An immersive wall-to-wall experience celebrating the beauty of science.

The Beautiful Science Gallery is an awe-inspiring immersive experience that explores the seasons in Otago as observed in science, Māori tradition and everyday activities.

Projections of twelve massive interactive display screens on the walls of the Otago Museum use innovative technology to guide the exploration of the outside world. They operate on a first-of-its-kind laser-interactive system driven by gestures, which was created by Gibson International.

We also created software that choreographs layers of images and video on each ‘digital canvas’ in a dynamic 3D perspective that comes alive as users move through the experience. Visitors explore thousands of images and can also live-tweet comments and photos that upload directly into the gallery.


Our role

  • Museum consultants
  • Experience design
  • Multimedia design
  • Spatial design
  • Fabrication and installation
  • Ongoing support and maintenance

Giant digital canvas creates an interactive immersive experience

As visitors stand at each projected digital canvas, they place their hand underneath a laser beam that tracks their movements. Two beams dictate whether the navigation is going left, right – up or down. Gesturing through the imagery will uncover additional content – the equivalent of more than 200 square metres of canvas for each of the four seasons.

Each of the twelve super-sized multimedia canvases is crafted using thousands of images, information and research contributed almost entirely by local and national organisations and individuals, including Ngāi Tahu iwi.

Hundreds of bonus images grouped in pop-up story clusters are hidden in the video layers. They are triggered when you steer the projection window towards tell-tale pulses.

Gibson International collaborated with

Otago Museum (NZ)

Got a question, need a hand, or want to partner up?