The Cairngorms biome is unique in the UK - full of jaw-dropping views and opportunities to spot some the rarest and most endearing wildlife in the British Isles.

Operated by Royal Zoological Society Scotland, The Highland Wildlife Park is a magical opportunity to get up close with indigenous Scottish species and global ambassador species. In one visit, a visitor can expect to see wildcats, arctic foxes, polar bear, snow leopards to name but a few.

The park is in a fabulous glacier-carved landscape only a few miles from mountain ski resorts such as Aviemore.

Bright White Ltd has been commissioned by RZSS (whose sister site is Edinburgh Zoo) to plan, design and build a new interpretive scheme, most of which sits inside a brand new building named the Discovery Hub - Scotland’s Wildlife Discovery Centre.

The approach at the Hub uses a wide variety of different media and interactive experiences set within an immersive environment. The key message is that we are not bystanders to the loss of biodiversity because everything is connected.

The Hub is due to open at easter 2024. We’ll add more images as the project develops.

“Two new state-of-the-art history centres in Chester and Crewe will transform the way historic records are protected and shared in Cheshire” - Heritage Fund

Archives are the memory banks of a community. We have been working with Cheshire Shared Services (Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East) local authority to help plan, design, test and evaluate highly innovative new approaches to the way that communities are invited to engage with archives and archive content.

Cheshire’s archives: a story shared is a highly ambitious new project that involves the decommissioning of the record office currently at Duke Street in Chester, and building two new and highly public-facing archive centres, one in Chester and one in Crewe.

Both centres feature a 250 seat ‘Stage’ area - a multifunction space that can be configured to suit a very wide range of productions and activities that will draw community members in. The stage will host history talks, performances of music, poetry, spoken word and dance, school plays, temporary exhibitions - anything that can draw people in and connect them with the memories held in the archive.

Around the Stage is a suite of exploratory and highly engaging interactive experiences and displays, focussing on how places, people and the archive collection evolves over time.

To engage Cheshire’s communities online, a suite of novel and highly innovative online concepts combine together to connect communities with the their memory bank and provide opportunities for exploration and discovery. Powerful data manipulation and AI / machine learning processes will revolutionise the way that region archives provide exploratory experiences for the community.

The centres are scheduled to open in 2025.

Opened in March 2023

To understand the Dean Castle site, we need to go back nearly a thousand years to a time when this landscape was almost untouched by humans. Imagine a valley with thick, dense woodland all around, and at the bottom of the valley, two rivers meet and form one. Inside that dense forest were trackways, two of which crossed nearby.

This was a highly strategic site, for those that controlled the crossing of the paths, and the crossing of the river could also control taxes and defend themselves more easily from attack.

At the Battle of Bannockburn, Edward II was defeated. A local man Robert Boyd was awarded the land around Kilmarnock for his bravery in battle.

Some 50 years after the battle, around 1360, the Boyd family was established enough to build a stone castle - the Keep. The walls are nearly 3 meters thick, and there are defensive features throughout the Keep.

The Keep was the primary living quarters of the Boyds, and a fine place to entertain guests from high society.

The Dean Castle redevelopment is a key asset for the people of nearby Kilmarnock. The refreshed interpretation involves incredible object displays, innovative media, interactivity, and plenty of great real life stories to keep everyone entertained. The fabric of the castle is remarkably intact.

The Castle is home to an incredible collection of medieval musical instruments, and you need to travel a very long distance to see anything like it elsewhere in the world.

The project is being developed for East Ayrshire Leisure, part of East Ayrshire Council. The interpretation plan, interpretive design and innovative development and build are supplied by Bright White Ltd.

In 2023 we completed two packages of work for Royal Botanic Gardens:

Audience modelling and touchpoint mapping for Kew Gardens and Wakehurst. Kew Gardens is the world-renowned botanic gardens set in the historic London grounds of the Kew estate, and attracts 1.35m visitors per year. Wakehurst is Kew’s wild botanic garden set in the High Weald of Sussex, and boasts the Millennium Seed Bank - a global science exemplar. Our role was to map every point at which visitors come in to contact with RBG’s visitor comms. This meant mapping pre and post-visit online interactions as well as each touchpoint within the ground of both venues.

In conjunction with an audience model consisting of tailor-made personas and a comprehensive insights research programme operated by our sub-consultants Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, the touchpoint maps enable RBG to optimise visitor communications across all departments - interpretation, membership, retail.

The touchpoint map also enables RBG to plan additions to the sites, ensuring a smooth journey for the visitor.

For the second package, we were asked to develop a visual communications language for Wakehurst - a guide for the development of 2D and 3D interventions in the landscape, that help to reinforce the themes in Wakehurst’s masterplan. Wakehurst is undergoing some very exciting new developments, so do keep an eye on their website for news.

It’s with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our dear friend and company director Lara Munden.

Lara was a highly skilled and creative writer and content developer who turned her hand to any challenge in front of her, being able to inject her passion and love of nature and humanity into every topic. She had a unique style.

Lara was the perfect company director, being able to assess situations and always help find paths that were professional and respected everybody’s interests. She was the ultimate arbiter.

She was a great friend, and we always looked forward to the long car journeys or rail journeys with Lara because there was never a dull moment - she made sure of this. She was a funny, lively, fascinating person. In the studio or out on site, she was the ultimate professional.

Lara came to us straight from university in 2012, aged just 22, and worked her way up to become director in 2019.

We send our love and condolences to her father Paul, her sister Anouska, her partner Mark and all her close family relations and friends.

Bright White Ltd will not be the same without her.

This piece was written by her - it was the short narrative that went with a holographic art installation created by us for an exhibition called DATACITY in Enghien-les-Bains, Paris.

—

OF YORK MINSTER

Bells still echo

through rambling streets,

to the rhythm of its city.

Invisible patterns emerge

from this seed of a crystal.

A shambles of branches,

following hidden instincts.

The unpredictable beauty

of people and purpose,

of time and the city.

In November our founder Chris was invited to an expert panel as part of Aesthetica Short Film Festival.The abstract for the panel was;

‘VR is being used more and more by museums and galleries to expand the potential of exhibitions, but beyond interpretation VR is being used to help explore new ideas and developments in the exhibition sector. What things do curators need to consider when programming a show using VR? Are the parameters of curatorship the same or evolving with this new technology?’

The panel consisted of our Chris Walker, Tom Higham (CEO of Mediale Festival, York), Tim Powell (Creative Producer, London) and Jonathan Sims (Immersive storyteller, VR and VFX producer, Los Angeles).

