In November 2003, Gibson International won a concept competition with French architects Triade and project managers Horizon to develop a multi-media tourism attraction in the famous oyster producing region of France, Marennes. Marennes is about 40 minutes drive from the Atlantic port of La Rochelle.

The concepts feature:

A large multi-screen immersive show set in an estuary with real water and boats, viewed from a stylized wharf… 

A village of quaintly traditional oyster farmer “cabanes” build on a boardwalk raised above a central oyster pond on which children can race model oyster boats… 

The “cabanes” are in fact individual show spaces where a different aspect of raising (or eating!) oysters is treated by different scenographic techniques…

Cabane Dorée In a life-size pepper’s ghost theatre a “virtual chef” demonstrates how to make a number of different oyster based dishes – and you can use your bar-coded ticket to down-load the recipes of your choice to your own “Oysterland passport”.

Cabane vert treats the social history and idiosyncratic culture of the region in a series of sets and tableaux where portraits come alive and talk to us and a miniaturized peppers ghost theatre gives us a window on the future…

Gibson International is responsible for detailed exhibition and show design, the multi-media scenarios and their production, and the interior architecture of the complex. 

Gibson film crews hit the region July-December 2005, as the scenography team supervises the base building and exhibit construction for an opening in July 2006.

Cabane Rouge Four large LCD screens nestled under a glass-bottomed oyster pond treat the life and farming cycles of the celebrated “vintage” oysters of Marennes-Oléron.

Cabane Bleu A large inclined “table top” projection of a 3D map of the region forms the background for layered image sequences treating the ecology of the region, while motorized gobo projectors identify sites of interest on a 180 degree panoramic cyclorama of the region.

In 2001 we won an international design competition for the development of an NZ$30 million visitor interpretation centre on the site of an important discovery of Neanderthal remains in St-Césaire, France.

Gibson International Ltd was responsible for all the interactive, immersive and educative exhibitions for this centre, which opened in May 2005.

 The basis of our concept was to focus on the personal story of the life and evolutionary context of the young female Neanderthal found buried there, and to do this by a controlled visit combining immersive group experiences with innovative interactive multi-media experiences to explore and interpret the archaeological artefacts.

 While popularist in their expression, the exhibitions had to also be scientifically accurate and educative, and we worked closely with professors Yves Coppens (College de France) and Bernard Vandermeersh (University of Bordeau).

The whole centre has been designed to ensure that the complex world of scientists is made accessible to all. Children and adults will have a personalised experience through a 'smart' entry ticket. This personalised ticket will gather information on the visitor according to their nationality, age group, gender etc and customise their interactive experiences accordingly.

In 2002 we began the design and installation of a multi-media showpiece for the new museum in New Plymouth. The nationwide tender was won on the basis of dynamic visual design, story-telling skill and installation experience. The exhibition ran until 2008.

The dramatic 10 minute film mixed 3D digital construction with archive footage, photos, and 35mm film footage taken specifically for the project. The film played on two non-standard screens with a combined width of 12 metres. The screens were divided as 1,2 or 3 images, and were surrounded by innovative reflective fittings and an extensive theatrical lighting design.
 
In a region so dominated by ‘the mountain‘, the theatre experience told interweaved elements of its history – from the time of legend and volcanic creation, to first epic climbs of the mountain, land wars, Parihaka, the discovery of oil and the diverse, spiritual nature of the Taranaki region today. The whole story had extremely important Maori elements, requiring careful clearance and
iwi liaison.

We were also responsible for the specification, installation and programming of lighting and video control systems which included multiple projections, surround sound and a dazzling light show that even incorporated the seats.

Puke Ariki was major step forward in regional museum design.

In 2002 we created two multi-media projects for the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa. Blastback ran very successfully with over 350,000 visitors until it's closure in 2008.

Blast Back was one of the most popular of the museum’s original “Themed Attractions”. The show returned the visitor to the geological and mythical creation of New Zealand by means of a themed pre-show experience followed by a large screen “ride film”.

Originally developed by Jerry Hewitt, this show was at the time of opening a break-through in NZ museum experiences, and remains a benchmark for popular visitor attractions.

As the museum consolidated its culture and focus, it wanted to add more educational elements to the experience.

To meet this brief, while retaining all the popular qualities of the attraction, we re-designed the pre-show space and installed a full multi-media experience that clearly told the parallel mythical and geological creation stories that are the subject of the ride film.  This enabled the visitor to identify both stories when they are synthesised in the ride-film experience.

We used both Maori and Paheka narrators to lead a rich 16 channel surround-sound experience punctuated by illustrative images from the film magically appearing in realistic primordial forest scenic art.

We also produced a 3 minute post-show to the ride film, which linked the stories to the core exhibitions of the museum.This project involved extensive consultation with geological experts and Maori Kaumatua.

Having produced the multi-media component of their inaugural Timelines exhibition, we continued our association with the Porirua Museum of Art and Culture with a new interactive multi-media exhibition presenting a fabulous local collection of musical instruments and communications technology from 1850 to 1970.

We designed the exhibition as a kind of walk-through object theatre. The collection is displayed and adapted to provide a 15 minute sequential tour, in which visitors are treated to the old instruments 'coming to life'.

  A virtual curator demonstrates some of the most intriguing instruments using realistic life-size 'pepper's ghost' projections coupled to animatronic adaptations of the instrument mechanisms.

The free access part of the exhibition allows visitors to access numerous old music tracks by plugging their headsets into a large bank of connections on an old telephone exchange.

This stunning visitor centre for indigenous culture in New Caledonia was designed by renowned Italian architects Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

We won their international tender competition to produce the introductory high energy attraction, over companies from Canada, Australia and France.
 

The show played continuously on a 180-degree curved screen, 15 metres by 4 metres, in a purpose designed circular theatre.

We developed a concept to fully harness the immersive capabilities of this environment - a 10 minute epic multimedia poem that evokes the meeting of the Kanak dreamtime with French colonial reality…

While contentious with some elements of Noumea society, the show was embraced passionately by the Kanak people, and 7 years after installation it continues to attract large audiences.

With such a huge image canvas at our command, we achieved the hallmark poetic qualities by pioneering new post-production techniques of visual layering, and it was the movement and interplay of these layers of images that creates a truly active and immersive visitor experience.

We were responsible for original concept, script development, film production (35mm), installation and show programming.

With a combination of footage sourced and filmed specifically for the project, we built a 6 minute ambient video environment of seascapes and stories, both above and below water, for the Pacific Voyages exhibition in the Tower gallery at Te Papa.

The installation was designed to bring the scale and feel of the Pacific Ocean inside the exhibition space, and at the same time introduce several narrative themes explored elsewhere in the exhibition and in the core Te Papa experiences: a giant octopus is chased by Kupe on his great voyage, boiling lava explodes into islands, and Maui fishes up the North Island.

The stunning special visual effects were produced on our Maya computer animation programme, and various other image compositing platforms were used to enhance and tie together footage from both archive and purpose filmed sources (including extensive underwater filming), and to create seamless transitions from ocean to sky.