The Field Museum - Regenstein Halls of the Pacific Interactive Attract

To gather new attention to a long-established exhibition, Angle Park and the Field Museum collaborated on a unique digital attract feature. We used projection, sound and a touch table to activate a recently redesigned entrance, providing a vibrant human presence in a previously spartan area. The installation now allows visitors to passively or interactively experience first-person testimonials from members of local Pacific Islander communities.

In early discussions, the museum expressed a desire to let members of local communities who had participated in co-curatorial activities speak for themselves in a direct and unfiltered manner. We worked hard to create a safe and welcoming filming environment and make it clear that no topic was off the table. The result of two in-depth days of filming is a range of often-emotional stories about lived experiences as “the other” in America, the challenges and joys of maintaining a connection to tradition and identity, and mixed feelings about how museums depict cultures and hold objects that represent traditions. Many video clips are rooted in the museum’s Pacific collection and use objects that the participants chose that connected with their lives.

In attract mode, the installation’s default playlist loops through a subset of clips throughout the day, chosen for brevity. At any time, visitors may take control of the projector and use a responsive, sleek touch interface to browse and play back any topic they desire. These include longer, in-depth explorations of hard topics that wouldn’t ordinarily get play in a high-volume museum environment, but work well in this context.

Design and content development: in collaboration with Field Museum Exhibitions, A/V hardware by the Field Museum