No dilly-dallying, please. We all have jobs.
Even the humans have jobs in Antopia, where visitors are gifted an all-access pass to a bustling ant colony, allowing them to communicate using pheromones and become an active member of the colony.
Starting with our audience outcome hypothesis - that mirroring the behaviour and world view of ants with experiential mechanics leads to greater understanding of and empathy for the natural world - this session will outline how our collaborative museum superorganism combined interactive gaming technology, science and storytelling to shape, prototype and evaluate Antopia. We’ll look into how we built and iterated the experience in real-time and in gallery using innovations in technology and developed a tech platform for simplicity, interoperability, and operational reliability before revealing the ultimate spectrum of visitor responses to their ant colony experiences.
Antopia: Explore a World of Secret Senses is developed and produced by Museums Victoria and continues MV’s exploration of new approaches to the role of audience agency in museum experiences.
Hamish Palmer, Museums Victoria: Hamish Palmer is Creative Director, Exhibitions at Museums Victoria.
He leads cross-disciplinary museum teams in collaboration with creative sector partners to craft resonant visitor experiences that promote social cohesion and environmental sustainability through the delivery of Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and Immigration Museum’s much-loved exhibitions and publications.
Hamish joined Museums Victoria in 2015 to establish the Experience and Interpretation team and shape visitor-focused exhibition development practice. He spearheaded a holistic approach to storytelling and experience design, underpinned by audience impact methodologies which has since become the cornerstone of MV’s production toolkit.
Richard Pilkington, Museums Victoria: Richard Pilkington is a multidisciplinary digital professional with 25 years of experience spanning from traditional to interactive media, complex AV systems, and technical systems management. Currently serving as Systems Lead for Technical Services at Museums Victoria, Richard blends creative vision and technical expertise to build and maintain the exhibition technology stack with operational reliability.
As Technical Project Lead for the immersive Tyama exhibition, and its follow-up Antopia Richard orchestrated the integration of advanced technologies— Spatial projection design, Game engine-driven content and interactive sensor fusion—that dovetail with the designed immersive experience.
He idealises seamless and robust human-computer interaction that excites and engages audiences.