Hiroshige in Motion - Outernet and British Museum

The new wave of built environment mega screens aren’t just big TVs. They’re a new form of media that requires its own visual language. When we set out to put a Hiroshige artwork into Outernet’s Now Building, we saw a lot of low-hanging fruit. And we did our best to ignore it. Instead we sat back and considered the space, the story and the audience. What could we do that paid respect to the artist and the wonderful sense of immersion that’s already in his work?

Moving artworks into immersive spaces isn’t new. And sadly there’s a lot of bland work out there. Screensavers driven by arbitrary movement (often provided by AI), high speed animation that’s too fast for the screen space, and visual storytelling that doesn’t exploit the screens’ unique format. Which is a shame given how much potential there is in these fantastic public venues. Making content for screens like this boils down to two simple questions: what’s the story? and how does it fit into this space? 

If you want to know how we answered them, please take a look at our BTS