Latest news
Holovis technology helps unwrap ancient mysteries at British Museum
Holovis has announced a new project to provide the AV integration for a major exhibition on mummies at London’s British Museum, which opens on 22 May.
The exhibition at the London museum, Ancient lives, new discoveries, uses findings from CT scanning to tell the different stories of eight individuals who were mummified over a period of more than 4,000 years, from the Predynastic period to the Christian era. The mummies come from sites in Egypt and the Sudan.
The exhibition aims to reveal different aspects of living and dying in the ancient Nile valley.
To achieve this, Holovis is working with the museum’s technical staff to install screens and two ProjectionDesign F22 projectors – one projects onto a two metre curved wall at the heart of the exhibition while the other “is mapped accurately to create historic imagery onto an ancient artefact jar, displaying the variety of content that would have been inside it,” according to Holovis CEO Stuart Hetherington.
The screens range in size from 42” to 22” displays and are used to bring the story of each mummy to life. “They are arranged in a variety of portrait and landscape formations and placed strategically to capture the eye and enhance the audience journey,” said Hetherington.
Contextual objects from the museum’s collection, such as amulets, canopic jars, musical instruments and items of food, are used in conjunction with the Holovis systems to create an engaging audience experience, while being empathetic to the stories being told and respectful of the human remains on display.
Hetherington said a custom control system would be created to allow the museum team to move around the exhibition space with a wireless touchscreen device, giving them the ability to “control everything from one location”.
The company previously worked with the British Museum on the international touring exhibition Mummy: the inside story, for which Holovis created a 3D 4K-resolution theatre that immersed the audience in the ‘virtual unwrapping’ of a 3,000-year old mummy. Holovis provided technical support during the exhibition’s travels to Virginia, Brisbane, Mumbai and Singapore.
Bittesby Campus
Mere Lane
Nr Magna Park
Lutterworth
Leicestershire
LE17 4JH UK