visualize the impact of collective behaviors on the world and reflect on the interconnectedness of man, ecology, and the environment.
Wayfinding and Delineation | Arctic Waters
Since the Arctic exhibit serves as the only entry point to an adjacent exhibit, visitors often confuse the two as a single exhibit, resulting in muddied takeaways and disconnected experiences. This interaction establishes continuity throughout the Arctic exhibit, reinforces boundaries, and distinguishes the exhibit from the neighboring hall, motivating visitors to explore the entirety of the exhibit before leaving the space.
Upon exiting the orientation space, visitors are greeted by responsive exhibit-wide projections extending into the main hall. As visitors step away and navigate through the exhibit, ice floes detach from the central ice sheet, allowing visitors to glide on top of personal ice islands. By subtly relating Arctic content with spatial cues and assisting the compartmentalization of content, information browsing is improved.
Information Browsing | Life Beneath the Ice
Visitors are invited to discover the diversity of Arctic wildlife, often hidden under the ice. By moving the ice floes aside to reveal what is underneath, visitors actively engage with the exhibit to hear narratives about the species that call the Arctic their home.
Making use of previously blank space surrounding the diorama platforms, digital screens couple with sensor-embedded ice floes to promote active engagement and bring attention back down to a smaller-scale, tactile level.
Experiential Learning | Iglu: A Disappearing Art
This full-body activity engages visitors in an immersive, interactive iglu building experience which aims to help document, preserve, and spread appreciation of this disappearing craft. Participants collaborate with nature to build an iglu and learn about the significance of this cultural practice.
Trained models reference motion-capture inputs and make use of an existing life-size diorama, enhancing the experience with wall projections, audio effects, controlled temperature, and tactile wind stimuli. Visitors follow audio-visual guides to enact steps in the process and experience a multi-sensory environment. Upon completing the activity, the rest of the diorama is revealed, allowing visitors to learn more about life inside an iglu.
