This project was an academic group activity where students created a museum space from a given archaeological material. The Pacific Innovations project examined the Pacific technologies displayed in paintings from explorer James Cook's voyages. My role in the project was to design a museum space that would incorporate indigenous perspectives and avoid traditional museum techniques.

 

The spatial layout of the exhibition space was reliant on the images' approximate geographical position around the Pacific region. Dynamic curves escorted the visitor’s gaze through the space and followed organic design to avoid a geometric form that has been commonly associated with colonial museum design, i.e. hard lines and sharp angles. The exhibition layout reiterates the importance of drawing attention to detail when displaying indigenous material remains through the form of indigenous Pacific technologies.

 

As shown in the concept art, the entrance to the exhibition includes a tilted sealskin kayak which invited guests to explore the various dimensions of the exhibition. Furthermore, the protruding display was divided into three elements, an overall explanatory text that defined the installation, a map of the Pacific region with the four engravings and a timeline located at the bottom of the structure that showcased the various voyages of James Cook. The central space was a soft grey colour to account for the vast quantity of natural light in the exhibition space. The window intentionally contained sharp lines and angles aimed at transferring the mindset of our intended audience from their fixed mindset to an alternative view of indigenous culture. The central area between the exhibition rooms also incorporated bending seating areas, pools of water and vegetation in alignment with the organic design and reflected a simplified appearance of the Pacific Ocean with the presence of water, vegetation and undulating wavelike lines. The four rooms were devoted to investigating the engravings from Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti, with each room standardised to contain the highlighted technology at the rear and a perspex box near the entrance. Each room differs through the implementation of unique interactive elements, such as rope-building, boat design and virtual reality.

 

The final exhibition conveys authenticity in combination with our mission statement, which was to illuminate an alternative side to James Cook’s voyages as would have been commonly taught throughout British education. In continuation of this goal, the space distanced itself from the recognisable colonial display of indigenous material remains by incorporating undulating lines and natural forms. This project was an opportunity to experiment with spatial design and software packages such as Adobe Sketch/Draw/Fresco and Adobe InDesign.