St Mary’s Church in the idyllic market town of Wirksworth in the Derbyshire Dales is home to a small medieval relief carving of a lead miner, displayed on an interior wall of the church. The primitive carving is approximately 1000 years old and is affectionately referred to by locals as T’Owd Man.

It was the hard graft of the lead miners that gave the town of Wirksworth its wealth and contributed to the building of St Mary’s. An interpretive intervention within the church was proposed that would allow visitors the option of triggering a film of ‘T’Owd Man’ to tell this story, explaining the importance of lead mining to the history of the town.

The structure needed to to be discreet and the materials sympathetic to the building’s architecture, it had to blend into the surrounding walls when not in use.

Bright White designed the bespoke audiovisual display which was installed in time for the annual Wirksworth Festival in September 2021.

The Creative Informatics Challenge Project focused on designing a new immersive visitor experience for Literature House, based in John Knox House on Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile. The result is an innovative new platform that enables incredible spatial audio experiences.

In collaboration with the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, the University of Edinburgh, and Offbeat Studios, Bright White developed an audio platform that enables a new type of adaptation for works of literature and audio content. By blending historic environments with highly interactive audio content, the project aim was to recreate the pleasure of reading through advanced interactions with non-linear literature objects.

Storytelling is at the heart of our work. So when tasked with bringing a story into shared public spaces it made total sense to create the storytelling hat.

The study was carried out at John Knox house and featured adapted excerpts from the historical crime novel The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry, set in the city of Edinburgh.

Visitors are asked to don the storytelling hat and explore the house. As they move through the space they encounter storytelling spaces. As they enter these spaces they find themselves centre stage of an audio play - a kind of theatre in the reverse round.

They are able to move around the stage, closer to or further away from characters and sounds within the scene, approaching the fireplace the crackle of the fire becomes louder and spot sound effects such as the fire are placed accurately - the sound appears to be coming from the fireplace. A character may walk through the scene and our use of spatial audio means that you will hear and feel them move around you.

The combination of the space and the subject matter create an enormous sense of immersion. As there is no visual interface and visitors are simply wearing a hat which tells them a story there are no barriers between the user, the space and the story.

Similarly, there is little to no learning curve. With no controls to learn it is remarkably efficient to set visitors off on their tour.

The ability to support multiple stories within the same space makes this approach incredibly versatile. A diverse audience can explore the same space and be appreciating very different content, or layers to the experience.

In a major boon for the interpretation of historic buildings, the system requires no interventions in the space - no markers or location hardware.

XR Stories is a research project partnership between Bright White Ltd, The Science Museum Group and Digital Creativity Labs at the University of York.

The research explores the idea that the role of Explainer (a human role that the Science Museum employs) is so powerful in terms of benefit to the audience, that it would be incredible if Explainers were available at each exhibit. The economics of such large scale human resource don’t work, so could the role be automated? Could today’s human Explainers ‘train’ a system to deliver to the audience that then functions autonomously, leaving the Explainers to develop new stories and ways of interpreting new objects?

The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, part of SMG, has an incredible collection relating to sound, recording and music technology. Some items are iconic, but hard to interpret. The team chose to focus on the BBC Marconi Type A- AXBT microphone that played its part in British history from announcements during war time to the microphone that the Goon Show huddled around to record their popular comedy. The AXBT is very heavy and large, a complete contrast to today’s microphones that are so small that they are hard to see.

We worked with SMG on gallery to ‘Explain’ the microphone, seeing which stories and approaches to interpretation worked with the audience, and listening to the questions that they had about it. From this we created over 20 short object based media clips. Some of the clips used cultural references and language appropriate for older visitors, and some for much younger visitors perhaps at the beginning of their STEM journey.

Computer vision (a camera) and computer audition (a microphone) were used to see and hear the approaching audience. The display welcomes the visitors and asks a few short questions to establish what the audience already knows about the microphone. We used an approximation of age and cohort size to feed into DC Lab’s amazing Cutting Room platform, which uses knowledge of the audience to decide which clips to play and in which sequence, all based on the principle that we want to engage the audience for as long as possible in a way that is appropriate for them.

The microphone display and AI-powered motion graphics are displayed in a ColliderCase system, meaning that images, text and video float holographically around the microphone.

The system uses various forms of artificial intelligence. It is currently being evaluated.

Seven Stories in Newcastle is the only museum in the UK dedicated to children’s books and one of only a handful in the world. Their mission is to champion literature for children and young people and their world-class collection represents over 250 authors and illustrators.

Having been closed for many months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic Seven Stories wanted to reopen with two complimentary exhibitions that responded to the challenges experienced by many during this time. The Once There Was Magic and Shifter of Shapes exhibitions were both designed by Bright White Ltd and successfully opened in September 2021.

The aspiration was to offer a reflective and truly magical experience to visitors that explored the theme of magic in children’s books, highlighted the restorative and healing power of nature and celebrated the magic of reading more broadly.

Once There was Magic is an immersive exhibition that focuses on the representation of magic in children’s books, using award winning author and Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell’s The Wizards of Once series as a main point of reference whilst drawing on the works of many other well-known and well-loved authors. The exhibition features the works of C.S. Lewis, Phillip Pullman, J.K. Rowling, Roald Dahl, Celia Rees and Terry Pratchett amongst others.

Visitors are guided by a Wizard through the magical Wildwoods — the setting of Cowell’s story. Along the way they will encounter portals into other magical literary worlds and meet and interact with characters from The Wizards of Once such as Caliburn, a talking Raven, Squeezjoos, a mischievous hairy fairy, and an enchanted spoon. These characters have been brought to life using state of the art digital puppetry. To progress through the Wildwoods and continue on to the next portal groups must complete a challenge or puzzle at each station. The hour-long experience theatrically explores both classic and modern works of literature demonstrating how many different ways there are to think about magic.

At the end of the journey through the Wildwoods visitors return to the real world where they can see original artworks, illustrations and notes relating to the featured works and the worlds they have just encountered.

Once There Was Magic is an enchanting, rewarding and inspirational experience for young children and adults alike. Championing the power of reading and its capacity to empower us and recognising that through reading we have the ability to visit other worlds, even whilst restricted in our own.

This is what Seven Stories’ CEO Mairi Kidd had to say having emerged from the Wildwoods:

I have had a magical afternoon. I met a Wizard named Hilda who led me through a magical land. It was so absolutely spellbinding that - quite to my surprise - I found I was teary-eyed. The group heading through after mine agreed; one of the children rated it 400 out of 10.

