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Design Category
Experience design, 1999
Design firm
AMNH Exhibition Department (New York, New York)
Collection
(2000) AIGA 365: 21
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The centerpiece artifact of this installation was the actual boat that Shackleton and his men used. At the stern of the boat were two interactive stations, each featuring a real sextant fitted with sensors and microcontrollers and linked to a computer. Three screens with 50 feet of synchronized projections of an ominous Antarctic ocean surrounded this. At each station, visitors followed instructions that directed them to use the sextant to take a sight of the sun, visible only occasionally on the projection screens. The results of the visitor’s navigational effort were displayed on the computer screen and compared to the route Shackleton and his crew actually took.