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Design Concept for the Exhibition

What are we building?

Group of antropology students visited Carúpano in Venezuela during Semana Santa/Easter holiday during the spring of 1999. Their mission was to photograph and film local conditions during their stay. The material they collected will be presented in an exhibition in Helinä Rautavaara's museum. The main goal of the exhibiton is to reconstruct the living conditions in Carúpano during Semana Santa. Our goal as designers is to create as immersive way to display their material as possible. The theme of the exhibition could be put into to words 'visiting culture'.

Displaying Home
Displaying Market
Displaying Church and Plaza
Displaying Esoteric Shop
Displaying Beach

How to achieve immersion?

The exhibition will consist of several reconstructed 'stations' which will present real locations at Carúpano. The design method is theatrical illusion. We hope to achieve a feeling of real space by placing only few actual items in additon to media elements, and focusing a viewers attention to those by using creative lighting and sound design.

The exhibition will focus on things that best describe the feeling of actually being there. The interaction and techology will be as transparent as possible. A viewer should not be in the role of a user, he or she should feel like an active visitor who is anxious to see and explore a different culture. Technology Overview

Not only immersion

Through the whole exhibition there is also another exhibition consisting of photographs taken during Semana Santa. The photographs once in a while blend in to the immersive stations, but build up to an independent whole as well. The photographs work as a track through the exhibition leading the guest from station to station. However, the photographs work also as a reminder that the students themselves were 'other', tourists or visitors in Venezuela, and this exhibition is based on their observations as tourists as much as as students of anthropology.

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