Blog Post:

This is an experience not to be missed for any magic lovers. Travelling through the Wildwoods with a wise wizard to guide you, your group will have to tackle 6 challenges before being able to return to the real world. The immersive exhibition includes original artwork, incredible special effects and portals exploring magical creatures, witches, Narnia, headology and more. The works of Cressida Cowell, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkein, J.K Rowling and Phillip Pullman among others are explored. Our family loved learning about each of the topics and having to problem solve in order to escape the rooms. Even our 2 year old could be heard shouting the answers to Squeezjoos. This is a really clever and educational exhibition, but your children won’t even realise that they’re learning a thing as they’ll be having so much fun. We would highly recommend it.

— Catherine Thomson, Mini Travellers, Published 3rd August 2021:

Visitor emails:

We all had so much fun - it’s very impressive to be able to entertain age ranges from 6 - 44. It was so cleverly designed and the best exhibition we’ve seen at Seven Stories (and we’ve loved all the others!) Our girls now want to read every book they heard about from the journey. [...] It really has been our favourite day out of this summer holiday.

I just wanted to write in too to say how fantastic our visit was today to Seven Stories. Our wizard was truly superb and made it such a fantastic experience for our girls (and the adults!).

Visitor Book:

I really enjoyed meeting Caliburn and Squeezjoos. Our guide was brilliant and I loved all the puzzles.

Very well thought out and great fun - lots of lovely touches to this magical journey. THANK YOU.

I felt like a detective and it was so cool meeting the spoon, Caliburn and Squeezjoos. It was epic riding on the magical door to go through the portal and fixing the key.

It was amazing learning about different magical books, objects and characters. I have especially enjoyed meeting Squeezjoos, Caliburn and the spoon.

This was an amazing adventure. Thank you so much, I really liked it. It was really cool.

Thank you for our adventure.

We had a great journey through the wildwoods. We really enjoyed talking to the crow and listening to the sound effects while working out the difficult puzzles. We also enjoyed all of the adventures and activities. Loved the labels on the hand sanitizer. We loved looking at the exciting selection of artwork too. Thank you!!

Squeezjoos I had an amazing journey with you, I will miss you.

Great exhibition aimed at slightly older [children] which I thought was a great idea. Plenty of studio space still for toddlers. I loved it! Loved all rooms and interactive activities through the wildwoods.

Thank you, we enjoyed the Harry Potter room the most (we love Harry Potter films).

Instagram Comments:

It is awesome! We loved every minute of it!

Wonderful!

We had a magical time, thank you.

A wonderful adventure.

Seven Stories in Newcastle is the only museum in the UK dedicated to children’s books and one of only a handful in the world. Their mission is to champion literature for children and young people and their world-class collection represents over 250 authors and illustrators.

Having been closed for many months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic Seven Stories wanted to reopen with two complimentary exhibitions that responded to the challenges experienced by many during this time. The Once There Was Magic and Shifter of Shapes exhibitions were both designed by Bright White Ltd and successfully opened in September 2021.

The aspiration was to offer a reflective and truly magical experience to visitors that explored the theme of magic in children’s books, highlighted the restorative and healing power of nature and celebrated the magic of reading more broadly.

The Shifter of Shapes exhibition centres around The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Together Macfarlane’s poetry and Morris’s stunning illustrations create a celebration of language and nature.

Macfarlane’s poetry along with Morris’s original illustrations are displayed around the space with a particular focus on urban environments, serving as a reminder that we can connect with the natural world wherever we are — if we just remember to look. It is a place for exploration and a source of inspiration, open to all.

A selection of illustrations and poems from The Lost Spells are beautifully animated and projected onto the pages of a book where new animations are activated with each turn of the page. Three different artworks specially commissioned by Seven Stories from felt artist Karin Celestine provide glimpses into hidden worlds, a musical score provided by Rachel Newton brings the space alive whilst interactive elements emphasise the power of creation and offer an opportunity to engage in the magic of the creative process.

In partnership with Explore York we set out to remove barriers between archive content and their audiences. Funded by the National Archives Testbed initiative, we set out to prototype what became known as EAST, Explore Archives Storytelling Tool.

This tool was designed to find and present connections between people, places and events gleaned from archive data in a user-friendly and intuitive way. Stories are created when people, places and events are linked together. Some stories are known, others are new, and wouldn’t be possible to spot without the clever data processing engine.

Opening up and connecting archive data in this way allows creatives to identify and research the real stories that run through the communities that the archives represent.

With the focus on creating more connected data in archives which has been gaining interest in recent years we found much common ground between our approach and the new international standard Records in Context.

Setting a defined geographical area and time period gave us a manageable ‘vertical slice’ of data to work with for our prototyping. The study uses the Hungate area of York as it’s stage. Hungate was cleared in the 1930s slum clearances.

Using a combination of machine learning and archivist insight we were able to layer multiple sources of data together and identify unique people, places and events.

Bright White was part of a consortium of three - including Forever Holdings Ltd and Manchester Metropolitan University - awarded major funding by Innovate UK as part of the Audiences of the Future strand of the UKs Industrial Strategy. Bright White’s role was as the design and technology partner.

Building on the work with survivors of the Holocaust, this initiative sought to move the application of the technology from the cultural sector to the commercial sector. The objectives included the creation of a virtual reality demonstrator experience - an opportunity to meet a hero in VR, ask them questions and get answers.

Through a series of prototypes and tests, the team developed a completely new way to film individuals in a high-risk / high-gain method, where we would only have the star for two days maximum in the studio. Filming for people for VR is complex, and the state of the art prior to this project left a bit to be desired. We developed ways to film that created a real sense of presence, of being in the same space and very close to the star.

The hero chosen was American musician Nile Rodgers, a unique star with five decades of influence in pop music, from Chic in the 70s to collaborations with Daft Punk in the 2010s. Although Nile is music royalty, there are still some people in the world who are not familiar with his music, so how do we make the experience work for extreme fans and new introductions alike?

The response was to ‘onboard’ the audience by giving them a digital magazine on an iPad that acts as an introduction, but also the means of being able to choose questions depending on your personal choices. You then take these questions in to VR with you to ask them to Nile.

Below are some comments from the evaluation participants:

I feel like I've met him and I don’t think I would have any other way. This has an intangible humanity to me that makes it feel more real. Like when he says about how he used to soundtrack his life as he walks home and I think ‘I do that! Maybe he’s normal.

It was more real than I expected. The fact that you could look down and see his shoes. When he stood up, I leaned back! Which I think was a really nice feeling that I think it brought. So, it was more dynamic than I expected it. It felt like he was present.

