Ship ahoy!

Request

Museum Kaap Skil is full of stories and adventures about the illustrious history of the sea and the island of Texel. One of their showpieces is a scale model featuring no less than 160 boats – the largest of its kind in the world. The museum wanted to provide extra in-formation about the model in an immersive way. How can they preserve what is special and create a future-proof exhibition at the same time?

Solution

Working closely with Synergique, YIPP developed an interactive projection controlled by touchscreens. Visitors can discover details of all 160 ships and find them on the model. If necessary, museum employees are able to edit all this information in a custom-made CMS. The scale model is not the only thing that was given an update: ship’s wheels from an old game have been repurposed in a brand-new projected racing game. Our devel-opers created an interactive map for this game, featuring the ebb and flow based on cur-rent satellite images.

What were the deliverables?

• 1 interactive projection
  
• 1 multiplayer game with physical ship structures
  
• 1 custom-made CMS
  
  
  

The experience

At museum Kaap Skil, curious tourists visiting Texel discover the stories of beachcomb-ers, found objects, and the exciting world surrounding seafare on the South Sea. Once they walk into the exhibition Ship Ahoy!, the model and projection immediately captivate you. The dynamics of seafare in Texel in the 17th century are brought to life by contempo-rary technology!

Multiple touchscreens surrounding the large model invite visitors to take a close-up look at the ships digitally. In addition to the details, they can discover facts and stories about the ships. Non-Dutch speaking tourists haven’t been forgotten: all content is available in Dutch, English, and German.

Further along, another projection grabs your attention. Three authentic ship wheels wait for players to take them up and steer the projected ships through ebb and flow of the mudflats. Visitors discover how hard it was to restrain the South Sea and must work to-gether to get their cargo safely to shore.


Would you like to know more about Ship Ahoy! or have a similar project in mind? Please get in touch with Anna Heimbrock (anna.heimbrock@yipp.nl).