IBM – THINK Exhibit

Channeling the spirit of the awe-inspiring experiential spectacle of the IBM Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair, SYPartners forged a creative partnership with Mirada to design the expansive, multi-platform interactive Think Exhibit. This installation would chronicle some of the great discoveries, inventions, trials, errors, and triumphs that have paved humanity’s long road to improving the way we live and function, and show how such significant advances—how humans go about accomplishing them—tend to follow the same distinct, repeatable pattern of progress. Just as importantly, the exhibit strove to highlight pivotal present-day advances, innovators, and future trends born of these centuries of scientific progress.

Located on Jaffe Drive at Lincoln Center in New York, the THINK exhibit combined three unique experiences to engage visitors in a conversation about how we can improve the way we live and work:

Data wall

Visitors approaching the exhibit are drawn in by striking patterns displayed on a 123-foot digital wall. The wall visualizes, in real time, the live data streaming from the systems surrounding the exhibit, from traffic on Broadway, to solar energy, to air quality. Visitors discover how we can now see change, waste and opportunities in the world’s systems.

Immersive film

Inside the exhibit space, visitors step into a media field composed of 40 seven-foot screens. As the screens come to life, visitors discover a 12-minute immersive film. A kaleidoscope of images and sound surrounds them. They are enveloped in a rich narrative about the pattern of progress, told through awe-inspiring stories of the past and present. They are inspired to think about humankind’s quest for progress, and about making our world work better, today.

Interactive experience

At the conclusion of the film, the 40 media panels become interactive touchscreens, transforming the space into a forest of discovery. Visitors can explore our quest to see more—from clocks and scales to microscopes and telescopes, RFID chips and biomedical sensors. They learn how maps have been used to track data, from early geographical maps to the most recent databases and data visualization platforms. They interact with the models used to understand the complex behaviors of our world—from weather prediction algorithms to virus spread simulations. They hear from leaders of world-changing initiatives about how they built belief. And they read about some of the most inspiring examples of systemic progress around the world. Each touchscreen also gives visitors the opportunity to provide their point of view and learn what others are thinking.

Andrew served as the technical supervisor guiding the technology used on the data wall and multi-screened film, and served as a VFX supervisor on-set and in post production.