Squint/Opera, the creative studio, is celebrating the recent opening of the Imperial War Museum London’s new Holocaust Galleries, which the company worked on alongside exhibition designers Casson Mann and the IWM curatorial team.
The Holocaust Galleries explore the topic within the wider context of WWII, immersing guests in the powerful human story and making sure that we can understand and learn from the past.
Making history feel current
For this project Squint/Opera created a variety of media content across 11 galleries, such as digital exhibits, video installations, films and motion graphics, helping to bring real stories to life. The brief was to present this complex subject in a sensitive and engaging manner, allowing guests to gain a deeper understanding.
The project team at Squint/Opera wanted to make history feel current, in order to make sure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. It used film and digital media to draw audiences into the narrative, as well as using motion graphics to visualise key data around the scale of the deportation and a digital map to put into perspective the complicity of the multiple parties involved.
The team also aimed to foster a meditative and emotive environment, where visitors could both learn and reflect. For instance, one exhibition is the Massacre room, with a backdrop of large-scale projections of serene landscapes, which is actually modern-day footage of former massacre sites. This helps to explore the topic of absence and memory by treating the landscape as archive material, as well as bringing the Holocaust into the modern day.
Squint/Opera specialises in audio-visual work and media design for museums and visitor attractions. It has worked on a number of projects at leading venues around the globe including the V&A, Empire State Building, Bordeaux Wine Museum, Willis Tower, Frost Museum, The MET and Museum of Irish Literature.
The company also recently collaborated with artist Dustin Yellin on a new AR art experience, Procession.
Top image © Hufton+Crow