I think the room, the way that the atmospherics of the room were shot, it felt more like a one on one. It felt like it was just him and me. There was nobody else.

It is like watching an interview but you get to ask the questions. The picking part was so cool because I could put together my own interview. Similar to watching an interview, other than you get to put it together.

It brought him alive more. If you’re listening to an interview, you don’t get to choose questions .

I think it’s even more immersive than an interview because it does feel like I got to ask him what I was interested in rather than someone else's questions.

I was certainly interested in his performance of the Get Lucky thing, because he didn’t use words to describe it so that was interesting to see how intuitive he is. His whole approach to making music comes over really interestingly in his demonstrations.

I was interested in the interaction tech and I think it gives people a different experience with finding out about somebody. So, that Andy Warhol story I think will stick with me, but if I was watching a documentary it might not. Something in my brain says I quite enjoyed me asking the question and him talking to me.

If you have got the list of questions and you know you can get answers to any, this is much better. I’m dyslexic and I hate reading books so I would prefer this any day of the week.

I do think that in terms of this for me it is quite a good way of learningbecause I think that sense of personal agency allows it to go in a little bit deeper, because I can’t kind of drift off.

It's pretty fun you get really into reading these different opinions. You pick the ones that you like… with this someone tells you how to get the best out of your experience, instead of wasting your time asking questions that aren’t that useful.

I liked the question selection interface and the structuring of the themes, and the bits saying these are the ones that will get really good responses. That is really good.

I did learn things. Like with Madonna, he wanted Material Girl and she wanted Like a Virgin. And she was right! I didn’t know that! For him to admit that was brilliant. He will admit when he’s wrong. Probably because he knows how talented he is. His answers are unvarnished.

The Royal Yacht Britannia was Her Majesty the Queen’s floating palace for over 40 years. Now permanently moored at Leith in Edinburgh, the Yacht is regularly seen as Scotland’s best visitor attraction.

Bright White was appointed by the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust to refresh the audio tour. The tour is provided in 30 languages worldwide. The highlights of the tour include the dining rooms, spotless engine rooms, the Yottie’s quarters, the Bloodhound racing yacht and the Rolls-Royce Phantom V.

England has a rich industrial heritage of coal mining, and the story is kept alive through the inspiring interpretation at the National Coal Mining Museum for England.

Bright White Ltd was appointed by the museum to refit and redevelop two central gallery spaces within the main visitor hub - the Main Gallery and the Home Life Gallery.

The Main Gallery is the largest interpretive space at the museum, and is dedicated to displaying the collections. The Home Life Gallery documents the social history aspects of mining and mining culture.

Cawdor Castle is home to the Dowager Countess Cawdor. It is best known for its connection to Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, and its incredible gardens. It is located in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, Nairnshire, between Inverness and Moray.

Bright White has been working with the estate at Cawdor Castle to create a graphical timeline of the history of the castle for display during the tourist season.

The distinctive pink harl and fairytale shape of the castle make Craigievar one of the most distinctive icons in the landscape of Aberdeenshire. The original wooden door to the castle has survived, and has been lovingly conserved by the National Trust for Scotland.

An augmented reality object display tool allows the visitor to explore the door and unlock hidden stories. Augmented reality allows the visitor to see a digitally-enhanced view of the object - missing elements are digitally replaced, such as parts that have rotted away, the knocker, the ironwork plate and the door handle.

Materials are brought back to their original condition when new, seen as they would have been in their heyday - the wood, freshly planed and waxed and the freshly-smithied metalwork..

Invisible features or those on the reverse of the door can be shown via an X-ray / MRI scan-styled view of the object - the perpendicular wooden slats only visible from behind, the methods of fixing, and the hinges (which are on the reverse).

Small details can be highlighted and enlarged - small graffito, evidence of manufacture of metalwork and wood grain.

Scientific analysis, research and conservation activity can be highlighted - dendrochronology provides the evidence for the dating of the door and video interviews with the conservators tell the story of their work.

An interesting 21st Century display approach to a 15th Century object.

The Eye as Witness : Recording the Holocaust is a touring exhibition created through a partnership between The National Holocaust Centre and Nottingham University. The exhibition poses the question, through whose eyes do we see the past? Images of historical events are often commissioned or taken with a particular agenda in mind, and yet we often forget this fact when viewing historical photographs.

NHC&M’s page on the exhibition is here.

The gateway to the exhibition is a bespoke virtual reality experience created by the Mixed Reality Lab at Nottingham University. Creator Paul Tennent’s concept involves stepping through a photograph, into the world in which it was taken, and being able to explore the staging of the photo, and look back at those taking the photo.

The body of the exhibition explores photographs taken from other viewpoints, such as survivors taking photographs in secret, and hiding the film in canisters in the ground.

The volumetric and aesthetic concepts were created by Bright White Ltd. The highly flexible, lightweight, and almost entirely recyclable touring exhibition structure and content display was designed, built and delivered by us.

The exhibition is visiting The Imperial War Museum North (Manchester), The National Memorial Arboretum, Lakeside (Nottingham), The Peace Museum (Bradford), The Jewish Museum (London), South Hampstead Synagogue (London), Leeds Church Institute, and more.

Available for the iOS and Android through your app store.

The Journey is a bold new educational project by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum with the aim to increase outreach of the highly successful and popular Journey Exhibition installed at the Centre.

The Journey is not a true life story based on a given person, but tells a story familiar to children this age growing up in Berlin in the 1930s. It is based around the central character Leo Stein.

The Journey is a digital experience akin to interactive theatre, with explorable virtual environments and incentives to progress through the story. Real survivors start and end the story, and the experience blends in the NHC&M’s incredible object collections.

The target audience is older primary school students and, unusually, the digital experience is designed to be encountered freely as an experience on app stores, but also as part of a structured learning programme within classrooms. There is an accompanying project that creates high quality teaching support materials to accompany and enhance the digital experience.

The Journey is a self-contained and autonomous experience. Produced by Bright White Ltd for the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, with specialist animation provided by Studio Liddell, and explorable virtual environments and mechanics by D3T Ltd.

Moray has a rich and diverse heritage and cultural sector. However, whilst individual sites and events are very successful, they are not well connected to create a cohesive narrative, and opportunities to maximise community engagement or to help maximise tourism.

Bright White was appointed as part of a collaboration including Jura Consultants and Ice Cream Architecture to create an interpretation plan and interpretive concepts for the whole of Moray.

