The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is the Danish museum for ships, seafaring and boatbuilding culture in ancient and medieval times. With a combination of digital and analogue tools, the exhibition ‘Climb Aboard’ allows visitors to feel the forces that are at play when sailing across open seas in an open ship. The analog and physical part of the exhibition are two ships staged with authentic artifacts, while the digital part consists of three projections on the walls between the ships accompanied by a ceiling of light as well as, a soundscape engulfing the exhibition.
Based on a day cycle, the cinematic projection on the walls changes from clear and bright, almost windstill morning, to an overwhelming darkness with dramatic wind, thunderstorms and high sea.
Developed in a game engine with a specially developed ocean and weather system, the three projections are connected to a camera on a mast on a 3D-modeled ship, each of these cameras are respectively pointing to the left, straight ahead and to the right of the ship. This creates the feeling of standing in the middle of the ocean, looking at the horizon.
The light in the exhibition follows the day cycle of the projections. During the day changing colors of the sky create a vault over the exhibition space. At night, the room is covered by a hovering starry sky. This visual experience is tied together by a soundscape composed of effect sounds mixed with musical interpretations of the life at sea.
Location: Roskilde, Denmark
Photography: Yoke
