Creative Services: Visitor Experiences

Mixed-media experiences provide a vehicle for conveying information and engaging with visitors in exciting and entertaining ways. It’s not necessarily all about flashing lights and effects though. As always it’s the content that is the key.

For the National Trust at Upton House we have created a subtle atmospheric experience involving props, sound and video. Visitors are invited into the atmosphere of the 1930’s during a Millionaire’s weekend House Party.

A video produced in the style of a 1930’s home movie introduces everything: It sets the scene, quite literally. For example, we see an earring being placed in a cardigan pocket and visitors can find the cardigan and the earring for themselves; we see “her Ladyship” getting dressed – her dressing gown can be found in her bedroom.

In the house, visitors hear guests chatting, staff serving; they can read diaries and newspapers, play dominoes and snooker. Dominoes, incidentally, was a very popular game at the time, and this is a key point – everything visitors experience is absolutely consistent with the period and the life of the family concerned. Nothing is out of place, nothing is irrelevant.

At Blenheim Palace we produced a much larger and dramatic experience where visitors witness many theatrical effects using much clever technology.

But whatever the techniques, the key is the communication. The information remembered by visitors as a result of the stories conveyed is the ultimate aim and the visitor “experience” is the means to that end.

Call 020 8398 9509 to discuss your project

Motivation produce all forms of interpretative media for individual displays or complete exhibitions, from simple graphics to the creation of complex micro-environments:

• Video
• Touch Screens
• Soundtracks
• 3D Animation
• Graphic Design
• Websites
• Visitor Experiences

Motivation's approach to interpretation has directly affected the way we are directing properties to look at how they update and plan for the future.
Adrian Tissier, Central Learning Team
National Trust