The interpretation plan, and lots of development pages and photographs of the stunning Moray area are available here.

The project explored how Moray’s rich heritage can be further enhanced through working closely with Moray’s Creative Scotland Place Partnership to maximise the engagement of the community, in particular younger people, and attract new audiences, participants and visitors. It aimed to increase community cohesion and ownership of heritage assets and identify appropriate steps to address inequality by engaging new audiences and highlighting opportunities to further enhance heritage through a range of different media.

The output included the development of 6 characters whose stories intertwine at key locations in Moray. Each character’s story can be seen as a day out in Moray. Some of the stories trace the coastline, some the River Spey, and some criss-cross in between. Each character offers an inspirational narrative through which to explore the majestic natural and built heritage riches of the Moray area.

'Thrilling' - Sir David Attenborough

Yorkshire’s Jurassic World, a major new exhibition designed by Bright White Ltd for York Museums Trust, has opened to the public after months of anticipation. It tells the remarkable story of Yorkshire's dramatically changing landscape and of the creatures that inhabited it millions of years ago.

National treasure, Sir David Attenborough travelled to York to officially open the exhibition. Shown around the exhibits, he was visibly thrilled with the collections and by the innovative interpretive techniques used to bring them to life. The 91 year old naturalist was as playful and enthusiastic as ever about a subject that he said has always fascinated him.

‘Endorsements do not come much better than having the most famous naturalist in the world lavish praise on your new museum exhibition as he makes a special visit to open it.’ - The Yorkshire Post

The exhibition transports visitors back to the deep seas, tropical reefs and dinosaur country that existed here in Yorkshire over 150 million years ago. Virtual dinosaurs roam across real dinosaur footprints and the museum’s famous fossilised sea dragons are brought to life through augmented reality.

‘You have five of the most sensational sea dragon skeletons anywhere and they are brilliantly displayed. Brilliantly displayed. I was thrilled to see them.’ - David Attenborough

The museum holds an internationally significant collection and Yorkshire’s Jurassic World utilises the latest technology to bring ancient specimens to life in astonishing ways, allowing people to immerse themselves in the collections in ways not previously possible.

You are given the opportunity to feed a sauropod lunch in a virtual reality experience which shows how Yorkshire’s largest dinosaur may have looked.

‘If that isn’t sensational, I don’t know what you really want out of life.’ - David Attenborough on feeding ‘Alan’ the sauropod.

‘My suspicion is that this museum will be overwhelmed with people, not only young people but everybody who wants this extraordinary experience, and so you’ll be queued I daresay, let me tell you, it’s worth it.’ - David Attenborough

—-

Quotes from recent publications:

“Yorkshire’s Jurassic World is a great permanent addition to the UK museum scene.”

“Yorkshire’s Jurassic World is a nice reminder that palaeontology is one science still open to all.”

“…the museum makes good use of tech with a 3D animation of the theropod Megalosaurus “walking” in it’s own fossilised footsteps."

Graham Lawton, New Scientist

“For anyone interested in a slice (or three) of life in the Mesozoic, this exhibition is well worth a visit.”

“The highlight of the exhibition for me was a visit to the mid-Jurassic, with the help of a virtual reality helmet and wand."

“You could almost be paddling over a Jurassic reef.”

Susannah Lydon, The Guardian

Say It Loud : How Posters Talk To Us

A space designed to make you think about looking

For centuries the printed poster has been used to communicate messages from the small to the grand. The National Coal Mining Museum holds a large collection and Say It Loud showcases posters designed for use across the mining industry. Drawing from a largely unseen collection the exhibition explores how different posters leverage diverse techniques to engage the eye and the mind, and ultimately to communicate their message effectively.

Through the posters, we explore a range of design principles and how these are employed to suit a purpose. Themes such as typography, colour, illustration, photography, composition, shock value and humour are considered. The viewer is encouraged to think about the principles they have been introduced to and how different posters in the collection utilise these.

The posters act as entertaining viewing in themselves. When seen in such large volume they are aesthetically captivating and to some extent tell their own story. For those uninterested in the design principles, the exhibition will appeal on many other levels, from those who remember the posters in use and want to reminisce, to others who will appreciate the eclectic nature of such a diverse collection.

[Note - the photographs are site installation progress, and they will be updated soon.]

In 2015 the City of York was designated as a UNESCO City of Media Arts. DATACITY is a three month exhibition at the Centre des Arts, Enghien-les-Bains, Paris, showing works from each of the 9 UNESCO Media Arts Creative Cities around the world.

The installation, entitled York Minster, weaves a variety of stories and storytelling tools together into a single hologram-like presentation. Real fragments of York Minster sit at the centre of the display, and from it a story literally unfolds of how the Minster has been highly relevant in the creativity of the City for centuries.

The installation sits between entries from Austen, Texas (the home of SXSW) and Sapporo, Japan. Other representations are made from Senegal, two cities in France, Republic of Korea, Austria and Israel.

The Exhibition is free and runs until the 13th July 2017.

The dramatic yet gentle storytelling effect would not be possible without the amazing ColliderCase technology.

Update : The work has recently come back from the National Museum of Singapore, where it was on display alongside AR and VR installations for the fantastic DigiMuse initiative.

Leon Greenman OBE was the only Englishman to be imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp. During the Holocaust, he endured six concentration camps and a 60 mile death march. He lost his wife and young son during the Holocaust, and vowed that if he were to survive he would dedicate his life to ensuring such events would never happen again. 

‘Greenman changed people's lives with his words. For him, the camps and the fight against racism was not a history lesson but rather a battle for today to prevent a repeat of history.’  - The Independent

The Leon Greenman Gallery at the National Holocaust Centre not only honours and commemorates his many years of dedication to Holocaust education, but hopes to continue it.

In the Gallery we are introduced to Leon’s story, the powerful lessons he drew from his experience and his determination to share these lessons with the world.

Presented in the ColliderCase is a brick that was thrown through Leon’s window in the 1990’s by far right activists. Leon kept it, and it is displayed and interpreted alongside pebbles he kept from each of the camps he was in - stones he invited into his home, and stones he didn’t. 

The gallery also acknowledges the wide range of responses to the Holocaust that other survivors have shown, displaying objects that belong to them, and loaned objects from national collections that assist in telling a cohesive story.

Determination

to bear witness

to injustice

and intolerance.

Determination

to confront prejudice

and communicate

truth.

Determination

to live

with strength 

and independence.

Determination

to respond

to the deafening calls

of silenced voices.

Determination

to persist

in this way

to the end of his days.

