ON THE MAP

Maps stuffy relics for older generations? Not with The National Archives’ exhibition ‘Op de Kaart’ (On the Map). YIPP invites visitors to collect, share, and become part of the history and art of map making. Our series of interactives create a seamless flow between object and tech.

The Hague’s National Archives has the Netherlands’s largest collection of maps, many of which are hand-drawn. Each map was created for a particular perspective or purpose, for instance, did you know that maps are sometimes used as propaganda?

In the exhibition On the Map, visitors get to draw their own unique journals, showing the ideas and intentions of map makers while becoming part of the tradition themselves.

Hand-drawn meets Digital

Upon entering the darkened space, visitors are greeted by a massive, mesh-covered cube. Drawings and words are projected on coloured shapes that move randomly across the surface.

The colours represent one of three themes which play a leading role in the exhibition: Travel, Maps & Colonialism, and Malleable Netherlands.

A collaborative art installation

The exhibition starts as visitors take a journal. As they move through the space they’re asked a series of questions, which they can answer through writing or drawing. At the end of the exhibition, these journals are scanned, and their answers projected life-sized on the cube.

This way, visitors can be inspired by one another as they create a collaborative, three-dimensional map.

Life-sized projections

Exhibition makers Studio Mast drew up the plans and narrative for On the Map. YIPP was asked to consider the interactive game and how to project this in the space.

Once visitors upload their journal in the specially-made scanner, their images fly at the cube and become life-sized, floating in and on the cube.

Want to be part of this ever-changing, collaborative art installation? Head over to The National Archives in The Hague and experience the art of map making for yourself.


Want to know more about this project, or have a similar project in mind that we can help you with? Get in touch with Wouter Verbiest (wouter.verbiest@yipp.nl).