Pledging for Change. Playing our part in an immersive installation on climate change.
Frontier worked with DOTDOT to visually conceptualise and illustrate an immersive installation about climate change for the new long-term Te Taiao Nature zone at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa). The Climate Converter invites visitors to explore the serious environmental issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand and understand the actions we can take, both collectively and individually, to create change.
The Climate Converter is an immersive space, featuring a mesmerising ‘New Zealand-esque’ environment, illustrated in a delicate origami style and projection-mapped across the four walls and floor of the exhibition space.
We were responsible for designing the composition and illustrating a range of visual assets, from city skylines to forest floor textures, interactive spot animations and plinth consoles. This presented us with the particular challenge of representing the serious impacts of climate change in a clear and honest style while retaining a positive and optimistic feel. Together with DOTDOT, we established an engaging visual language that worked across the wall projections right through to the plinth user interface. Our final designs featured a playful and friendly style, with a touch of humour to capture the imagination of each visitor.
The Climate Converter launched at Te Papa in May 2019 as part of the new permanent Te Taiao Nature zone. The exhibition is expected to last 10 years and the Te Taiao zone has already had more than 100,000 visitors.
The Climate Converter was awarded silver in Spatial Exhibition Design and bronze for User Experience Design in the 2019 Best Awards.
Interactive features
Interaction is key to the Climate Converter. Visitors interact with their environment by raising their hand and touching an object to trigger eco-friendly actions at a broad, societal level, with the aim of achieving a carbon neutral New Zealand.
Our challenge was to Illustrate a range of fairly complex scenarios and actions in a visually clear and concise way. We worked closely with Watermark Creative to bring each feature to life in a short animation sequence – changing petrol cars to e-vehicles, adding more renewable energy sources, and switching to sustainable transport to name a few. With these choices, visitors are enabled to design their own carbon-neutral New Zealand.
Plinth Interface Design
Interactive plinth-based touch screens are a major feature in the Climate Converter as they provide the opportunity for visitors to make a personal pledge – one simple real-world action to fight climate change.
The paper origami aesthetic continues through to this user interface, ensuring a cohesive and immersive experience; sheets of paper rotate and unfold as visitors pick a category, write out and submit their pledge. They then watch as it transforms into an origami kererū that flies into the environment, joining the other visitor pledges.