A letter from Bonnie Prince Charlie to King Louis XV is the main focus of rich media interpretation.  The visitor watches as the script on the original document glows, highlighting a passage of text, before this is ‘replaced’ with accessible type in the visitor's own language. The exclusive capabilities of ColliderCase technology enables this visual transformation to take place, whilst maintaining the object in a secure, conservation grade environment.

Interpretive content is delivered in a choice of six languages, chosen by the Trust to best reflect their audiences, in addition to large print and as audio description, enabling a wide range of visitors access to these unique and historically significant documents.  Video content appears right next to the original documents, so there's no need for external interpretation distracting the visitors' attention away from these fantastic objects.

Located in Stirling, The Engine Shed is the flagship visitor centre of Historic Environment Scotland.

Using a wide variety of storytelling means, both traditional and innovative, the Engine Shed tells the story of Scotland's built heritage.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop said:

“The new Engine Shed couples state-of-the-art technology and world-leading innovation with our historic building traditions, inspiring a new generation to learn the traditional skills and use the authentic materials that will help to keep Scotland’s history alive."

Holocaust education is becoming ever more important in today's world, but it is hard to relate to life in Nazi Germany and the huge number of deaths that followed.

Today, at the National Holocaust Centre in rural Nottinghamshire, survivors tell their story to thousands of schoolchildren each year. Importantly, it has been shown that giving visitors the ability to ask a survivor a question helps them to connect, engage and relate.

The survivors are getting older, and one day this profound opportunity will no longer be possible. 

The Forever Project is a highly ambitious project that has recorded 10 survivors' stories. Each survivor then went through a week of filming where they were asked over a thousand questions each. The technological result is a digital installation that projects a virtual survivor on stage as they tell their story, and gives the audience the ability to ask a question and get an answer.

The project is now open, with the first survivor, Steven Frank, being presented in this way. Please see the project's website and the website of The National Holocaust Centre for more information.

10 survivors have been chosen. Their stories are unique. The project team had devised ways to generate every question that could feasibly be asked of the survivor, and capture the answer using cutting-edge audio-visual techniques. Each survivor is asked around 1000 questions, taking an entire week of filming.

In parallel, software has been developed that understands spoken word audience questions, finds a matching answer, and cues the audiovisual response. 

The survivor appears seated on stage in 3D, reproduced in 4k stereo film media, and a 3D laser-scanned version of the survivor is created for future-proofing.

Bright White has worked closely with the NHC to gain funding from 

The Heritage Lottery Fund

NESTA

The Arts Council

The Arts and Humanities Research Council

Pears Foundation

Wolfson Foundation

The Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission

Mick Davis, Chair of the Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission recently endorsed the project: 

"The many survivors who dedicate themselves to telling their stories in schools and institutions like the Holocaust Centre near Newark do incredibly important work. The Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission was established to ensure these stories live on when we no longer have these incredible individuals with us.

"I want to congratulate the National Holocaust Centre on embarking on this important project which will capture valuable survivor testimony for future generations."

The new William Heath Robinson Museum in London opened in 2016 and is the first permanent display of his work anywhere in the world. Our interpretive exhibition design sits inside a modern new building by architects ZMMA. 

Philip Pullman recently wrote the following of William Heath Robinson:

The delight given by Heath Robinson’s absurd contrivances for doing such things as testing mistletoe for its kiss-permitting properties, overcoming the difficulties of conveying green peas to the mouth, or trying the nerve of a promising young student at the Royal College of Steeplejacks, has been known and relished by the British public for a century now. It isn’t just the preposterous complexity, which for all its nonsensical elaboration looks as if it might just work, it’s the gorgeous amateurishness of the actual objects themselves: the wheels made of two rough semi-circles of wood nailed together, the drive-belts consisting of several lengths of differently-sized string tied with large lumpy knots, the struts formed from several pieces of gnarled and twisty wood laboriously lashed together ... It’s immediately recognisable, and immensely lovable.

Heath Robinson entertained generations with his contraptions; a ‘Heath Robinson’ mechanism usually described an overly-elaborate way of solving questions that perhaps can remain unanswered, such as designing a machine for putting the holes into cheese. Nonetheless, Heath Robinson’s contraptions were all mechanically sound, and theoretically could work. His illustrations, although passive, will the viewer into animating them in their minds; and his straight-faced human observers and operators lend a sense of parody to the mechanised world.

His illustrations are inspirational for many reasons, and in interpretive terms they offer a rare chance to take a light-hearted but no less meaningful approach to mechanics. This will be the first time that the collection has been on permanent display.

The Museum will be situated alongside West House in Pinner, London. West House is a fantastic community project that attracts a large number of families every day and it is critical that the complimentary museum offer responds to this. Permanent and temporary galleries offer access to his original illustrations, and a park-sided ‘Studio’ lays down challenges for visitors of all ages to tackle. A wealth of construction media is provided, such as Meccano, Lego, Plasticine, pens and component templates, and visitors are tasked to design and make serious contraptions according to the challenges set.

Bright White worked very closely with the curator to develop a storyline that follows the life and work of Heath Robinson. The story is punctuated and evidenced by the unique object and artwork collection. The collection contains a wide variety of sketches, ink drawings, prints, volumes and cards that are, for the first time, being placed together to tell his life story. Under the direction of the curator, Bright White was able to provide an accessible and attractive display paradigm that allowed the curatorial requirements for display to be 100% compatible with the role of the collection in inspiring the audience, and provide evidence through objects at regular and key moments in the life of Heath Robinson.

This project won numerous major awards such as AHI Excellence in Interpretation, the Museums and Heritage Award for Innovation, and Best Visitor Experience from ASVA.

The new £9.1m Battle of Bannockburn Visitor Centre is situated 2km south of Stirling. The site also comprises of the 1960s ‘Rotunda’ battlefield monument and a memorial park.

A partnership between The National Trust for Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland, the Centre opened in 2014 to mark the 700th anniversary of the most decisive battle in the Wars of Scottish Independence by creating a new learning-led Visitor Centre on the site of the 1960s Centre.

The project vision required the largest ever collaboration between heritage bodies in Scotland.

Digital forms of interpretation and learning dominate the visit. Digital approaches are leveraged to provide a unique and powerful learning experience.

The world’s first Multiplayer Cooperative Battle Simulator is at the core of the visitor offer, and is surrounded by motion capture in fight scenes in a 3D immersive environment, and blended real and virtual environments.

Every visit is different because the visitors are the protagonists.

The interpretive scheme uses multiple digital storytelling techniques, a non-linear visitor route, and minimal use of written word.

The project involved the creation of a massive 3D digital archive of objects, characters and weapons.

A visit is designed to spill out into classrooms before and after.

‘Bannockburn [is a] spectacular triumph for the combined forces of 3D science and historical narrative.’ - Telegraph

’What a dish!’ - The Herald Scotland

‘A visceral sense of the odds against the Scots.’ - Financial Times

’What waits within dissects [the kings’] seismic collision with thrilling modernity.’ - Independent

‘The next generation of museum interpretation in action.’ - Stirling Observer

Blists Hill’s new critical edge introductory immersive environment uses 7 projectors and 9 speakers to wrap moving image and sound around the recently-arrived guests.

The project was won via competitive tender, and specifically for our novel design that meant that visitors can arrive and depart with free-flow behaviour.  The system works exceptionally well and has had very positive reviews from VAQAS. 

Bright White proposed a looping non-linear model with considerably higher visitor throughput, zero queueing, and no mass exodus. The model continues to work very successfully as visitor numbers continue to rise, passing the target 250,000 mark.

The immersive theatre media uses 2D images, video and sounds recorded on site to emulate the feeling of furnace, smelting, transportation and explosive mining - all critical to understanding the role of Ironbridge in the early Victorian period, but very hard to demonstrate safely to the public. The recordings were sliced-up and represented, creating an avant-garde orchestra of sound and vision that does not attempt to deliver too much content, only context, feeling, emotion, danger, heat and activity. Visitors then progress into the recreated town, where they interact with the living history interpreters and buildings, but armed with an understanding of the industrial underpinnings of such Victorian communities.

In 2007, the Norwegian Diver’s Association took the Norwegian Government to court claiming that pioneer divers in the 70’s were exposed to potentially fatal risks that were known by the Government, but kept hidden.  The government appointed the Norwegian Petroleum Museum in Stavanger to commission a book to document the period, and also deliver a museum exhibition to explain the critical work performed by the pioneer divers, and illustrate its important contribution to the Norwegian economy.  The museum in turn appointed Bright White to join the team to deliver the project. 

The project team consisted of several divers from the era, representatives from the government, authors, researchers, the museum staff and Bright White.  The sensitive nature of the subject required, more than ever, for total communication between all parties.  After much debate, the project team decided to adopt Bright White’s proposal; to take visitors on a recreated dive, using actual recorded data of a real dive in 1972, and show just how dramatically detached from everyday life the diver’s work was.  

The exhibition used a blend of mechanical interactives, objects and a 180 degree digital simulator theatre that takes the audience on a simulated dive using computer graphics.  The audience are invited inside a diving bell getting ready for descent.  At a particular point during the experience, the walls of the bell are dissolved to reveal the full image, unhindered by the bell.  3D animated characters swim away from the bell to cut a section of pipe.  The underwater work site is incredible.  Attention has been paid to every last detail - from the gauges inside the bell that move accurately with pressure changes, to the exact species and behaviour of sea life. The underwater workplaces were developed by studying sketches made by talented artist divers at the time, who documented what they saw, and what they did.

The result is a breathtakingly immersive journey to another world, following the everyday activities of the pioneer divers.

The Heart of Gozo is a new museum and cultural centre designed by Bright White. Working directly for the Roman Catholic Church, and adjoining the Basilica of St George, Rabat, the museum takes the form of a modern art gallery to display the wealth of artworks that the church has kept behind closed doors for decades and, in many cases, centuries.

500 square meters of indoor gallery space are used to display priceless works of art.  Some paintings date from the 17th century and some of the silverware dates from 1550.

The church and the community have their roots in the Baroque, and an unimaginative form of interpretation of the island’s history is simply not appropriate.  Instead, we built a 20-metre high sculpture that stretches from the bedrock in the basement to the roof four stories up. It is built from stones from the entire island, donated by the residents, and sorted into order of age. Some stones at the base of the columnar sculpture stretch back to the Ġgantija period, predating the pyramids, and describing the era of the oldest freestanding structure in the world, which is to be found on the island. At the top of the sculpture are freshly-hewn stones representing today. In between are objects, fragments, architectural elements and mural fragments (real and recreation) that show the story of the island, and the myriad different Mediterranean forces that have ruled it for four thousand years. 

The artworks are displayed in cases and on plinths around the sculpture, and have localised graphic-based interpretation. This is traditional interpretation with a twist.

The museum collection is divided into the following galleries:

People

People are at the heart of Gozo. Pulled in many different directions over the years by invading forces, bringing with them new ideas, languages, materials, styles and attitudes, the island has absorbed and intermingled these, whether consciously or subconsciously, to its own strength.

Gozo’s complex history is evident in objects ranging from the everyday to the elaborate decor of its Basilicas and churches, this array of influence has touched all aspects of life on Gozo, where the constant has always been faith.

Truth and Aesthetics

Truth never changes, expression does.

It is a duty of the Church to render the truth accessible to different generations. Modern takes on ancient stories, events and figures help to keep the Church alive.

Splendour

The community calendar revolves around various religious festivals and ceremonies. The value of these events can be literally seen in the magnificence of the objects at their centre. Shining brightly, reflecting the faith that surrounds them.

Matter and Form

Gozitans have shaped the things around them for the purpose of worship.

Wood, stone and metal have been crafted, cloth has been intricately embroidered. The level of care and patience evident in these creations is characteristic of the devotion applied to worship.

Figures

Figures tell the story of the bible whilst simultaneously saying something about the history of artistic influence in Gozo.

From the classical Mannerist style to the expressive freedom of the Baroque period, the purpose remains the same - to inspire understanding and faith in the most evocative way.

Grimes Graves is a Neolithic flint mine protected and interpreted by English Heritage. The grassy landscape has been mined in many locations, creating a highly unusual pitted terrain. Following archaeological excavations starting in the 1870s, much has been learned about the ancient people who worked here.

This installation uses projection mapping to animate a tactile relief model of the landscape, calling up video explanations, animations and interviews.

The model is a  tactile and accessible way to learn about the site without having to venture down the steep ladder into the pits.

The innovation in Malton Goes to Market is in the approach taken to highly flexible displays.

Each case and graphic display can be relocated or changed with the minimum of fuss. The grid display system defines the graphic layout of the display, meaning it is very simple to remove parts of a display. New parts of a display automatically snap into alignment.

The displays are designed to capture the spirit and eclectic nature of a lively British Market, reimagined with a contemporary aesthetic.

The styling of the content elements is one of looking to the past whilst moving forward, a re-imagining of the market-place through contemporary design language.

Title Elements are styled to resemble a stall or shop sign with typography and imagery combining to create a logo. This creates a unique identity (logo and colourway) for each interpretive section.

Malton Museum Foundation has funding in place to update the displays on a highly regular basis to encourage repeat visits to this delightful North Yorkshire market town museum with a rich and varied history of commerce.

Lofoten Storvågan offers visitors the opportunity to get up-close and personal with sea life of the Arctic, in this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bright White was appointed develop a new exhibition; a joint venture between the three industries whose aim was to open up the sustainability issues they face alone, and those that they face together within the communities of the High North. Bright White Ltd was appointed on a design, build, deliver and instal basis, a complete turnkey package.

The client had no preconceptions about the exhibits, only the content and arguments that needed to be conveyed. We listened hard, and actively encouraged the client to share as much of the information with us as possible, and with passion. We worked over a year through a multi-staged design process encouraging input at all times, and seeking approvals from each of the numerous client parties at each stage.

Our early meetings with the client were around a table that had at its centre a map, which was extremely useful for everyone to point and tell. We suggested capturing the essence of this meeting by creating a living map – one which could serve any purpose we wished because we had total control over the appearance of it – it is painted with light. The map is interactive, and visitors can trigger 12 short video sequences. This acts as the central hub to the room, from which visitors spur off to examine the other displays. 

The wide variety of important topics and viewpoints held by a large client team challenged Bright White to ensure that everyone was equally and totally satisfied. Sometimes the viewpoints of the client team were in direct conflict with each other, and we helped them to structure their thinking around presenting this to the public, and to promote openness and honesty.

The map table technology won an award in the Best New Product category at the Museums and Heritage show 2008.

Illuminating York 2012 (Vic Reeves’ Wonderland)

Wonderland was an outdoor festival that ran for 4 nights in York’s central Museum Gardens.  Comedian and artist Vic Reeves (Jim Moir) collaborated with Bright White on this project, lending his unique humour and surreal artworks to the creation of Wonderland.

The Museum Gardens were transformed with a complete lighting scheme, creating a stunning environment with multiple points of interest, including large scale projection onto the exterior of the Yorkshire Museum, the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey and the Hospitium.  

The experience was highly interactive, giving the public an opportunity to ‘join the dance’ being projected onto St Mary’s Abbey, dancing in the niches. Visitors powered LED angel wings by pedalling bikes.  A never-ending live artistic sequence was painted with light onto the Hospitium building which kept time with a soundtrack played out over the Museums Gardens.

Illuminating York 2009 (Vespertine)

Vespertine was a 10-night outdoor audiovisual experience created specifically for the Illuminating York Festival.  Bright White won a design competition to provide the main commission for 2009.

A Vespertine flower is one that opens in the evening.  Similarly, animals that are active in the evening are said to be vespertine.  It’s also a lovely word…

“…At night the green spaces within our City become a theatre of war for survival between species.  Evolution is said to sometimes resemble an arms race - as the moth evolves means to evade the bat, then the bat must become better-adapted to capture the moth.”

After millions of years of evolution, the resulting relationship between the predator and the prey is so advanced that it can be considered beautiful, whilst always being brutal.. We used high-impact audio and powerful video techniques to capture the spirit of the creatures in a never-ending chase.  As humans, what is our relationship to this nightly ritual, and what does it say about us?…”

Vespertine used two soft-edged HD projections against the remarkably flat and even wall of the King’s Manor in York, combined with a bespoke 5.1 surround sound track to create a powerful, and sometimes terrifying encounter with ‘cuddly’ animals.

Bright White used 3D visualisation and modelling techniques to accurately predict the tonal characteristics of the ancient wall when projected, alongside the latest in acoustics modelling software to temporally and harmonically ‘tune’ the devastatingly-powerful sound track to the space.  The result was an enrapturing set-piece performance.

Other artists at Illuminating York in previous years include Patrice Warriner, Ross Ashton, Usman Haque and Paul Kaiser.

The National Trust for Scotland commissioned Bright White to create a graphic novel for the 700th Anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn and to mark the opening of the new visitor centre, also designed by Bright White.

We worked closely with writer / historian Dr Fiona Watson, artist Conor Boyle and letterer Jim Campbell to create a compelling fictional story with the history of the battle as its backdrop.  On Dangerous Ground: Bannockburn 1314 is a 76 page graphic novel that includes sections in 3D and colour designed by Bright White. 

“The concept behind the novel was to use an exciting, popular and relevant modern medium to engage the public in the story of Bannockburn.”, Tom Ingrey-Counter, The National Trust for Scotland.

The limited physical constraints on traditional exhibition space available in the Manchester Central Library foyer proved an exciting spur to create a highly striking response that presents and delivers the exhibition content in a unique way. The challenge was to make a real impact in this busy and contested space (six exits, signage, theatre publicity, reception desks etc) and stylistically reflect the research content and ideas we want to communicate. 

The format proposed was the creation of an extraordinary figure standing ready to meet and greet the many visitors who enter through the Library door. The 7ft high model was futuristic, fantastical and engaging with embedded screens, sound and touch elements. In this way we provided a platform for a variety of commissioned films and the timeline highlighting the significant events of the NHS’s own history; the history of notable clinical research with an emphasis on those that have originated in the North West and Manchester and from those some more in-depth narratives that emerged from our contact with Nowgen. 

One of the great advantages of the Our Kid concept was the opportunity to tour the figure to other venues (hospital foyers etc) because it will exist as a stand alone figure in its own right therefore providing additional value to the original budget.

Bright White was commissioned by WARP records to design and install the lighting intervention on Sheffield's notorious Park Hill estate. The estate was undergoing refurbishment directed by Urban Splash, and during the period of Warp's 20th birthday party, the site was available for use. 

The one-night lighting scheme involved employing an army of volunteers to place 700 individual battery powered LEDs on the main architectural members of the brutalist 1950s structure.

The City of York Council moved into its new headquarters in 2013.

Platform 2.0 is a physical station that assists the audience to interpret the artworks and the architecture.

First and foremost, it interprets the artworks for blind or visually impaired visitors, who cannot enjoy the exclusively visual artworks. Secondly, it assists those without a visual impairment in interpreting the artworks.

This sequence explains the context of the building and its former role as York’s railway station. An artistic audio interpretation of the building ensues, followed by short interviews with CSP Architects, CYC as the commissioning body, Beam and John Newling about his interventions and artistic works within and around the building.